Network Management Strategies for the CIO
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The IPX watchdog packet is used to monitor a user session. When the
workstation boots and get the login screen, an IPX/SPX protocol session is
established with the server. The server sends a watchdog packet to the workstation every 5 minutes to
check it is there. If the workstation responds, the server knows that
everything is fine.
If the workstation does not respond 3 times in a row (15 minutes) then the
session is timed out on the server, the workstation is cleared from the
active nodes and, if the user is logged in, the login is cleared.
Also consider:
Dial on demand circuits: The watchdog packet will keep dial on demand links active. This is bad. To
work around this network router, use watchdog spoofing, where the router
will reply to the watchdog just to keep the server happy, but not activate
the link. Of course, sessions don?t time out very well, but you have to
break a couple of eggs...
You can tune the watchdog packet timer, but this is a bad idea. Once you
change a default you have to set the watchdog default on the clients and
routers as well.
Chatty protocol: The watchdog packet is very small and doesn?t take up much bandwidth. But
is does add to overall load. This was first published in June 2001
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