by Ark » Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:14 pm
Switches typically segregate traffic on the data link layer, not the application layer. Also, given the similarities between the 802.3 data link level header typically used with IPX (directly, or via 802.2 or via SNAP) and the Ethernet II (DIX) data link level header typically used with IPv4 - nearly all switches simply look at the 6 byte machine address destination to route traffic to the correct hardware port on the switch.
The problem may lie in not having the IPX protocol installed on each machine trying to run the game, or in the IPX protocol being transmitted with different frame types. It is most advised to manually configure each machine to use 802.2 frames for IPX, but if this does not work because your switch really is odd and not sending those packets on, you could always try Ethernet II on each machine, which is the exact frame type IPv4 is always sent out on.
If your switch is still seriously blocking IPX traffic because it is looking at the network level headers and acting as a firewall as well, and you have no way to enable it to act like you want and send the IPX traffic across your network, and you can't return the switch for something that works like it should, then it should still be possible to use GIT to tunnel the IPX. As far as GIT is concerned, your switch separates two LANs, it doesn't matter if it is across the Internet or not. Just configure GIT to forward IPX, make sure the proper frame types are being looked at by GIT, and that you are forwarding the correct IPX socket numbers for the game you are using.