IPX/SPX

acronym

networking

Stands for: Internetwork Packet Exchange / Sequenced Packet Exchange

Novell NetWare's networking protocols - the LAN standard of the file-server era, derived from Xerox XNS.

IPX (the layer-3 datagram) and SPX (the layer-4 connection protocol) were introduced by Novell in 1983, adapted from Xerox XNS's IDP and SPP. Through the late 1980s and 90s IPX/SPX was the default on NetWare LANs - and, as NetWare dominated file and print, on a huge share of business networks. Windows spoke it too. TCP/IP took over around the Windows XP era, and IPX faded to legacy - the protocol behind the NetWare that vendors like Novell built an empire on.

Also known as: ipx, spx, ipx/spx, netware protocol

Sources

Novell vendor profile

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