IPX network protocol

Related:
* TCP/IP

Windows XP at least includes an optional IPX compatibility driver, but this isn't enabled by default. Whether IPX works over the internet might be another issue (possibly limited to be used only in LAN).

Around 2007 several operating systems removed IPX support completely, most notably Windows Vista. Other operating systems also removed it, but on them IPX probably never was used very seriously. Mac seems to have never had IPX support built-in, and Linux still seems to include IPX support despite it likely never having much use there.

IPX support was removed from the Linux kernel in 2018. While kernel-level support is no longer standard, it is still available as a kernel module, ipx. Also, several GNU+Linux software packages are available to support XNS/SPX/IPX natively or via tunneling over IP. The standard Ethernet and PPP packages still support IPX by default. Any package compatible with NetWare shares uses IPX (since NetWare uses IPX). It remains in use today to support non-standard access over restrictive VPNs. For instance, IPX can be used to share printers or network-attached storage over a VPN that otherwise does not support such devices.