Chapter 9 Interfaces
ZyWALL ATP Series User’s Guide
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The physical Ethernet ports are shown at the top and the Ethernet interfaces and zones are shown at the
bottom of the screen. Use the radio buttons to select for which interface (network) you want to use
each physical port. For example, select a port’s LAN radio button to use the port as part of the LAN
interface. The port will use the Zyxel Device’s LAN IP address and MAC address.
When you assign more than one physical port to a network, you create a port group. Port groups have
the following characteristics:
• There is a layer-2 Ethernet switch between physical ports in the port group. This provides wire-speed
throughput but no security.
• It can increase the bandwidth between the port group and other interfaces.
• The port group uses a single MAC address.
Click
Apply
to save your changes and apply them to the Zyxel Device.
Click
Reset
to change the port groups to their current configuration (last-saved values).
9.3 Ethernet Summary Screen
This screen lists every Ethernet interface and virtual interface created on top of Ethernet interfaces. If you
enabled IPv6 in the
Configuration
>
System
>
IPv6
screen, you can also configure Ethernet interfaces
used for your IPv6 networks on this screen. To access this screen, click
Configuration > Network
>
Interface > Ethernet
.
Unlike other types of interfaces, you cannot create new Ethernet interfaces nor can you delete any of
them. If an Ethernet interface does not have any physical ports assigned to it, the Ethernet interface is
effectively removed from the Zyxel Device, but you can still configure it.
Ethernet interfaces are similar to other types of interfaces in many ways. They have an IP address, subnet
mask, and gateway used to make routing decisions. They restrict the amount of bandwidth and packet
size. They can provide DHCP services, and they can verify the gateway is available.
Use Ethernet interfaces to control which physical ports exchange routing information with other routers
and how much information is exchanged through each one. The more routing information is
exchanged, the more efficient the routers should be. However, the routers also generate more network
traffic, and some routing protocols require a significant amount of configuration and management. The
Zyxel Device supports the following routing protocols: RIP, OSPF and BGP. See
for background information about these routing protocols.
