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From: melohn@sluggo.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: Ethernet Compatibility...
Message-ID: <12974@sun.uucp>
Date: Mon, 9-Feb-87 20:37:03 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.12974
Posted: Mon Feb  9 20:37:03 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Feb-87 05:16:21 EST
References: <4312@columbia.UUCP> <144000002@tiger.UUCP>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: melohn@sun.UUCP (Bill Melohn)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 13

In article <144000002@tiger.UUCP> rvk@tiger.UUCP writes:
>...  I had an Entre salesman (take this with a
>grain of salt) tell that some ethernet boards incorrectly interpret
>an IEEE 802.3 "length" field as a "type" field. 

This is perfectly acceptable for an Ethernet board that is unaware of
802.3 to do, since the packets look like Ethernet packets to an
Ethernet driver. Common practice in many 802.3 drivers is that if a
packet arrives with a length/type field of greater than 1500 (which is
illegal in 802.3) it must be an ethernet packet and the field should
be interpreted as the ethernet type. As long as no one tries to use
ethernet types less than 1500, 802.3 and Ethernet can coexist happily
on the same wire using this scheme.