[sllug-members]: mac address

[Shaun Kruger]

> > (original ethernet used this 2 bytes as a
> > packet length identifier).
>
> That is wrong.

I may have just propagated hearsay that I had come to understand from
reading about the first experimental ethernet (1972).  I had gathered
that there wasn't a protocol ID field in 1972 ethernet as the Xerox
protocol was the only one going over the wire.  The protocol ID was
needed when it was being standardized so multiple protocols could
share it.  I'm trying to figure out where I read this.  I may have
also misunderstood something elsewhere.

This Wikipedia article is short, but it covers the use of the 2 bytes
after src and dest mac addresses within a frame.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIX

It's nice being told you're wrong sometimes.  It makes you check your sources.

Shaun

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