I was just going to reply to the original message, but I stopped, thinking that a million and one people will jump all over. But now I have to intervene: the statement below (if - taken in the context of the question - may imply that we are still talking about 1500 bytes) is incorrect. The limitation is at the other end (the 46 bytes one), where the possible minimum needed headers (64 bits preamble + 48 bits dest addr + 48 bits src addr + 16 bits type/length + 32 bits CRC/FCS) need to have at least 46 bytes payload, in order to make sure that the MINIMUM Ethernet frame length is achieved. Why a minimum? - because the frame needs to make it forward and back on the maximum network diameter, in order to be sure a possible "other-end-of-network" collision is still detected by the original transmitter.
And because I got to write this email: the legend has it that the reason for MAXIMUM specified at the 1500 bytes is COST of memory in 1979 (when the 10 Mbps Ethernet was designed) - vis-a-vis needs for buffering in the LAN controllers. Presumably there are now discussions taking place at IEEE about increasing that value (the 1500 bytes) to make room for VLAN tagging ... HTH, Stef On Tuesday 04 February 2003 12:56 pm, Jack Coates wrote: > You can go smaller in which case > it will be padded out with zeroes by the driver
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