Ethernet framing standards :-
 

Hi all,

The framing that a machine uses is determined both by its interface card and by interface card driver isn't it. ??

In windows OS I have heard that we can choose which style of framing you want(although i haven't done this yet).
Windows machines that uses different framing on the same network cannot talk to each other isn't it ?

Now in a LAN having Linux , Free BSD & Windows machines how does the Linux O.S ensures that framing mismatch does not occurs ?

Does that mean that Linux uses the same framing standard that windows uses ?

Hi -

By "framing", I believe you probably mean the four Ethernet frame types "Ethernet II", "802.2", "802.3" and "802.2 SNAP". These hearken back to the days when Novell and Lantastic networks were still prevalent ... but that was a LOOONG time ago. They were very important in Windows 2000 ... but I'm not sure they're even supported in Windows Server 2008.

It's pretty much an Ethernet II world these days. And there's less interest in supporting legacy frame types like 802.3 than in looking forward and supporting things like "jumbo frames":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbo_frame

To the extent you'd want to support legacy frame types, it would probably be to support something like Novell/IPX clients. In that case, you'd need special Linux drivers, and use special configuration tools. For example:

http://www.faqs.org/docs/linux_netwo...nterfaces.html

If you're interested, here are a couple of links that discuss the background and history of legacy Ethernet frame types:

http://netlab1.usu.edu/novell.faq/nvfaq-l.htm

Today, basically, "Ethernet is ethernet". And that's a good thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet

'Hope that helps!