nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (10/28/89)
Hi. I am going to write a packet driver for ARCnet. I can write it in one of two ways: As a fake Ethernet driver whose MTU is really 508, or I could write it as a real TCP/IP over ARCnet driver. The advantage of writing it as a fake Ethernet driver is that no one need know that they're not writing to a real Ethernet driver, and so all the current packet driver clients will work without changes. I'm not sure that I see the disadvantages of doing this. Could someone send me mail and explain why I shouldn't do this? If I write it as a real TCP/IP over ARCnet driver, I have to solve the problem of parsing the header. I have to parse the header minimally to determine the packet length. I also have to face the issue of who decides the length of the packet, the upper layers, or the packet driver. No matter which I choose, I will use the standard TCP/IP over ARCnet encapsulation. -- --russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu]) Live up to the light thou hast, and more will be granted thee. A recession now appears more than 2 years away -- John D. Mathon, 4 Oct 1989.