Ethernet Types

Question

There is a field in the ethernet header called the ethernet type. I am writing a communication library in windows using raw ethernet frames. What should I do to take the Ethernet type into consideration? The one I must use is 0xBEEF. Does this mean I can't use anything like NDIS?

Answer 1

The best thing to do is to read about EtherType field.

It is used to indicate which protocol is encapsulated in the frame data.

This means that if you use 0xBEEF, other machines running standard software will not recognize the frame's payload.

You can, of course, send any kind of data in the frame. You will merely have to have your software installed on the receiving end to interpret the data.

Answer 2

Ethernet type is basically the type of the protocol of the data that is contained in that particular Ethernet frame .

Answer 3

If there aren't very good reasons for doing so, I would never use raw Ethernet frames. It's usually much simpler and more futureproof to e.g. use UDP packets.