Richard L. Hamilton writes:
> For a few of those, if I dealt with them, I'd probably prefer to do so at
> the level of that protocol, possibly statefully, rather than at the MAC
> level.

Certainly; yes.  It would be useful to handle those at least
symbolically (in some higher-level protocol sensitive manner) rather
than writing out bytes and masks in the filter, if not statefully.

However, the reason I've seen to filter non-IP protocols at the MAC
level is when dealing with bridging and "weird" proprietary protocols
(such as CDP) that can waste expensive WAN bandwidth if you don't
filter them away.  You don't need to know much about the protocol to
do that; just the Ethertype and/or some well-known MAC multicast
addresses.

-- 
James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive         71.232W   Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757   42.496N   Fax +1 781 442 1677
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