On Mon, 27 Jan 1997 05:12:46 -0800 (PST), Paul Goyette  
<paul@pgoyette.bdt.com> wrote:
> On 27 Jan 1997, Matthias Scheler wrote:
>
> > > I heard that this is the minimum length specified for IP packets.
> >
> > No, the minimum length is 40 bytes.
>
> 40 bytes is the minimum length of an IP packet, but 576 is the minimum MTU
> that an IP transport link needs to support.

That doesn't make sense.  Where did you see that?

SLIP has always been a 296 byte MTU.  I have used it for years before PPP was  
readily available (anyone here still remember ka9q? :-) and never had much  
problems with it.  I suspect that the stack at the other end is broken.