<   I'd consider dropping packets because of inadequate performance "broken"

It broken but the protocals are supposed to be robust enough that that can 
happen and things will still work.

< >It's all a question of what performance you expect. If it is going to
< >route for a uVAX behind, than machine will hardly swamp very much
< >anyway...
< 
<   You must be used to MUCH slower VAXen than I am.

I'd guess that too.  Back at DEC in the late 80s and early 90s MVIIs, 730s
were commonly used by many groups as cheap routers to keep eithernet 
backbone traffic off the local loop.  Some were used to do bridging 
and gateway work as well.

Allison