Question : Error correction in Ethernet, as well as in 802.11b

I'm trying to determine two things:

1) If someone in 1987 said they were using Ethernet, what would that imply about the communications having error correction? For example, was any built into the standard at the time? Did it depend on whether TCP/IP was used, IPX, SPX, something else available? Would it depend on the type of message being sent, or the function call used to send the message?

2) If someone today uses 802.11b, is error correction always used, or is the answer subject to the same types of questions posed in (1)?

Answer : Error correction in Ethernet, as well as in 802.11b

Ethernet works at layers 1 and 2 of the OSI model(physical and data).

IPX and IP are at layer 3 (network layer)(some ECC)

SPX and TCP are layer 4.(transport)(lots of ECC)

The higher levels of error correction are done at layers 3 and 4 and things like out of sequence packets are handled there.

Things like Ethernet switches (store and forward)can detect errors and discard bad packets according to CRC.

But when you get into higher level error correction mechanisms ,you are talking protocols,not Ethernet.

802.11x is a spec for things like how fast can it tranmit,distance limitations and fallback speeds,

So is there a error correction mechanism in ethernet ?
Yes and no.

Yes, in that it can discard bad packets at the layer 2 level.
But it is levels 3 and 4 that look a the packets and do the ECC.