:> It is at least known that most network equipment will support :> slightly over 1500, as it is needed to support vlan tagged frames.
:> If things really stop exactly at 1500, it is not likely in layer 2 :> equipment.
:According to what I've read in O'Reilly's Ethernet book, the maximum value :is 1535 bytes, so any equipment complying with the 802.3 spec, should be :able to handle that.
When '1500' is being used, the figure does not usually include the preamble or CRC, and certainly not the intra-frame gap (IFG). '1500' also may not include the source and destination MAC addresses.
'1535', though, includes everything except perhaps the IFG, and might include VLAN tags: without the tags, the total length including preamble, CRC, and IFG is 1540 octet-times if I recall properly.