ADAPTIVE ADDRESS FILTERING

A repeater (202), which forwards packets from a first Ethernet collision domain (235) to a second Ethernet collision domain while filtering packets so as to eliminate unnecessary packets from being transmitted onto Ethernet networks, has register (210) for each port (204) where the register holds the address of a workstation from which the port last received a data packet. When a data packet addressed to the port is received by another port, the repeater asserts a signal line informing the other ports that the packet may be ignored by them, and the addressed port receives the data packet for transmission onto the Ethernet collision domain connected thereto.