ARP packet to preserve canonical form of addresses

The invention is a new field in an ARP packet which designates the canonical format of the addresses written into fields such as ar$sha (the source station hardware address) and ar$spa (the source station protocol address) ar$tha (the target station hardware address), ar$tpa (the target station protocol address) so that a receiving station can determine the canonical format used to create these fields. The station receiving the ARP request or ARP response packet can then write its ARP table entry in the correct canonical format for its computer network.