Actually 4294967296 couldn't ever appear as the maximum value you can fit in the protocol field is 1 less than that... my problem here was I couldn't manage to keep the 2 numbers I was comparing (the one in the article and 2^32) straight haha! This was mistake was noted by a commenter here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41963745
That said you're ultimately right that my upstream provider is filtering the 4294901866 value from the article as well anyways for the reasons you stated.
That said you're ultimately right that my upstream provider is filtering the 4294901866 value from the article as well anyways for the reasons you stated.