Abstract: A forward error data protection method comprises formatting a page of data bytes in the form of a plurality of square matrices each protected by both horizontal and vertical longitudinal parity bytes. The formatted matrix rows are transmitted in the form of a plurality of sequential data packets in which maximum separation is maintained between the rows of each respective matrix. At the receiver, each protected matrix is reconstructed and processed by deriving resultant vertical and horizontal longitudinal parity bytes for each column and row of the matrix to detect odd bit data errors, even bit data errors or complete data packets lost in transmission. The errors are corrected and the lost data packets are restored by processing the erroneous data bytes with the resultant vertical and horizontal longitudinal parity bytes.