Wireshark · Ethereal-users: Re: [Ethereal-users] Sniff all packets in a subnet

[Breen Mullins <bmullins@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2005-10-07 at 01:50 -0700, Guy Harris wrote:
> Breen Mullins wrote:
> 
> > You're almost certainly connected to a switch (which is marketing-speak
> > for a bridge),
> 
> Really?  

Yes, really. What we call a switch (I do too...) is an instance of 
what the IEEE standard calls a 'transparent bridge'. It's the learning
algorithm that allows the switch/bridge to make intelligent forwarding
decisions which makes it a bridge. 

> I think of a bridge as a device that forwards all received 
> packets to those networks on the bridge, other than the one on which the 
> packet came in on, 

No, that's more like a repeater -- IEEE-speak for a hub.

> 
> But, yes, Ethernet networks tend to be switched, these days, so A, B, 
> and C are probably plugged into a switch (perhaps with a router behind 
> the switch).
> 

The original post refers to trying to sniff traffic in a dorm at Purdue
University. As I said, it's absolutely certain that it's a switched
network.

Breen
-- 
Breen Mullins                      408-435-8401x123       
SQA Engineer                       0xde05499b          
Asante Technologies, Inc.