Sniffing an Ethernet Switch

[Kengor99]

I have a small Netgear 10/100 switch with no management port or reserved uplink and is not configurable,the network is used for video conferencing and I am having problems with pixilization when I have many hosts transmitting packets. I suspect the switch may be the problem and was thinking of connecting a sniffer. My question is without a management port will I be able to see all the traffic on the switch or just the traffic on the port I have the sniffer connected to?


Many Thanks,

Ken

 

[wybnormal]

Just the port you connect to. The only hope is to get a cheapo hub and hang it on the port of the destination of the video.

It's been my experience that the cheap switches rarely provide the value needed for something like video conferencing. They tend to breakdown under high loads.

MikeS


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http://www.packetattack.com

"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu

 

[fortunat]

Some of the 'Switches'end up being hubs. I have a 10/100 Netgear DS108 and it's a 10/100 hub. I would try plugging in your sniffer, match the speed to the other devices adn see if you can see 2 way traffic to the other PC's. Maybe a test ping. Otherwise I totally agree with wybnormal.

'Making things work better; bit by bit.'

 

[wybnormal]

And I've seen it go the other way.. a Linksys *hub* turned out to be their switch minus the SNMP management.. total pain the butt when you need a hub.. and they called it a hub

I have a netgear 4 port which is a true hub.. cost is about 20 US dollars... I found a couple of DS116 10/100 16 port hubs off Ebay for 10 bucks a pop. Very handy to keep around.

MikeS


Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"Take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots."
Sun Tzu

 

[karkclent]

I had that problem with the Linksys Hub (see thread23-403072). Buyer beware: Linksys hubs are NOT true hubs. I ended up getting a Netgear DS104 hub per the recommendation of the experts here and have not been disappointed.

- kc