How to detect whether a hub or switch is used ?

antonypaul · 12-02-2005, 05:51 AM

Hi all,
How I could find out that a hub or witch is used in the network using linux tools ? I tried following commandsto sniff traffic but it catches traffic to/from my machine only

ifconfig eth0 promisc
tcpdump

rgds
Anto Paul

genlee · 12-02-2005, 08:47 AM

A quick way to tell if you are plugged into a hub or switch is watch if you recieve traffic on your port destined for another machine. A hub broadcasts packets to all ports so you will recieve everyone's traffic. If you can't see anyone elses traffics, you are pluged into a switch. Also you don't need to set eth to promisc since tcpdump does that for you.