[plug] 4 port nic pci card

[Craig Ringer]

Chris Caston wrote:

> Yeap, it's as you say.
> 
> Thanks for your quick reply.
> 
> BTW do you think one of these in a machine running Ethereal would make a
> great swap for a real switch when you want to monitor network traffic?

Well, if the card functions as a hub it would (as would an external 
hub), but if it functions as a switch then you'll be getting the same 
effect as an external switch. I don't see the difference between using 
the card, and an external device of the same type.

If you want good network monitoring, get a quality switch that lets you 
delegate a port for mirroring. Ideally a gigabit port. I make heavy use 
of that facility on my core switch (24x100baseTX, 2x1000baseTX) by 
setting one of the gigabit ports to mirror all data to a network 
monitoring host. It's helped me debug a bunch of nasty problems.

Craig Ringer