Monitoring Workstation with Ethereal

[brianbuckman]

I regularly want to "sniff" the Ethernet traffic passing into and out of a workstation using a copy of Ethereal running on my laptop. Has anybody found a simple and neat solution to the problem of connecting a lap-top in this manner?

I usually have to resort to finding the wiring closet and hoping it contains a manageable switch that I can set-up to pass a copy of all traffic to a spare port to which I connect my lap-top. Alternatively, it's a matter of carrying a small manageable switch around with me. Does anybody know of a more elegant way?

I know equipment is getting smaller and lighter, but I'm getting older and more decrepit.

[johnwill]

Not really. Since addressed traffic only goes between the two computers in question, you really need to be connected in that manner to see the traffic. FWIW, you don't really need a managed switch, a plain Ethernet hub will do this trick, and it probably smaller.