[ale] Protocol Analyzer

[JK]

Terry Bailey wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> It looks like Ethereal will analyze packets relative to the computer 
> on which it is running, but on no other computer.  Does software 
> exist that will analyze all computers on a private local area network?

The problem is not with Ethereal, it is with the nature of the network
hardware.

Ethereal will analyze all the traffic it sees.  No protocol analyzer
can do better than that :-)   If you are on a broadcast network,
Ethereal will see all the traffic; but if you are on a switched
network (as almost everyone is these days), you'll only see the
traffic to or from your machine's NIC (and broadcast traffic on the
same network segment).

If you want to see all the traffic on a network segment, it has to be
on an Ethernet hub (not a switch!), or a 10BT network, or wireless.

-- JK

-- 
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be
dismissed without evidence." -- Christopher Hitchens