On Mon, Aug 12, 2002 at 04:20:22PM +0100, Aaron Lee wrote:
> (1) To use ethereal, does my computer need a network card that
> supports promiscuous mode?
That depends on what you mean by "use".
If you want to be able to use Ethereal to capture traffic on a LAN
between machines other than the machine running Ethereal, you will need
a network card that supports promiscuous mode *and* the OS's driver will
have to allow the packet capture mechanism that libpcap/WinPcap (the
library Ethereal uses to capture packets) uses (which would be some
native mechanism on UNIX, and the WinPcap driver on Windows) to put the
card into promiscuous mode.
There are other issues if you're on a switched network (which includes
network on "switched hubs") or on a dual-speed hub:
http://www.ethereal.com/faq.html#q5.1
> (2) If I use ethereal on a remote machine, does the local workstation
> need a network adapter card that supports promiscuous mode as well as
> the remote computer?
>
> or..........................................
>
> Is it the case that only the remote computer needs a promiscuous
> compatiable network card and the local work station does not?
The only computer that needs such a card is the one on the machine
running Ethereal.
