Re: eth0: promiscuous
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way, someone said...
> What does "eth0: Setting promiscuous mode" mean? And where to find
> information about?
During normal operation, all ethernet traffic on the local ethernet
segment is seen by everyone on the segment. By default ethernet card
discards any data packets (called frames) that aren't meant for it, based
on the MAC address it was told to use and the MAC addresses in the header
of each frame. When it gets a frame meant for it, it raises a hardware
interrupt, at which time the operating system performs whatever it needs
to do to get the information from the ethernet card.
When in promiscuous mode, the ethernet card raises an interrupt at _every_
data packet that comes across the wire, and lets the operating system
decide what to do with it. Very useful for stuff like packet sniffers.
--
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Phil Brutsche pbrutsch@creighton.edu
"There are two things that are infinite; Human stupidity and the
universe. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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