My intention is to analyze all network traffic which is coming to and originating from a network connected device I have. From the configurations of the device I am able to proxy all the HTTP traffic originating from the device but I believe the device communicates over other protocols too.
The device and my machine both are on a switched network and I do not want to perform ARP cache poisoning to route all the packets through my machine. I am looking for a simpler solution where I would be able to replace the printer with a hub and then connect the printer to one of the ports on the hub. I want to connect my laptop also on one if the ports of this hub I introduced to the network. Technically, the hub would be flooding all the packets to all the ports and I should be able to sniff it from my laptop on promiscuous mode using wireshark.
A problem I identified to this approach was when I started searching for a 'hub'. The search itself gives results for 'switches' which are layer two devices. I am confused regarding the popular usage of the words switches and hubs. What should I buy for this purpose? Should it be a hub or a switch(Technically only a hub can be used for the purpose, but I want to know if the devices listed on websites are actually hubs) ?
Best Answer
Welcome to Network Engineering! While in theory, a hub would do what you want, they are, as you've discovered, an obsolete technology. You'd be hard pressed to find one for sale anymore.