how to distinguish switch or hub per software?

Hi NG!

Imagine we've got two computers connected to each other by a switch or
hub (per ethernet cable). Are there any means to discover whether,
when sending packets to one machine to the other, these packets are
travelling through a switch or through a hub?
I was just wondering, as switches read one more network layer than
hubs.
Thanks
Bernd

0 wrote:
>
> Hi NG!
>
> Imagine we've got two computers connected to each other by a switch or
> hub (per ethernet cable). Are there any means to discover whether,
> when sending packets to one machine to the other, these packets are
> travelling through a switch or through a hub?

I don't think so, not reliably. If you have a third machine handy you
can run a packet sniffer like tcpdump on it and see if it sees non
broadcast traffic between the other two. If it does, it is a hub.

Regards, Ian

0 wrote:

> Hi NG!
>
> Imagine we've got two computers connected to each other by a switch or
> hub (per ethernet cable). Are there any means to discover whether,
> when sending packets to one machine to the other, these packets are
> travelling through a switch or through a hub?
> I was just wondering, as switches read one more network layer than
> hubs.
> Thanks
> Bernd

Not really, as both are transparent to users. At best, you might be able to
measure response times from another host, but that's about it. Another
indicator would be lack of traffic on your cable. But again that's iffy.
One sure sign of a switch is a full duplex connection, though it could also
be a cross over cable.


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