Linksys WRT54G not really a switch?

routingbyrumor

Hi! I had a question in regards to collison domains and WRT54G switches. I currently have Wireshark running on my network and can sniff all traffic for all devices connected to the physical linksys WRT54G switch. Is this normal? Does this mean that this Linksys device is not really a switch but rather a hub?

Thanks.

seuss_ssues

It is most definately a switch.

Im curious as to see what type of traffic your seeing. Is it broadcasts, arp, cups and so forth?

You should see broudcast traffic and the traffic between you and the host your talking to.

Netstudent

it puts the nic on ethernet lan promiscuous mode

routingbyrumor

seuss-ssuess

I am seeing net traffic from other users on the network. When a server is downloading files I see sources and destination packets going towards that particular server. I have tested this by going to a machine ad browsing the web and sure enough all http traffic starts to show on Wireshark in promiscuous mode.

Netstudent

I think what may be happening is that wireshark is stopping the switch from learning. Which turns the switch into a hub basically. Which is strange because I have the same router, and don;t see anything in my wireshark or ethereal.

seuss_ssues

That is definately interesting.

I have an older linksys model that ive toyed around with a little. I couldnt for the life of me get it to "fail-open"

routingbyrumor

Thanks for the reply guys it might be because I have flashed it with a new firmware called DDR-WRT version 23 and need to setup some VLAN's of some sort but I definitely can see all traffic on the wired network except for Wireless traffic.

Netstudent

what, you can put VLANS on a linksys? wow, I never would have thought. It may be just a faulty piece of equipment and you are just now realizing it because of your sniffer. Perhaps the memory that stores the MAC table is corrupt. IF you are unable to make it function as a switch, I would take it back and get a new one.