Chapter 2. TAPPING INTO THE WIRE
We can now move on to the final step of preparation before we begin to capture live packets on the network. This last step is to figure out the most appropriate place to put a sniffer on the network's cabling system. This is most often referred to by packet analysts as getting on the wire, tapping the network, or tapping into the wire. Simply put, this is the process of placing a packet sniffer on a network in the correct physical location.
Unfortunately, sniffing packets is not as simple as plugging in a laptop to a network port and capturing traffic (Figure 2-1). In fact, it is sometimes more difficult to place a packet sniffer on a network's cabling system than it is to actually analyze the packets.
The challenge ...
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