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"Due to both privacy and efficiency concerns, almost all Ethernets today are fully switched" I don't think those were the reasons. The main reason I remember w
by notacoward 6y ago
"Due to both privacy and efficiency concerns, almost all Ethernets today are fully switched"
I don't think those were the reasons. The main reason I remember was cost. Shared media pretty much meant coax, and twisted pair is much cheaper. When switches became cheap enough and capable enough, the savings of running TP everywhere became the dominant factor. This also eliminated long cable runs and the frequent disruption of losing an entire segment at once, so reliability was also a factor, but IIRC those improvements were secondary in most purchasers' minds.
I guess cost reduction is a form of efficiency, but I certainly never heard privacy as a reason before.
- DrPhish 6y agoI think they are referring to switches vs. hubs (repeaters). If you have been on an Ethernet segment that uses hubs instead of switches, you will remember that tcpdump will allow you to see all traffic to all stations. That was typically also in the days of unencrypted email and web traffic
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mrkstu 6y agoI keep a hub around for just that purpose. The downside is that Gigabit eliminated half duplex for all practical purposes, so you have to use a tap or SPAN on anything faster.
- jk700 6y agoPrivacy became a reason when ISPs started providing internet access over Ethernet. As hubs and unmanaged switches are vulnerable to sniffing, ISPs had to either give everyone separate VLANs or use managed switches with protections from sniffing.
- paleotrope 6y agoLike in a datacenter or carrier hotel? You make it sound like carrier ethernet which I don't believe ever had anything like this as a problem.
- jk700 6y agoA typical FTTB ISP providing services to people living in apartment buildings isn't doing a "carrier ethernet", I guess it's more like a datacenter. It just has a media converter connected to a switch or these days a switch with an SFP port per building and from there it's all regular copper and RJ45. In the end of 90s and early 2000s ISPs haven't yet figured out how to do it properly, how to isolate and authenticate customers, at the time there were plenty of hubs and dumb switches with plenty of sniffing going on, plenty of vulnerabilities in switches, a single customer was able to cause problems for the whole network.