Re: Detecting a sniffer

[jseymour () medar com (Jim Seymour)]

Julian Assange wrote:
> From: Julian Assange <medar!uunet!suburbia.apana.org.au!proff () medar com>
> Message-Id: <199505022306.JAA21923 () suburbia apana org au>
> Subject: Re: Detecting a sniffer
> Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 09:06:35 +1000 (EST)
>
> > Julian Assange says:
> > > > On Mon, 1 May 1995, Bennett Todd wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > You can't "detect a sniffer" from looking at the net; [...]
> > > >
> > > > Not even with a Time Domain Reflectometer?
> > >
> > > Probably easier to just look at the wire, dodn't you think?
> >
> > You can't always look at the whole wire. Try it on a real network with
> > 3,000 machines on three continents sometime.
>
> Some how I suspect a TDR isn't going to work in this case either.

In my experience, Julian's suspicion is correct.  Over
any long segment (or, at least, anything that's long
enough to be useful), minor discontinuities simply don't
show up.  Even over very short distances you won't
notice a tee on a segment unless you know *exactly* what
you're looking for--maybe not even then.

Regards,
Jim
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