[c-nsp] Identifying device(s) connected to cisco L2-only switch

[Tomas Daniska]

> -----Original Message-----
> Given that no mac addresses are learned on the port, there is probably
> no traffic there and shutting it down shouldn't do any real damage.

Wrong. There are appliances/applications that are quiet enough not to populate (or timeout) the mac tables, just sittin' there and receiving traffic. And even though there is no mac entry for that address, the switch simply floods the traffic (by default... unless you configure block-unknown-unicast) to all ports, including the one with the quiet black box


But - yes, there often is no other option for 'discovery' of such devices than to shut down and wait for complaints 

--

deejay