LinuxSecurity.com: Packet Sniffing Overview Jul 14, 2006, 19 :00 UTC (2 Talkback[s]) (4680 reads) (Other stories by Suhas Desai)
"A packet sniffer is a program which monitors network traffic which passes through your computer. A packet sniffer which runs on your PC connected to the internet using a modem, can tell you your current IP address as well as the IP addresses of the web servers whose sites you are visiting.
"You can watch all the un-encrypted data that travels from your computer, onto the internet. This includes passwords and other sensitive data that is not secured by encryption. Put a packet sniffer on a router on the internet, and you can watch all the network traffic that passes through that router. This includes absolutely anyone whose data happens to pass through that router..."
