I've been thinking about what kind of project I'd like to do for college next year, and I was thinking I'd go with something like a small Ethernet device. Maybe something like a "Network Mapper" which could be plugged into an Ethernet switch and would print out on an LCD screen all the IP addresses that are being used on the network.
In order to do this, the only functionality I'd really need is the ability to send and receive ARP packets. (Of course I'd have to get the network address and netmask from somewhere, but I could perhaps get this by sniffing the network, or by simply having the user specify it).
I've been glancing at different devices on the internet, from the $1 devices all the way up to $100. Here's one of the cheaper, simpler ones:
And then there's big monster devices which are of course more expensive:
It looks like the latter device would be doing a lot of the work for me, I wouldn't be shaping every byte transmitted as I would be with the former device.
Have many of you here got experience making Ethernet devices? Any suggestions as to what I should go with? I quite like the idea of the former device which is pretty much just a micrcontroller chip in a DIP package, but then again I'm not entirely adverse to the idea of using something more advanced, depending on how fun and interesting the project and end-product will be.
I realise I could probably make a Network Mapper in five minutes by using devices that do all the work for me, so I'm inclined to go more with the simpler devices that make you shape your own frames. Plus I'd be magnificient if the end product was the size of a matchbox :D