Ethernet with FPGA
I can see how switches don't look at IP's, but in an Ethernet packet, the destination MAC address is specified. So I thought switches kept a table of MAC addresses adn corresponding switch ports, and if detects a packet with a known MAC address, it forwards it to that port without disturbing the other ports. Only if it doesn't know the MAC address would it send it out to all ports, but when it learns of the MAC address of a corresponding port, it would no longer send useless packets to the port. Am I mistaken here? My switch is a simple linksys switch, so there is no configuration to it really. This switch is then connected to another 4-port router using an uplink port. I thought this was the main difference between a switch and a hub - a hub just passes all packets it receives to all ports, and doesn't read into the packet, but a switch actually learns about MAC addresses and their associated ports.
I also have a linux box on this network, maybe Ethereal on linux would be better?