An Overview of Promiscuous Mode

This page provides information about:

Promiscuous Mode - an Overview
Enabling Promiscuous Mode
Disabling Promiscuous Mode

Temporarily
Permanently

An Overview of Promiscuous Mode

Promiscuous mode is a special reception mode where an adapter will receive all frames on the ring, not just frames are addressed to that adapter. This functionality is used by network traffic monitoring agents.

Some IS managers may wish to stop adapters from being put into promiscuous mode. You can permanently disable promiscuous mode on the following adapters:

Smart Mk4 PCI Adapter (part number: 51-05)

Smart Mk4 Low Profile PCI Adapter (part number: 53-05)
RapidFire 3140v2 16/4 TR PCI Adapter (part number: 3140 2010)
RapidFire 3140 Low Profile PCI Adapter (part number: 31-04)

Smart 16/4 CardBus Adapter Mk2 (part number: 20-03)
Smart 16/4 PCI Ringnode Mk3 (part number: 51-04)
Smart M4 PCI-HS Adapter (part number: 51-07)
Presto PCI 2000 (part number: 60-07)

The table below shows the default promiscuous mode setting for each of the above listed adapters.

Adapter	Default setting
Smart Mk4 PCI Adapter	Enabled
Smart Mk4 Low Profile PCI Adapter	Enabled
RapidFire 3140v2 Low Profile PCI Adapter	Enabled
RapidFire 3140 Low Profile PCI Adapter	Enabled
Smart 16/4 CardBus Adapter Mk2	Enabled
Smart 16/4 PCI Ringnode Mk3	Enabled
Smart M4 PCI-HS Adapter	Enabled
Presto PCI 2000	Disabled

Enabling Promiscuous Mode

To use promiscuous mode with the NDIS 3, NDIS 4, or NDIS 5 drivers, MDGMPORT.SYS, MDGNDIS4.SYS, and MDGNDIS5.SYS, you must enable the promiscuous mode option (in the driver's advanced configuration options).

For details of how to change parameters under your operating system, see the relevant Configuring Drivers page.

Disabling Promiscuous Mode

On any of the above listed adapters, there are two ways of disabling promiscuous mode: temporarily and permanently.

Temporarily Disabling Promiscuous Mode

Use Madge Assist to temporarily disable promiscuous mode. This changes the state of the 'promiscuous mode allowed' configuration flag in the adapter's flash memory.

If promiscuous mode is disabled in this way, you can use Madge Assist subsequently to re-enable promiscuous mode support.

For an overview of Assist, see About Assist; for details of specifying parameters, see the Assist online Help.

Use the PWSET.EXE utility to password-protect configuration. For details, see Password-Protecting Adapter Configuration.

Permanently Disabling Promiscuous Mode

Once promiscuous mode has been permanently disabled on an adapter, you cannot re-enable it.

Therefore, only use the following procedures if you are absolutely sure you want to permanently disable promiscuous mode on the adapter concerned.

You can specify the KILL_PM parameter to Assist (recommended for Windows 2000, XP or ME).

For an overview of Assist, see About Assist; for details of specifying parameters, see the Assist online Help.

Click below for details of how to permanently disable promiscuous mode on the following operating systems:

Once you have restarted the machine concerned, and started a driver on the adapter for which you have permanently disabled promiscuous mode, that adapter will never again be able to support promiscuous mode.