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A search showed no references to one for a long time. I just bought
one on ebay, it sounded interesting and possibly a useful talent to
have. Was that a mistake?

Now for the real question:

The cisco web site lists a number of models, each with one or two cards
for one network type. Is the software in each custom, only for the
cards installed, or could I buy several switchprobes and maybe
netscouts and put all the cards in one unit to monitor any of several
types of segment from one unit, like token ring, ethernet, fast
ethernet and fddi?