system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: what is IP sniffing ?
gpt
Inside of wires that connect almost EVERY computer in the world, you have a whole bunch of little letters (packets) that are being sent between the computers. These letters have (IP) addresses of where they came from and where they need to go so that the people who deliver those letters (routers) know where they go and the computer that gets it can send a message back if it needs to. Sometimes people like to look in the wire and just see the information in those letters. A lot of times it's harmless people and students trying to learn more, but sometimes it's bad people. Sometimes those bad people want to steal those addresses and use them in a mean way. Sometimes they might take the letter so that they can send a message back pretending to be the computer.