Inexpensive wired ethernet "presence" tester

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1

Hi,

I’m looking for an ethernet device powered by a small battery to give me a “live presence” on the far end of a DSL/Fiber ethernet connection.

Hopefully, I could have a flock of these available to send with a customer so I could watch their router (or ours) “see” a device connected and draw a DHCP address.

Many of my customers now only have wireless devices with no actual wired ethernet ports; Which doesn’t help me cut my problem in half if I suspect that they have a bad DSL modem or router.

All I really wanna know is that something smart enough to ask for an IP address has requested one.

So, has anyone seen anything like this in the wild?

I found all sorts of chips and eval/daughter boards that have an RJ-45 jack, but I think they all need solder, or programming, or a microcontroller, or all three to function. This takes them out of the running as far as “inexpensive” goes…

'Preciate any thoughts.

Ken

2

elvehjem:
… but I think they all need solder, or programming, or a microcontroller, or all three to function. This takes them out of the running as far as “inexpensive” goes …

What $-level corresponds to "inexpensive" ?
3

your needs are confusing to me.

Can you restate in the form of a very succinct list of what this thing is to do?

All I really wanna know is that something smart enough to ask for an IP address has requested one.

This would be something like WireShark software running on an ethernet switch with port mirroring with the port that connects to the DHCP server.

No new development.

But I’m sure I don’t follow your explanation.