This white paper compares network TAPs with switch port mirroring for accessing traffic used in troubleshooting, security monitoring, and packet analysis. SPAN ports are inexpensive, remotely configurable, and useful for basic or low-volume monitoring, but they may duplicate traffic, alter packet timing, discard corrupted frames, and drop packets when the switch or destination port becomes oversubscribed. Production switching also receives priority over mirrored traffic, so incomplete captures may occur without warning. TAPs require dedicated hardware but passively copy network traffic without consuming switch resources or changing the original data. They can support complete full-duplex capture, physical-layer errors, deep packet inspection, and dependable forensic evidence. The paper rev

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