Haha true

in the 90s telling (and asking) people those things would have been such a suspicious, sketchy move.

a/s/l?

(Keep in mind I am no hardware expert)

Sounds like a hub rather than a switch (a switch would only send data down the one correct port, whereas a hub sends data down all ports), and that your network activity monitor puts the ethernet port in promiscuous mode so it can see activity not intended for this PC .

FYI the younger ones are screaming because of pain from the inner ear air pressure changes that they don’t know how to prevent.