Has anyone built a network tap ?

I tried using this plan http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Passive-Network-Tap/ . It basically tells you to wire three ethernet jacks in parallel and does not work at all.

I also tried this way http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/content/submitted/passive_ethernet_tap.jsp but with only the tap A. With this I only see incoming traffic.

So with three ports can I make something that will show incoming and outgoing traffic ? How is a passive hub different ?