Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] New dissector proposed: WakeOnLAN

From: Stephen Fisher <stephentfisher@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 16:55:24 -0700

On Tue, Nov 06, 2007 at 03:49:38PM -0500, Maynard, Chris wrote:

> I think it's fine to add the Wake on LAN entries to etypes.h, etc.,
> but just be aware that 0x0842 is not actually a registered ethertype
> (*yet*) with IANA (Refer to:
> http://www.iana.org/assignments/ethernet-numbers). 0x0842 is only what
> ether-wake uses for WOL traffic, but technically WOL is not dependent
> upon anything but specific byte sequences in the Ethernet frame's
> payload - at least in theory.  In reality of course, it makes
> practical sense to assign a specific ethertype, or udp port number, or
> ..., but there are no guarantees.  That said, I seriously doubt that
> there'll be a conflict with 0x0842 any time soon (as in my lifetime),
> but you never know, so I guess it's just something to keep in mind ...

Thanks for the heads up.  It is a shame when unregistered ethertypes are
used, but this isn't the first one Wireshark knows about.  I did put a
comment to this effect in the ETHERTYPE_WOL definition:

epan/etypes.h:

#ifndef ETHERTYPE_WOL
#define ETHERTYPE_WOL           0x0842 /* Wake on LAN.  Not offically registered
. */
#endif

We can handle any future conflict when it comes along.


Steve