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Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] newbie question

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From: Guy Harris <gharris@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 2002 12:31:59 -0800
On Sat, Nov 30, 2002 at 03:08:36AM -0800, George Barrinuevo wrote:
> Can you use Ethereal to programmer your own MS VC custom made program?

That depends on the program.  It wouldn't be very helpful to use
Ethereal if your custom program were, for example, an HTML editor. :-)
If, however, it's a network analyzer, it's certainly possible, as
demonstrated by Packetyzer:

	http://www.packetyzer.com/

which is a network analyzer based on the Ethereal packet analyzer code.

*However*, that's not going to solve your problem, as:

> I was able to create custom programs using winpcap but it does not
> support 802.11.  I heard Ethereal can capture all of 802.11 stuff,
> right?

...Ethereal can capture 802.11 stuff, but only on Linux and FreeBSD, and
only on certain releases of those OSes, and only with certain network
cards:

	http://www.ethereal.com/faq.html#q5.22

It cannot do so on Windows, because, well, it uses WinPcap to capture
packets, so it's subject to all the same limitations that any other
WinPcap program is subject to.

Packetyzer can capture 802.11 traffic - but it does so using a custom
hardware device:

	http://www.networkchemistry.com/products/wsp100/

from which it receives packet data from the network; it does not do so
using WinPcap.