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authorUlf Lamping <ulf.lamping@web.de>2003-11-18 23:11:49 +0000
committerUlf Lamping <ulf.lamping@web.de>2003-11-18 23:11:49 +0000
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+
+ The Ethereal FAQ
+
+ Note: This is just an ASCII snapshot of the faq and may not be up to
+ date. Please go to http://www.ethereal.com/faq for the up to
+ date version. The version of this snapshot can be found at the
+ end of this document.
+
+ INDEX
+
+ General Questions:
+
+ 1.1 Where can I get help?
+
+ 1.2 What protocols are currently supported?
+
+ 1.3 Are there any plans to support {your favorite protocol}?
+
+ 1.4 Can Ethereal read capture files from {your favorite network
+ analyzer}?
+
+ 1.5 What devices can Ethereal use to capture packets?
+
+ 1.6 How do you pronounce Ethereal? Where did the name come from?
+
+ Downloading Ethereal:
+
+ 2.1 I downloaded the Win32 installer, but when I try to run it, I get
+ an error.
+
+ 2.2 When I try to download the WinPcap driver and library, I can't get
+ to the WinPcap Web site.
+
+ Installing Ethereal:
+
+ 3.1 I installed an Ethereal RPM, but Ethereal doesn't seem to be
+ installed; only Tethereal is installed.
+
+ Building Ethereal:
+
+ 4.1 The configure script can't find pcap.h or bpf.h, but I have
+ libpcap installed.
+
+ 4.2 Why do I get the error
+
+ dftest_DEPENDENCIES was already defined in condition TRUE, which
+ implies condition HAVE_PLUGINS_TRUE
+
+ when I try to build Ethereal from CVS or a CVS snapshot?
+
+ 4.3 The link fails with a number of "Output line too long." messages
+ followed by linker errors.
+
+ 4.4 The link fails on Solaris because plugin_list is undefined.
+
+ 4.5 The build fails on Windows because of conflicts between winsock.h
+ and winsock2.h.
+
+ Using Ethereal:
+
+ 5.1 When I use Ethereal to capture packets, I see only packets to and
+ from my machine, or I'm not seeing all the traffic I'm expecting to
+ see from or to the machine I'm trying to monitor.
+
+ 5.2 I can't see any TCP packets other than packets to and from my
+ machine, even though another analyzer on the network sees those
+ packets.
+
+ 5.3 I'm only seeing ARP packets when I try to capture traffic.
+
+ 5.4 How do I put an interface into promiscuous mode?
+
+ 5.5 I can set a display filter just fine, but capture filters don't
+ work.
+
+ 5.6 I'm entering valid capture filters, but I still get "parse error"
+ errors.
+
+ 5.7 I saved a filter and tried to use its name to filter the display,
+ but I got an "Unexpected end of filter string" error.
+
+ 5.8 Why am I seeing lots of packets with incorrect TCP checksums?
+
+ 5.9 I've just installed Ethereal, and the traffic on my local LAN is
+ boring.
+
+ 5.10 When I run Ethereal on Solaris 8, it dies with a Bus Error when I
+ start it.
+
+ 5.11 When I run Ethereal on Windows NT, it dies with a Dr. Watson
+ error, reporting an "Integer division by zero" exception, when I start
+ it.
+
+ 5.12 When I try to run Ethereal, it complains about
+ sprint_realloc_objid being undefined.
+
+ 5.13 I'm running Ethereal on Linux; why do my time stamps have only
+ 100ms resolution, rather than 1us resolution?
+
+ 5.14 I'm capturing packets on {Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me};
+ why are the time stamps on packets wrong?
+
+ 5.15 When I try to run Ethereal on Windows, it fails to run because it
+ can't find packet.dll.
+
+ 5.16 I'm running Ethereal on Windows; why does some network interface
+ on my machine not show up in the list of interfaces in the
+ "Interface:" field in the dialog box popped up by "Capture->Start",
+ and/or why does Ethereal give me an error if I try to capture on that
+ interface?
+
+ 5.17 I'm running on a UNIX-flavored OS; why does some network
+ interface on my machine not show up in the list of interfaces in the
+ "Interface:" field in the dialog box popped up by "Capture->Start",
+ and/or why does Ethereal give me an error if I try to capture on that
+ interface?
+
+ 5.18 I'm running Ethereal on Windows NT/2000/XP/Server; my machine has
+ a PPP (dial-up POTS, ISDN, etc.) interface, and it shows up in the
+ "Interface" item in the "Capture Options" dialog box. Why can no
+ packets be sent on or received from that network while I'm trying to
+ capture traffic on that interface?
+
+ 5.19 I'm running Ethereal on Windows 95/98/Me, on a machine with more
+ than one network adapter of the same type; Ethereal shows all of those
+ adapters with the same name, but I can't use any of those adapters
+ other than the first one.
+
+ 5.20 I'm running Ethereal on Windows, and I'm not seeing any traffic
+ being sent by the machine running Ethereal.
+
+ 5.21 I'm trying to capture traffic but I'm not seeing any.
+
+ 5.22 I have an XXX network card on my machine; if I try to capture on
+ it, my machine crashes or resets itself.
+
+ 5.23 My machine crashes or resets itself when I select "Start" from
+ the "Capture" menu or select "Preferences" from the "Edit" menu.
+
+ 5.24 Does Ethereal work on Windows ME?
+
+ 5.25 Does Ethereal work on Windows XP?
+
+ 5.26 Why doesn't Ethereal correctly identify RTP packets? It shows
+ them only as UDP.
+
+ 5.27 Why doesn't Ethereal show Yahoo Messenger packets in captures
+ that contain Yahoo Messenger traffic?
+
+ 5.28 Why do I get the error
+
+ Gdk-ERROR **: Palettized display (256-colour) mode not supported on
+ Windows.
+ aborting....
+
+ when I try to run Ethereal on Windows?
+
+ 5.29 When I capture on Windows in promiscuous mode, I can see packets
+ other than those sent to or from my machine; however, those packets
+ show up with a "Short Frame" indication, unlike packets to or from my
+ machine. What should I do to arrange that I see those packets in their
+ entirety?
+
+ 5.30 How can I capture raw 802.11 packets, including non-data
+ (management, beacon) packets?
+
+ 5.31 How can I capture packets with CRC errors?
+
+ 5.32 How can I capture entire frames, including the FCS?
+
+ 5.33 Ethereal hangs after I stop a capture.
+
+ 5.34 How can I search for, or filter, packets that have a particular
+ string anywhere in them?
+
+ GENERAL QUESTIONS
+ Q 1.1: Where can I get help?
+
+ A: Support is available on the ethereal-users mailing list.
+ Subscription information and archives for all of Ethereal's mailing
+ lists can be found at http://www.ethereal.com/lists
+
+ Q 1.2: What protocols are currently supported?
+
+ A: There are currently 393 supported protocols and media, listed
+ below. Descriptions can be found in the ethereal(1) man page.
+
+ 802.1q Virtual LAN
+ 802.1x Authentication
+ AFS (4.0) Replication Server call declarations
+ AOL Instant Messenger
+ ARCNET
+ ATM
+ ATM AAL1
+ ATM AAL3/4
+ ATM LAN Emulation
+ ATM OAM AAL
+ AVS WLAN Capture header
+ Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol
+ Address Resolution Protocol
+ Aggregate Server Access Protocol
+ Alert Standard Forum
+ Andrew File System (AFS)
+ Apache JServ Protocol v1.3
+ AppleTalk Filing Protocol
+ AppleTalk Session Protocol
+ AppleTalk Transaction Protocol packet
+ Appletalk Address Resolution Protocol
+ Application Configuration Access Protocol
+ Async data over ISDN (V.120)
+ Authentication Header
+ BACnet Virtual Link Control
+ Banyan Vines ARP
+ Banyan Vines Echo
+ Banyan Vines Fragmentation Protocol
+ Banyan Vines ICP
+ Banyan Vines IP
+ Banyan Vines IPC
+ Banyan Vines LLC
+ Banyan Vines RTP
+ Banyan Vines SPP
+ Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol
+ Boardwalk
+ Boot Parameters
+ Bootstrap Protocol
+ Border Gateway Protocol
+ Building Automation and Control Network APDU
+ Building Automation and Control Network NPDU
+ CDS Clerk Server Calls
+ Check Point High Availability Protocol
+ Checkpoint FW-1
+ Cisco Auto-RP
+ Cisco Discovery Protocol
+ Cisco Group Management Protocol
+ Cisco HDLC
+ Cisco Hot Standby Router Protocol
+ Cisco ISL
+ Cisco Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
+ Cisco NetFlow
+ Cisco SLARP
+ Clearcase NFS
+ CoSine IPNOS L2 debug output
+ Common Open Policy Service
+ Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) Browsing Protocol
+ DCE DFS Calls
+ DCE Distributed Time Service Local Server
+ DCE Distributed Time Service Provider
+ DCE Name Service
+ DCE RPC
+ DCE Security ID Mapper
+ DCE/RPC BOS Server
+ DCE/RPC CDS Solicitation
+ DCE/RPC Conversation Manager
+ DCE/RPC Endpoint Mapper
+ DCE/RPC FLDB
+ DCE/RPC FLDB UBIK TRANSFER
+ DCE/RPC FLDB UBIKVOTE
+ DCE/RPC Kerberos V
+ DCE/RPC RS_ACCT
+ DCE/RPC RS_MISC
+ DCE/RPC RS_UNIX
+ DCE/RPC Remote Management
+ DCE/RPC Repserver Calls
+ DCE/RPC TokenServer Calls
+ DCE/RPC UpServer
+ DCOM OXID Resolver
+ DCOM Remote Activation
+ DEC Spanning Tree Protocol
+ DHCPv6
+ DNS Control Program Server
+ Data
+ Data Link SWitching
+ Data Stream Interface
+ Datagram Delivery Protocol
+ Diameter Protocol
+ Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol
+ Distcc Distributed Compiler
+ Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse Prototocl
+ Domain Name Service
+ Dynamic DNS Tools Protocol
+ Echo
+ Encapsulating Security Payload
+ Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
+ EtherNet/IP (Industrial Protocol)
+ Ethernet
+ Ethernet over IP
+ Extensible Authentication Protocol
+ FC Extended Link Svc
+ FC Fabric Configuration Server
+ FCIP
+ FTP Data
+ FTServer Operations
+ Fiber Distributed Data Interface
+ Fibre Channel
+ Fibre Channel Common Transport
+ Fibre Channel Fabric Zone Server
+ Fibre Channel Name Server
+ Fibre Channel Protocol for SCSI
+ Fibre Channel SW_ILS
+ File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
+ Financial Information eXchange Protocol
+ Frame
+ Frame Relay
+ GARP Multicast Registration Protocol
+ GARP VLAN Registration Protocol
+ GPRS Tunneling Protocol
+ GPRS Tunnelling Protocol v0
+ GPRS Tunnelling Protocol v1
+ General Inter-ORB Protocol
+ Generic Routing Encapsulation
+ Generic Security Service Application Program Interface
+ Gnutella Protocol
+ H245
+ HP Extended Local-Link Control
+ HP Remote Maintenance Protocol
+ Hummingbird NFS Daemon
+ HyperSCSI
+ Hypertext Transfer Protocol
+ ICQ Protocol
+ IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN
+ IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN management frame
+ ILMI
+ IP Over FC
+ IP Payload Compression
+ IPX Message
+ IPX Routing Information Protocol
+ IPX WAN
+ ISDN
+ ISDN Q.921-User Adaptation Layer
+ ISDN User Part
+ ISO 10589 ISIS InTRA Domain Routeing Information Exchange Protocol
+ ISO 8073 COTP Connection-Oriented Transport Protocol
+ ISO 8473 CLNP ConnectionLess Network Protocol
+ ISO 8602 CLTP ConnectionLess Transport Protocol
+ ISO 9542 ESIS Routeing Information Exchange Protocol
+ ITU-T Recommendation H.261
+ InMon sFlow
+ Intel ANS probe
+ Intelligent Platform Management Interface
+ Inter-Access-Point Protocol
+ Interbase
+ Internet Cache Protocol
+ Internet Content Adaptation Protocol
+ Internet Control Message Protocol
+ Internet Control Message Protocol v6
+ Internet Group Management Protocol
+ Internet Message Access Protocol
+ Internet Printing Protocol
+ Internet Protocol
+ Internet Protocol Version 6
+ Internet Relay Chat
+ Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol
+ Internetwork Packet eXchange
+ Jabber XML Messaging
+ Java RMI
+ Java Serialization
+ Kerberos
+ Kerberos Administration
+ Kernel Lock Manager
+ Label Distribution Protocol
+ Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol
+ Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
+ Line Printer Daemon Protocol
+ Link Access Procedure Balanced (LAPB)
+ Link Access Procedure Balanced Ethernet (LAPBETHER)
+ Link Access Procedure, Channel D (LAPD)
+ Link Aggregation Control Protocol
+ Link Management Protocol (LMP)
+ Linux cooked-mode capture
+ Local Management Interface
+ LocalTalk Link Access Protocol
+ Logical-Link Control
+ Lucent/Ascend debug output
+ MDS Header
+ MMS Message Encapsulation
+ MS Proxy Protocol
+ MSN Messenger Service
+ MSNIP: Multicast Source Notification of Interest Protocol
+ MTP 2 Transparent Proxy
+ MTP 2 User Adaptation Layer
+ MTP 3 User Adaptation Layer
+ MTP2 Peer Adaptation Layer
+ Message Transfer Part Level 2
+ Message Transfer Part Level 3
+ Message Transfer Part Level 3 Management
+ Microsoft Distributed File System
+ Microsoft Exchange MAPI
+ Microsoft Local Security Architecture
+ Microsoft Local Security Architecture (Directory Services)
+ Microsoft Messenger Service
+ Microsoft Network Logon
+ Microsoft Registry
+ Microsoft Security Account Manager
+ Microsoft Server Service
+ Microsoft Service Control
+ Microsoft Spool Subsystem
+ Microsoft Task Scheduler Service
+ Microsoft Telephony API Service
+ Microsoft Windows Browser Protocol
+ Microsoft Windows Lanman Remote API Protocol
+ Microsoft Windows Logon Protocol
+ Microsoft Workstation Service
+ Mobile IP
+ Mobile IPv6
+ Modbus/TCP
+ Mount Service
+ MultiProtocol Label Switching Header
+ Multicast Router DISCovery protocol
+ Multicast Source Discovery Protocol
+ MySQL Protocol
+ NFSACL
+ NFSAUTH
+ NIS+
+ NIS+ Callback
+ NSPI
+ NTLM Secure Service Provider
+ Name Binding Protocol
+ Name Management Protocol over IPX
+ NetBIOS
+ NetBIOS Datagram Service
+ NetBIOS Name Service
+ NetBIOS Session Service
+ NetBIOS over IPX
+ NetWare Core Protocol
+ NetWare Link Services Protocol
+ Network Data Management Protocol
+ Network File System
+ Network Lock Manager Protocol
+ Network News Transfer Protocol
+ Network Status Monitor CallBack Protocol
+ Network Status Monitor Protocol
+ Network Time Protocol
+ Novell Distributed Print System
+ Null/Loopback
+ Open Shortest Path First
+ OpenBSD Encapsulating device
+ OpenBSD Packet Filter log file
+ OpenBSD Packet Filter log file, pre 3.4
+ PC NFS
+ PPP Bandwidth Allocation Control Protocol
+ PPP Bandwidth Allocation Protocol
+ PPP CDP Control Protocol
+ PPP Callback Control Protocol
+ PPP Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
+ PPP Compressed Datagram
+ PPP Compression Control Protocol
+ PPP IP Control Protocol
+ PPP IPv6 Control Protocol
+ PPP Link Control Protocol
+ PPP MPLS Control Protocol
+ PPP Multilink Protocol
+ PPP Multiplexing
+ PPP Password Authentication Protocol
+ PPP VJ Compression
+ PPP-over-Ethernet Discovery
+ PPP-over-Ethernet Session
+ PPPMux Control Protocol
+ Packet Encoding Rules (ASN.1 X.691)
+ Point-to-Point Protocol
+ Point-to-Point Tunnelling Protocol
+ Portmap
+ Post Office Protocol
+ Pragmatic General Multicast
+ Prism
+ Privilege Server operations
+ Protocol Independent Multicast
+ Q.2931
+ Q.931
+ Quake II Network Protocol
+ Quake III Arena Network Protocol
+ Quake Network Protocol
+ QuakeWorld Network Protocol
+ Qualified Logical Link Control
+ RFC 2250 MPEG1
+ RIPng
+ RPC Browser
+ RSTAT
+ RSYNC File Synchroniser
+ RX Protocol
+ Radio Access Network Application Part
+ Radius Protocol
+ Raw packet data
+ Real Time Streaming Protocol
+ Real-Time Transport Protocol
+ Real-time Transport Control Protocol
+ Registry Server Attributes Manipulation Interface
+ Registry server administration operations.
+ Remote Management Control Protocol
+ Remote Override interface
+ Remote Procedure Call
+ Remote Program Load
+ Remote Quota
+ Remote Shell
+ Remote Wall protocol
+ Remote sec_login preauth interface.
+ Resource ReserVation Protocol (RSVP)
+ Rlogin Protocol
+ Routing Information Protocol
+ Routing Table Maintenance Protocol
+ SADMIND
+ SCSI
+ SGI Mount Service
+ SMB (Server Message Block Protocol)
+ SMB MailSlot Protocol
+ SMB Pipe Protocol
+ SNA-over-Ethernet
+ SNMP Multiplex Protocol
+ SPNEGO-KRB5
+ SPRAY
+ SS7 SCCP-User Adaptation Layer
+ SSCOP
+ SSH Protocol
+ Secure Socket Layer
+ Sequenced Packet eXchange
+ Service Advertisement Protocol
+ Service Location Protocol
+ Session Announcement Protocol
+ Session Description Protocol
+ Session Initiation Protocol
+ Short Message Peer to Peer
+ Signalling Connection Control Part
+ Signalling Connection Control Part Management
+ Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
+ Simple Network Management Protocol
+ Sinec H1 Protocol
+ Skinny Client Control Protocol
+ SliMP3 Communication Protocol
+ Socks Protocol
+ Spanning Tree Protocol
+ Spnego
+ Stream Control Transmission Protocol
+ Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC)
+ Syslog message
+ Systems Network Architecture
+ Systems Network Architecture XID
+ TACACS
+ TACACS+
+ TPKT
+ Tabular Data Stream
+ Tazmen Sniffer Protocol
+ Telnet
+ Time Protocol
+ Time Synchronization Protocol
+ Token-Ring
+ Token-Ring Media Access Control
+ Transmission Control Protocol
+ Transparent Network Substrate Protocol
+ Trivial File Transfer Protocol
+ UDP Encapsulation of IPsec Packets
+ Universal Computer Protocol
+ User Datagram Protocol
+ Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
+ Virtual Trunking Protocol
+ WAP Binary XML
+ Web Cache Coordination Protocol
+ Wellfleet Breath of Life
+ Wellfleet Compression
+ Wellfleet HDLC
+ Who
+ Windows 2000 DNS
+ Wireless Session Protocol
+ Wireless Transaction Protocol
+ Wireless Transport Layer Security
+ X Display Manager Control Protocol
+ X.25
+ X.25 over TCP
+ X.29
+ X11
+ Xyplex
+ Yahoo Messenger Protocol
+ Yahoo YMSG Messenger Protocol
+ Yellow Pages Bind
+ Yellow Pages Passwd
+ Yellow Pages Service
+ Yellow Pages Transfer
+ Zebra Protocol
+ Zone Information Protocol
+ eDonkey Protocol
+ iSCSI
+ iSNS
+
+ Q 1.3: Are there any plans to support {your favorite protocol}?
+
+ A: Support for particular protocols is added to Ethereal as a result
+ of people contributing that support; no formal plans for adding
+ support for particular protocols in particular future releases exist.
+
+ Q 1.4: Can Ethereal read capture files from {your favorite network
+ analyzer}?
+
+ A: Support for particular protocols is added to Ethereal as a result
+ of people contributing that support; no formal plans for adding
+ support for particular protocols in particular future releases exist.
+
+ If a network analyzer writes out files in a format already supported
+ by Ethereal (e.g., in libpcap format), Ethereal may already be able to
+ read them, unless the analyzer has added its own proprietary
+ extensions to that format.
+
+ If a network analyzer writes out files in its own format, or has added
+ proprietary extensions to another format, in order to make Ethereal
+ read captures from that network analyzer, we would either have to have
+ a specification for the file format, or the extensions, sufficient to
+ give us enough information to read the parts of the file relevant to
+ Ethereal, or would need at least one capture file in that format AND a
+ detailed textual analysis of the packets in that capture file (showing
+ packet time stamps, packet lengths, and the top-level packet header)
+ in order to reverse-engineer the file format.
+
+ Note that there is no guarantee that we will be able to
+ reverse-engineer a capture file format.
+
+ Q 1.5: What devices can Ethereal use to capture packets?
+
+ A: Ethereal can read live data from Ethernet, Token-Ring, FDDI, serial
+ (PPP and SLIP) (if the OS on which it's running allows Ethereal to do
+ so), 802.11 wireless LAN (if the OS on which it's running allows
+ Ethereal to do so), ATM connections (if the OS on which it's running
+ allows Ethereal to do so), and the "any" device supported on Linux by
+ recent versions of libpcap. See the list of supported capture media on
+ various OSes for details (several items in there say "Unknown", which
+ doesn't mean "Ethereal can't capture on them", it means "we don't know
+ whether it can capture on them"; we expect that it will be able to
+ capture on many of them, but we haven't tried it ourselves - if you
+ try one of those types and it works, please send an update to
+ ethereal-web[AT]ethereal.com).
+
+ It can also read a variety of capture file formats, including:
+ * libpcap/tcpdump
+ * Sun snoop/atmsnoop
+ * Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor
+ * LanAlyzer
+ * DOS-based Sniffer (compressed and uncompressed)
+ * MS Network Monitor
+ * AIX iptrace
+ * NetXray and Windows-based Sniffer
+ * EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek
+ * RADCOM WAN/LAN analyzer
+ * Lucent/Ascend debug output
+ * Toshiba ISDN router "snoop" output
+ * HPUX nettl
+ * ISDN4BSD "i4btrace" utility.
+ * Cisco Secure IDS
+ * pppd log files (pppdump format)
+ * VMS TCPIPtrace
+ * DBS Etherwatch
+ * Visual Networks' Visual UpTime
+ * CoSine L2 debug
+
+ so that it can read traces from various network types, as captured by
+ other applications or equipment, even if it cannot itself capture on
+ those network types.
+
+ Q 1.6: How do you pronounce Ethereal? Where did the name come from?
+
+ A: The English pronunciation can be found in Merriam-Webster's online
+ dictionary at
+ http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=ethereal.
+
+ According to the book "Computer Networks" by Andrew Tannenbaum,
+ Ethernet was named after the "luminiferous ether" which was once
+ thought to carry electromagnetic radiation. Taking that into
+ consideration, Ethereal seemed like an appropriate name for an
+ Ethernet analyzer.
+
+ DOWNLOADING ETHEREAL
+ Q 2.1: I downloaded the Win32 installer, but when I try to run it, I
+ get an error.
+
+ A: The program you used to download it may have downloaded it
+ incorrectly. Web browsers sometimes may do this.
+
+ Try downloading it with, for example:
+ * Wget, for which Windows binaries are available on the SunSITE FTP
+ server at sunsite.tk or Heiko Herold's windows wget spot - wGetGUI
+ offers a GUI interface that uses wget;
+ * WS_FTP from Ipswitch,
+ * the ftp command that comes with Windows.
+
+ If you use the ftp command, make sure you do the transfer in binary
+ mode rather than ASCII mode, by using the binary command before
+ transferring the file.
+
+ Q 2.2: When I try to download the WinPcap driver and library, I can't
+ get to the WinPcap Web site.
+
+ A: As is the case with all Web sites, that site won't necessarily
+ always be accessible; the server may be down due to a problem or down
+ for maintenance, or there may be a networking problem between you and
+ the server. You should try again later, or try the local mirror or the
+ Wiretapped.net mirror.
+
+ INSTALLING ETHEREAL
+ Q 3.1: I installed an Ethereal RPM, but Ethereal doesn't seem to be
+ installed; only Tethereal is installed.
+
+ A: Red Hat RPMs for Ethereal put only the non-GUI components into the
+ ethereal RPM, the fact that Ethereal is a GUI program nonwithstanding;
+ there's a separate ethereal-gnome RPM that includes GUI components
+ such as Ethereal itself, the fact that Ethereal doesn't use GNOME
+ nonwithstanding. Find the ethereal-gnome RPM, and install that also.
+
+ BUILDING ETHEREAL
+ Q 4.1: The configure script can't find pcap.h or bpf.h, but I have
+ libpcap installed.
+
+ A: Are you sure pcap.h and bpf.h are installed? The official
+ distribution of libpcap only installs the libpcap.a library file when
+ "make install" is run. To install pcap.h and bpf.h, you must run "make
+ install-incl". If you're running Debian or Redhat, make sure you have
+ the "libpcap-dev" or "libpcap-devel" packages installed.
+
+ It's also possible that pcap.h and bpf.h have been installed in a
+ strange location. If this is the case, you may have to tweak
+ aclocal.m4.
+
+ Q 4.2: Why do I get the error
+
+ dftest_DEPENDENCIES was already defined in condition TRUE, which
+ implies condition HAVE_PLUGINS_TRUE
+
+ when I try to build Ethereal from CVS or a CVS snapshot?
+
+ A: You probably have automake 1.5 installed on your machine (the
+ command automake --version will report the version of automake on your
+ machine). There is a bug in that version of automake that causes this
+ problem; upgrade to a later version of automake (1.6 or later).
+
+ Q 4.3: The link fails with a number of "Output line too long."
+ messages followed by linker errors.
+
+ A: The version of the sed command on your system is incapable of
+ handling very long lines. On Solaris, for example, /usr/bin/sed has a
+ line length limit too low to allow libtool to work; /usr/xpg4/bin/sed
+ can handle it, as can GNU sed if you have it installed.
+
+ On Solaris, changing your command search path to search /usr/xpg4/bin
+ before /usr/bin should make the problem go away; on any platform on
+ which you have this problem, installing GNU sed and changing your
+ command path to search the directory in which it is installed before
+ searching the directory with the version of sed that came with the OS
+ should make the problem go away.
+
+ Q 4.4: The link fails on Solaris because plugin_list is undefined.
+
+ A: This appears to be due to a problem with some versions of the GTK+
+ and GLib packages from www.sunfreeware.org; un-install those packages,
+ and try getting the 1.2.10 versions from that site, or the versions
+ from The Written Word, or the versions from Sun's GNOME distribution,
+ or the versions from the supplemental software CD that comes with the
+ Solaris media kit, or build them from source from the GTK Web site.
+ Then re-run the configuration script, and try rebuilding Ethereal. (If
+ you get the 1.2.10 versions from www.sunfreeware.org, and the problem
+ persists, un-install them and try installing one of the other versions
+ mentioned.)
+
+ Q 4.5: The build fails on Windows because of conflicts between
+ winsock.h and winsock2.h.
+
+ A: As of Ethereal 0.9.5, you must install WinPcap 2.3 or later, and
+ the corresponding version of the developer's pack, in order to be able
+ to compile Ethereal; it will not compile with older versions of the
+ developer's pack. The symptoms of this failure are conflicts between
+ definitions in winsock.h and in winsock2.h; Ethereal uses winsock2.h,
+ but pre-2.3 versions of the WinPcap developer's packet use winsock.h.
+ (2.3 uses winsock2.h, so if Ethereal were to use winsock.h, it would
+ not be able to build with current versions of the WinPcap developer's
+ pack.)
+
+ Note that the installed version of the developer's pack should be the
+ same version as the version of WinPcap you have installed.
+
+ USING ETHEREAL
+ Q 5.1: When I use Ethereal to capture packets, I see only packets to
+ and from my machine, or I'm not seeing all the traffic I'm expecting
+ to see from or to the machine I'm trying to monitor.
+
+ A: This might be because the interface on which you're capturing is
+ plugged into a switch; on a switched network, unicast traffic between
+ two ports will not necessarily appear on other ports - only broadcast
+ and multicast traffic will be sent to all ports.
+
+ Note that even if your machine is plugged into a hub, the "hub" may be
+ a switched hub, in which case you're still on a switched network.
+
+ Note also that on the Linksys Web site, they say that their
+ auto-sensing hubs "broadcast the 10Mb packets to the port that operate
+ at 10Mb only and broadcast the 100Mb packets to the ports that operate
+ at 100Mb only", which would indicate that if you sniff on a 10Mb port,
+ you will not see traffic coming sent to a 100Mb port, and vice versa.
+ This problem has also been reported for Netgear dual-speed hubs, and
+ may exist for other "auto-sensing" or "dual-speed" hubs.
+
+ Some switches have the ability to replicate all traffic on all ports
+ to a single port so that you can plug your analyzer into that single
+ port to sniff all traffic. You would have to check the documentation
+ for the switch to see if this is possible and, if so, to see how to do
+ this. See, for example:
+ * this documentation from Cisco on the Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN)
+ feature on Catalyst switches;
+ * documentation from HP on how to set "monitoring"/"mirroring" on
+ ports on the console for HP Advancestack Switch 208 and 224;
+ * the "Network Monitoring Port Features" section of chapter 6 of
+ documentation from HP for HP ProCurve Switches 1600M, 2424M,
+ 4000M, and 8000M.
+
+ Note also that many firewall/NAT boxes have a switch built into them;
+ this includes many of the "cable/DSL router" boxes. If you have a box
+ of that sort, that has a switch with some number of Ethernet ports
+ into which you plug machines on your network, and another Ethernet
+ port used to connect to a cable or DSL modem, you can, at least, sniff
+ traffic between the machines on your network and the Internet by
+ plugging the Ethernet port on the router going to the modem, the
+ Ethernet port on the modem, and the machine on which you're running
+ Ethereal into a hub (make sure it's not a switching hub, and that, if
+ it's a dual-speed hub, all three of those ports are running at the
+ same speed.
+
+ If your machine is not plugged into a switched network or a dual-speed
+ hub, or it is plugged into a switched network but the port is set up
+ to have all traffic replicated to it, the problem might be that the
+ network interface on which you're capturing doesn't support
+ "promiscuous" mode, or because your OS can't put the interface into
+ promiscuous mode. Normally, network interfaces supply to the host
+ only:
+ * packets sent to one of that host's link-layer addresses;
+ * broadcast packets;
+ * multicast packets sent to a multicast address that the host has
+ configured the interface to accept.
+
+ Most network interfaces can also be put in "promiscuous" mode, in
+ which they supply to the host all network packets they see. Ethereal
+ will try to put the interface on which it's capturing into promiscuous
+ mode unless the "Capture packets in promiscuous mode" option is turned
+ off in the "Capture Options" dialog box, and Tethereal will try to put
+ the interface on which it's capturing into promiscuous mode unless the
+ -p option was specified. However, some network interfaces don't
+ support promiscuous mode, and some OSes might not allow interfaces to
+ be put into promiscuous mode.
+
+ If the interface is not running in promiscuous mode, it won't see any
+ traffic that isn't intended to be seen by your machine. It will see
+ broadcast packets, and multicast packets sent to a multicast MAC
+ address the interface is set up to receive.
+
+ You should ask the vendor of your network interface whether it
+ supports promiscuous mode. If it does, you should ask whoever supplied
+ the driver for the interface (the vendor, or the supplier of the OS
+ you're running on your machine) whether it supports promiscuous mode
+ with that network interface.
+
+ In the case of token ring interfaces, the drivers for some of them, on
+ Windows, may require you to enable promiscuous mode in order to
+ capture in promiscuous mode. Ask the vendor of the card how to do
+ this, or see, for example, this information on promiscuous mode on
+ some Madge token ring adapters (note that those cards can have
+ promiscuous mode disabled permanently, in which case you can't enable
+ it).
+
+ In the case of wireless LAN interfaces, it appears that, when those
+ interfaces are promiscuously sniffing, they're running in a
+ significantly different mode from the mode that they run in when
+ they're just acting as network interfaces (to the extent that it would
+ be a significant effor for those drivers to support for promiscuously
+ sniffing and acting as regular network interfaces at the same time),
+ so it may be that Windows drivers for those interfaces don't support
+ promiscuous mode.
+
+ Q 5.2: I can't see any TCP packets other than packets to and from my
+ machine, even though another analyzer on the network sees those
+ packets.
+
+ A: You're probably not seeing any packets other than unicast packets
+ to or from your machine, and broadcast and multicast packets; a switch
+ will normally send to a port only unicast traffic sent to the MAC
+ address for the interface on that port, and broadcast and multicast
+ traffic - it won't send to that port unicast traffic sent to a MAC
+ address for some other interface - and a network interface not in
+ promiscuous mode will receive only unicast traffic sent to the MAC
+ address for that interface, broadcast traffic, and multicast traffic
+ sent to a multicast MAC address the interface is set up to receive.
+
+ TCP doesn't use broadcast or multicast, so you will only see your own
+ TCP traffic, but UDP services may use broadcast or multicast so you'll
+ see some UDP traffic - however, this is not a problem with TCP
+ traffic, it's a problem with unicast traffic, as you also won't see
+ all UDP traffic between other machines.
+
+ I.e., this is probably the same question as this earlier one; see the
+ response to that question.
+
+ Q 5.3: I'm only seeing ARP packets when I try to capture traffic.
+
+ A: You're probably on a switched network, and running Ethereal on a
+ machine that's not sending traffic to the switch and not being sent
+ any traffic from other machines on the switch. ARP packets are often
+ broadcast packets, which are sent to all switch ports.
+
+ I.e., this is probably the same question as this earlier one; see the
+ response to that question.
+
+ Q 5.4: How do I put an interface into promiscuous mode?
+
+ A: By not disabling promiscuous mode when running Ethereal or
+ Tethereal.
+
+ Note, however, that:
+ * the form of promiscuous mode that libpcap (the library that
+ programs such as tcpdump, Ethereal, etc. use to do packet capture)
+ turns on will not necessarily be shown if you run ifconfig on the
+ interface on a UNIX system;
+ * some network interfaces might not support promiscuous mode, and
+ some drivers might not allow promiscuous mode to be turned on -
+ see this earlier question for more information on that;
+ * the fact that you're not seeing any traffic, or are only seeing
+ broadcast traffic, or aren't seeing any non-broadcast traffic
+ other than traffic to or from the machine running Ethereal, does
+ not mean that promiscuous mode isn't on - see this earlier
+ question for more information on that.
+
+ I.e., this is probably the same question as this earlier one; see the
+ response to that question.
+
+ Q 5.5: I can set a display filter just fine, but capture filters don't
+ work.
+
+ A: Capture filters currently use a different syntax than display
+ filters. Here's the corresponding section from the ethereal(1) man
+ page:
+
+ "Display filters in Ethereal are very powerful; more fields are
+ filterable in Ethereal than in other protocol analyzers, and the
+ syntax you can use to create your filters is richer. As Ethereal
+ progresses, expect more and more protocol fields to be allowed in
+ display filters.
+
+ Packet capturing is performed with the pcap library. The capture
+ filter syntax follows the rules of the pcap library. This syntax is
+ different from the display filter syntax."
+
+ The capture filter syntax used by libpcap can be found in the
+ tcpdump(8) man page.
+
+ Q 5.6: I'm entering valid capture filters, but I still get "parse
+ error" errors.
+
+ A: There is a bug in some versions of libpcap/WinPcap that cause it to
+ report parse errors even for valid expressions if a previous filter
+ expression was invalid and got a parse error.
+
+ Try exiting and restarting Ethereal; if you are using a version of
+ libpcap/WinPcap with this bug, this will "erase" its memory of the
+ previous parse error. If the capture filter that got the "parse error"
+ now works, the earlier error with that filter was probably due to this
+ bug.
+
+ The bug was fixed in libpcap 0.6; 0.4[.x] and 0.5[.x] versions of
+ libpcap have this bug, but 0.6[.x] and later versions don't.
+
+ Versions of WinPcap prior to 2.3 are based on pre-0.6 versions of
+ libpcap, and have this bug; WinPcap 2.3 is based on libpcap 0.6.2, and
+ doesn't have this bug.
+
+ If you are running Ethereal on a UNIX-flavored platform, run "ethereal
+ -v", or select "About Ethereal..." from the "Help" menu in Ethereal,
+ to see what version of libpcap it's using. If it's not 0.6 or later,
+ you will need either to upgrade your OS to get a later version of
+ libpcap, or will need to build and install a later version of libpcap
+ from the tcpdump.org Web site and then recompile Ethereal from source
+ with that later version of libpcap.
+
+ If you are running Ethereal on Windows with a pre-2.3 version of
+ WinPcap, you will need to un-install WinPcap and then download and
+ install WinPcap 2.3.
+
+ Q 5.7: I saved a filter and tried to use its name to filter the
+ display, but I got an "Unexpected end of filter string" error.
+
+ A: You cannot use the name of a saved display filter as a filter. To
+ filter the display, you can enter a display filter expression - not
+ the name of a saved display filter - in the "Filter:" box at the
+ bottom of the display, and type the key or press the "Apply" button
+ (that does not require you to have a saved filter), or, if you want to
+ use a saved filter, you can press the "Filter:" button, select the
+ filter in the dialog box that pops up, and press the "OK" button.
+
+ Q 5.8: Why am I seeing lots of packets with incorrect TCP checksums?
+
+ A: If the packets that have incorrect TCP checksums are all being sent
+ by the machine on which Ethereal is running, this is probably because
+ the network interface on which you're capturing does TCP checksum
+ offloading. That means that the TCP checksum is added to the packet by
+ the network interface, not by the OS's TCP/IP stack; when capturing on
+ an interface, packets being sent by the host on which you're capturing
+ are directly handed to the capture interface by the OS, which means
+ that they are handed to the capture interface without a TCP checksum
+ being added to them.
+
+ The only way to prevent this from happening would be to disable TCP
+ checksum offloading, but
+ 1. that might not even be possible on some OSes;
+ 2. that could reduce networking performance significantly.
+
+ However, you can disable the check that Ethereal does of the TCP
+ checksum, so that it won't report any packets as having TCP checksum
+ errors, and so that it won't refuse to do TCP reassembly due to a
+ packet having an incorrect TCP checksum. That can be set as an
+ Ethereal preference by selecting "Preferences" from the "Edit" menu,
+ opening up the "Protocols" list in the left-hand pane of the
+ "Preferences" dialog box, selecting "TCP", from that list, turning off
+ the "Check the validity of the TCP checksum when possible" option,
+ clicking "Save" if you want to save that setting in your preference
+ file, and clicking "OK".
+
+ It can also be set on the Ethereal or Tethereal command line with a -o
+ tcp.check_checksum:false command-line flag, or manually set in your
+ preferences file by adding a tcp.check_checksum:false line.
+
+ Q 5.9: I've just installed Ethereal, and the traffic on my local LAN
+ is boring.
+
+ A: We have a collection of strange and exotic sample capture files at
+ http://www.ethereal.com/sample/
+
+ Q 5.10: When I run Ethereal on Solaris 8, it dies with a Bus Error
+ when I start it.
+
+ A: Some versions of the GTK+ library from www.sunfreeware.org appear
+ to be buggy, causing Ethereal to drop core with a Bus Error.
+ Un-install those packages, and try getting the 1.2.10 version from
+ that site, or the version from The Written Word, or the version from
+ Sun's GNOME distribution, or the version from the supplemental
+ software CD that comes with the Solaris media kit, or build it from
+ source from the GTK Web site. Update the GLib library to the 1.2.10
+ version, from the same source, as well. (If you get the 1.2.10
+ versions from www.sunfreeware.org, and the problem persists,
+ un-install them and try installing one of the other versions
+ mentioned.)
+
+ Similar problems may exist with older versions of GTK+ for earlier
+ versions of Solaris.
+
+ Q 5.11: When I run Ethereal on Windows NT, it dies with a Dr. Watson
+ error, reporting an "Integer division by zero" exception, when I start
+ it.
+
+ A: In at least some case, this appears to be due to using the default
+ VGA driver; if that's not the correct driver for your video card, try
+ running the correct driver for your video card.
+
+ Q 5.12: When I try to run Ethereal, it complains about
+ sprint_realloc_objid being undefined.
+
+ A: Ethereal can only be linked with version 4.2.2 or later of UCD
+ SNMP. Your version of Ethereal was dynamically linked with such a
+ version of UCD SNMP; however, you have an older version of UCD SNMP
+ installed, which means that when Ethereal is run, it tries to link to
+ the older version, and fails. You will have to replace that version of
+ UCD SNMP with version 4.2.2 or a later version.
+
+ Q 5.13: I'm running Ethereal on Linux; why do my time stamps have only
+ 100ms resolution, rather than 1us resolution?
+
+ A: Ethereal gets time stamps from libpcap/WinPcap, and libpcap/WinPcap
+ get them from the OS kernel, so Ethereal - and any other program using
+ libpcap, such as tcpdump - is at the mercy of the time stamping code
+ in the OS for time stamps.
+
+ At least on x86-based machines, Linux can get high-resolution time
+ stamps on newer processors with the Time Stamp Counter (TSC) register;
+ for example, Intel x86 processors, starting with the Pentium Pro, and
+ including all x86 processors since then, have had a TSC, and other
+ vendors probably added the TSC at some point to their families of x86
+ processors.
+
+ The Linux kernel must be configured with the CONFIG_X86_TSC option
+ enabled in order to use the TSC. Make sure this option is enabled in
+ your kernel.
+
+ In addition, some Linux distributions may have bugs in their versions
+ of the kernel that cause packets not to be given high-resolution time
+ stamps even if the TSC is enabled. See, for example, bug 61111 for Red
+ Hat Linux 7.2. If your distribution has a bug such as this, you may
+ have to run a standard kernel from kernel.org in order to get
+ high-resolution time stamps.
+
+ Q 5.14: I'm capturing packets on {Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me};
+ why are the time stamps on packets wrong?
+
+ A: This is due to a bug in WinPcap. The bug should be fixed in WinPcap
+ 3.0.
+
+ Q 5.15: When I try to run Ethereal on Windows, it fails to run because
+ it can't find packet.dll.
+
+ A: In older versions of Ethereal, there were two binary distributions
+ available for Windows, one that supported capturing packets, and one
+ that didn't. The version that supported capturing packets required
+ that you install the WinPcap driver; if you didn't install it, it
+ would fail to run because it couldn't find packet.dll.
+
+ The current version of Ethereal has only one binary distribution for
+ Windows; that version will check whether WinPcap is installed and, if
+ it's not, will disable support for packet capture.
+
+ The WinPcap driver and libraries can be downloaded from the WinPcap
+ Web site, the local mirror of the WinPcap Web site, or the
+ Wiretapped.net mirror of the WinPcap site.
+
+ Q 5.16: I'm running Ethereal on Windows; why does some network
+ interface on my machine not show up in the list of interfaces in the
+ "Interface:" field in the dialog box popped up by "Capture->Start",
+ and/or why does Ethereal give me an error if I try to capture on that
+ interface?
+
+ A: If you are running Ethereal on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000,
+ Windows XP, or Windows Server, and this is the first time you have run
+ a WinPcap-based program (such as Ethereal, or Tethereal, or WinDump,
+ or Analyzer, or...) since the machine was rebooted, you need to run
+ that program from an account with administrator privileges; once you
+ have run such a program, you will not need administrator privileges to
+ run any such programs until you reboot.
+
+ If you are running on Windows 95/98/Me, or if you are running on
+ Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP/Server and have administrator privileges or a
+ WinPcap-based program has been run with those privileges since the
+ machine rebooted, then note that Ethereal relies on the WinPcap
+ library, on the WinPcap device driver, and on the facilities that come
+ with the OS on which it's running in order to do captures.
+
+ Therefore, if the OS, the WinPcap library, or the WinPcap driver don't
+ support capturing on a particular network interface device, Ethereal
+ won't be able to capture on that device.
+
+ Note that:
+ * 2.02 and earlier versions of the WinPcap driver and library that
+ Ethereal uses for packet capture didn't support Token Ring
+ interfaces; the current version, 2.3, does support Token Ring, and
+ the current version of Ethereal works with (and, in fact,
+ requires) WinPcap 2.1 or later.
+ If you are having problems capturing on Token Ring interfaces, and
+ you have WinPcap 2.02 or an earlier version of WinPcap installed,
+ you should uninstall WinPcap, download and install the current
+ version of WinPcap, and then install the latest version of
+ Ethereal.
+ * On Windows 95, 98, or Me, sometimes more than one interface will
+ be given the same name; if that is the case, you will only be able
+ to capture on one of those interfaces - it's not clear to which
+ one the name, when used in a WinPcap-based application, will
+ refer. For example, if you have a PPP serial interface and a VPN
+ interface, they might show up with the same name, for example
+ "ppp-mac", and if you try to capture on "ppp-mac", it might not
+ capture on the interface you're currently using. In that case, you
+ might, for example, have to remove the VPN interface from the
+ system in order to capture on the PPP serial interface.
+ * WinPcap doesn't support PPP WAN interfaces on Windows
+ NT/2000/XP/Server, so Ethereal cannot capture packets on those
+ devices when running on Windows NT/2000/XP/Server. Regular dial-up
+ lines, ISDN lines, and various other lines such as T1/E1 lines are
+ all PPP interfaces. This may cause the interface not to show up on
+ the list of interfaces in the "Capture Options" dialog.
+ * WinPcap prior to 3.0 does not support multiprocessor machines
+ (note that machines with a single multi-threaded processor, such
+ as Intel's new multi-threaded x86 processors, are multiprocessor
+ machines as far as the OS and WinPcap are concerned), and recent
+ 2.x versions of WinPcap refuse to operate if they detect that
+ they're running on a multiprocessor machine, which means that they
+ may not show any network interfaces. You will need to use WinPcap
+ 3.0 to capture on a multiprocessor machine.
+
+ If an interface doesn't show up in the list of interfaces in the
+ "Interface:" field, and you know the name of the interface, try
+ entering that name in the "Interface:" field and capturing on that
+ device.
+
+ If the attempt to capture on it succeeds, the interface is somehow not
+ being reported by the mechanism Ethereal uses to get a list of
+ interfaces; please report this to ethereal-dev@ethereal.com giving
+ full details of the problem, including
+ * the operating system you're using, and the version of that
+ operating system;
+ * the type of network device you're using.
+
+ If you are having trouble capturing on a particular network interface,
+ and you've made sure that (on platforms that require it) you've
+ arranged that packet capture support is present, as per the above,
+ first try capturing on that device with WinDump; see the WinDump Web
+ site or the local mirror of the WinDump Web site for information on
+ using WinDump.
+
+ If you can capture on the interface with WinDump, send mail to
+ ethereal-users@ethereal.com giving full details of the problem,
+ including
+ * the operating system you're using, and the version of that
+ operating system;
+ * the type of network device you're using;
+ * the error message you get from Ethereal.
+
+ If you cannot capture on the interface with WinDump, this is almost
+ certainly a problem with one or more of:
+ * the operating system you're using;
+ * the device driver for the interface you're using;
+ * the WinPcap library and/or the WinPcap device driver;
+
+ so first check the WinPcap FAQ, the local mirror of that FAQ, or the
+ Wiretapped.net mirror of that FAQ, to see if your problem is mentioned
+ there. If not, then see the WinPcap support page (or the local mirror
+ of that page) - check the "Submitting bugs" section.
+
+ You may also want to ask the ethereal-users@ethereal.com and the
+ winpcap-users@winpcap.polito.it mailing lists to see if anybody
+ happens to know about the problem and know a workaround or fix for the
+ problem. (Note that you will have to subscribe to that list in order
+ to be allowed to mail to it; see the WinPcap support page, or the
+ local mirror of that page, for information on the mailing list.) In
+ your mail, please give full details of the problem, as described
+ above, and also indicate that the problem occurs with WinDump, not
+ just with Ethereal.
+
+ Q 5.17: I'm running on a UNIX-flavored OS; why does some network
+ interface on my machine not show up in the list of interfaces in the
+ "Interface:" field in the dialog box popped up by "Capture->Start",
+ and/or why does Ethereal give me an error if I try to capture on that
+ interface?
+
+ A: You may need to run Ethereal from an account with sufficient
+ privileges to capture packets, such as the super-user account. Only
+ those interfaces that Ethereal can open for capturing show up in that
+ list; if you don't have sufficient privileges to capture on any
+ interfaces, no interfaces will show up in the list.
+
+ If you are running Ethereal from an account with sufficient
+ privileges, then note that Ethereal relies on the libpcap library, and
+ on the facilities that come with the OS on which it's running in order
+ to do captures.
+
+ Therefore, if the OS or the libpcap library don't support capturing on
+ a particular network interface device, Ethereal won't be able to
+ capture on that device.
+
+ On Linux, note that you need to have "packet socket" support enabled
+ in your kernel; see the "Packet socket" item in the Linux
+ "Configure.help" file.
+
+ On BSD, note that you need to have BPF support enabled in your kernel;
+ see the documentation for your system for information on how to enable
+ BPF support (if it's not enabled by default on your system).
+
+ On DEC OSF/1, Digital UNIX, or Tru64 UNIX, note that you need to have
+ packet filtering support in your kernel; the doconfig command will
+ allow you to configure and build a new kernel with that option.
+
+ On Solaris, note that libpcap 0.6.2 and earlier didn't support Token
+ Ring interfaces; the current version, 0.7.2, does support Token Ring,
+ and the current version of Ethereal works with libcap 0.7.2 and later.
+
+ If an interface doesn't show up in the list of interfaces in the
+ "Interface:" field, and you know the name of the interface, try
+ entering that name in the "Interface:" field and capturing on that
+ device.
+
+ If the attempt to capture on it succeeds, the interface is somehow not
+ being reported by the mechanism Ethereal uses to get a list of
+ interfaces; please report this to ethereal-dev@ethereal.com giving
+ full details of the problem, including
+ * the operating system you're using, and the version of that
+ operating system (for Linux, give both the version number of the
+ kernel and the name and version number of the distribution you're
+ using);
+ * the type of network device you're using.
+
+ If you are having trouble capturing on a particular network interface,
+ and you've made sure that (on platforms that require it) you've
+ arranged that packet capture support is present, as per the above,
+ first try capturing on that device with tcpdump.
+
+ If you can capture on the interface with tcpdump, send mail to
+ ethereal-users@ethereal.com giving full details of the problem,
+ including
+ * the operating system you're using, and the version of that
+ operating system (for Linux, give both the version number of the
+ kernel and the name and version number of the distribution you're
+ using);
+ * the type of network device you're using;
+ * the error message you get from Ethereal.
+
+ If you cannot capture on the interface with tcpdump, this is almost
+ certainly a problem with one or more of:
+ * the operating system you're using;
+ * the device driver for the interface you're using;
+ * the libpcap library;
+
+ so you should report the problem to the company or organization that
+ produces the OS (in the case of a Linux distribution, report the
+ problem to whoever produces the distribution).
+
+ You may also want to ask the ethereal-users@ethereal.com and the
+ tcpdump-workers@tcpdump.org mailing lists to see if anybody happens to
+ know about the problem and know a workaround or fix for the problem.
+ In your mail, please give full details of the problem, as described
+ above, and also indicate that the problem occurs with tcpdump not just
+ with Ethereal.
+
+ Q 5.18: I'm running Ethereal on Windows NT/2000/XP/Server; my machine
+ has a PPP (dial-up POTS, ISDN, etc.) interface, and it shows up in the
+ "Interface" item in the "Capture Options" dialog box. Why can no
+ packets be sent on or received from that network while I'm trying to
+ capture traffic on that interface?
+
+ A: WinPcap doesn't support PPP WAN interfaces on Windows
+ NT/2000/XP/Server; one symptom that may be seen is that attempts to
+ capture in promiscuous mode on the interface cause the interface to be
+ incapable of sending or receiving packets. You can disable promiscuous
+ mode using the -p command-line flag or the item in the "Capture
+ Preferences" dialog box, but this may mean that outgoing packets, or
+ incoming packets, won't be seen in the capture.
+
+ Q 5.19: I'm running Ethereal on Windows 95/98/Me, on a machine with
+ more than one network adapter of the same type; Ethereal shows all of
+ those adapters with the same name, but I can't use any of those
+ adapters other than the first one.
+
+ A: Unfortunately, Windows 95/98/Me gives the same name to multiple
+ instances of the type of same network adapter. Therefore, WinPcap
+ cannot distinguish between them, so a WinPcap-based application can
+ capture only on the first such interface; Ethereal is a
+ libpcap/WinPcap-based application.
+
+ Q 5.20: I'm running Ethereal on Windows, and I'm not seeing any
+ traffic being sent by the machine running Ethereal.
+
+ A: If you are running some form of VPN client software, it might be
+ causing this problem; people have seen this problem when they have
+ Check Point's VPN software installed on their machine. If that's the
+ cause of the problem, you will have to remove the VPN software in
+ order to have Ethereal (or any other application using WinPcap) see
+ outgoing packets; unfortunately, neither we nor the WinPcap developers
+ know any way to make WinPcap and the VPN software work well together.
+
+ Also, some drivers for Windows (especially some wireless network
+ interface drivers) apparently do not, when running in promiscuous
+ mode, arrange that outgoing packets are delivered to the software that
+ requested that the interface run promiscuously; try turning
+ promiscuous mode off.
+
+ Q 5.21: I'm trying to capture traffic but I'm not seeing any.
+
+ A: Is the machine running Ethereal sending out any traffic on the
+ network interface on which you're capturing, or receiving any traffic
+ on that network, or is there any broadcast traffic on the network or
+ multicast traffic to a multicast group to which the machine running
+ Ethereal belongs?
+
+ If not, this may just be a problem with promiscuous sniffing, either
+ due to running on a switched network or a dual-speed hub, or due to
+ problems with the interface not supporting promiscuous mode; see the
+ response to this earlier question.
+
+ Otherwise, on Windows, see the response to this question and, on a
+ UNIX-flavored OS, see the response to this question.
+
+ Q 5.22: I have an XXX network card on my machine; if I try to capture
+ on it, my machine crashes or resets itself.
+
+ A: This is almost certainly a problem with one or more of:
+ * the operating system you're using;
+ * the device driver for the interface you're using;
+ * the libpcap/WinPcap library and, if this is Windows, the WinPcap
+ device driver;
+
+ so:
+ * if you are using Windows, see the WinPcap support page (or the
+ local mirror of that page) - check the "Submitting bugs" section;
+ * if you are using some Linux distribution, some version of BSD, or
+ some other UNIX-flavored OS, you should report the problem to the
+ company or organization that produces the OS (in the case of a
+ Linux distribution, report the problem to whoever produces the
+ distribution).
+
+ Q 5.23: My machine crashes or resets itself when I select "Start" from
+ the "Capture" menu or select "Preferences" from the "Edit" menu.
+
+ A: Both of those operations cause Ethereal to try to build a list of
+ the interfaces that it can open; it does so by getting a list of
+ interfaces and trying to open them. There is probably an OS, driver,
+ or, for Windows, WinPcap bug that causes the system to crash when this
+ happens; see the previous question.
+
+ Q 5.24: Does Ethereal work on Windows ME?
+
+ A: Yes, but if you want to capture packets, you will need to install
+ the latest version of WinPcap, as 2.02 and earlier versions of WinPcap
+ didn't support Windows ME. You should also install the latest version
+ of Ethereal as well.
+
+ Q 5.25: Does Ethereal work on Windows XP?
+
+ A: Yes, but if you want to capture packets, you will need to install
+ the latest version of WinPcap, as 2.2 and earlier versions of WinPcap
+ didn't support Windows XP.
+
+ Q 5.26: Why doesn't Ethereal correctly identify RTP packets? It shows
+ them only as UDP.
+
+ A: Ethereal can identify a UDP datagram as containing a packet of a
+ particular protocol running atop UDP only if
+ 1. The protocol in question has a particular standard port number,
+ and the UDP source or destination port number is that port
+ 2. Packets of that protocol can be identified by looking for a
+ "signature" of some type in the packet - i.e., some data that, if
+ Ethereal finds it in some particular part of a packet, means that
+ the packet is almost certainly a packet of that type.
+ 3. Some other traffic earlier in the capture indicated that, for
+ example, UDP traffic between two particular addresses and ports
+ will be RTP traffic.
+
+ RTP doesn't have a standard port number, so 1) doesn't work; it
+ doesn't, as far as I know, have any "signature", so 2) doesn't work.
+
+ That leaves 3). If there's RTSP traffic that sets up an RTP session,
+ then, at least in some cases, the RTSP dissector will set things up so
+ that subsequent RTP traffic will be identified. Currently, that's the
+ only place we do that; there may be other places.
+
+ However, there will always be places where Ethereal is simply
+ incapable of deducing that a given UDP flow is RTP; a mechanism would
+ be needed to allow the user to specify that a given conversation
+ should be treated as RTP. As of Ethereal 0.8.16, such a mechanism
+ exists; if you select a UDP or TCP packet, the right mouse button menu
+ will have a "Decode As..." menu item, which will pop up a dialog box
+ letting you specify that the source port, the destination port, or
+ both the source and destination ports of the packet should be
+ dissected as some particular protocol.
+
+ Q 5.27: Why doesn't Ethereal show Yahoo Messenger packets in captures
+ that contain Yahoo Messenger traffic?
+
+ A: Ethereal only recognizes as Yahoo Messenger traffic packets to or
+ from TCP port 3050 that begin with "YPNS", "YHOO", or "YMSG". TCP
+ segments that start with the middle of a Yahoo Messenger packet that
+ takes more than one TCP segment will not be recognized as Yahoo
+ Messenger packets (even if the TCP segment also contains the beginning
+ of another Yahoo Messenger packet).
+
+ Q 5.28: Why do I get the error
+
+ Gdk-ERROR **: Palettized display (256-colour) mode not supported on
+ Windows.
+ aborting....
+
+ when I try to run Ethereal on Windows?
+
+ A: Ethereal is built using the GTK+ toolkit, which supports most
+ UNIX-flavored OSes, and also supports Windows.
+
+ Windows versions of Ethereal before 0.9.14 were built with an older
+ version of that toolkit, which didn't support 256-color mode on
+ Windows - it required HiColor (16-bit colors) or more.
+
+ Windows versions of Ethereal 0.9.14 and later are built with a version
+ of that toolkit that supports 256-color mode; upgrade to the current
+ version of Ethereal if you want to run on a display in 256-color mode.
+
+ Q 5.29: When I capture on Windows in promiscuous mode, I can see
+ packets other than those sent to or from my machine; however, those
+ packets show up with a "Short Frame" indication, unlike packets to or
+ from my machine. What should I do to arrange that I see those packets
+ in their entirety?
+
+ A: In at least some cases, this appears to be the result of PGPnet
+ running on the network interface on which you're capturing; turn it
+ off on that interface.
+
+ Q 5.30: How can I capture raw 802.11 packets, including non-data
+ (management, beacon) packets?
+
+ A: That would require that your 802.11 interface run in the mode
+ called "monitor mode" or "RFMON mode". Not all operating systems
+ support that and, even on operating systems that do support it, not
+ all drivers, and thus not all cards, support it.
+
+ Cisco Aironet cards:
+
+ The only platforms that allow Ethereal to capture raw 802.11 packets
+ on Cisco Aironet cards are:
+ * Linux, with a 2.4.6 or later kernel;
+ * FreeBSD 4.6 or later, as the driver in FreeBSD 4.5 has bugs that
+ cause packets not to be captured correctly, and the driver in
+ releases prior to 4.5 didn't support capturing raw packets.
+
+ On FreeBSD, the ancontrol utility must be used; do not enable the full
+ Aironet header via BPF, as Ethereal doesn't currently support that.
+
+ On Linux with the driver in the 2.4.6 through 2.4.19 kernel, you will
+ need to do
+
+echo "Mode: rfmon" >/proc/driver/aironet/ethN/Config
+
+ if your Aironet card is ethN. To capture traffic from any BSS, do
+
+echo "Mode: y" >/proc/driver/aironet/ethN/Config
+
+ and to return to the normal mode, do
+
+echo "Mode: ess" >/proc/driver/aironet/ethN/Config
+
+ On Linux with the driver in the 2.4.20 kernel, or with the CVS drivers
+ from the airo-linux SourceForge site, you will have to capture on the
+ wifiN interface if your Aironet card is ethN, after running the
+ commands listed above.
+
+ In all of those cases, Ethereal would have to be linked with libpcap
+ 0.7.1 or later; this means that most Ethereal binary packages won't
+ work unless they're statically linked with libpcap 0.7.1 or later, or
+ they're dynamically linked with libpcap and your system has a libpcap
+ 0.7.1 or later shared library installed (note that libpcap source
+ package from tcpdump.org does not build shared libraries). Some binary
+ packaging mechanisms might make it difficult to install Ethereal
+ binary packages built to depend on older libpcap binary packages if
+ you have a newer libpcap binary package installed; the installer
+ programs for those packaging mechanisms might support disabling
+ dependency checking so that they will install Ethereal even though a
+ newer version of libpcap is installed.
+
+ Cards using the Prism II chip set (see this page of Linux 802.11
+ information for details on wireless cards, including information on
+ the chips they use):
+
+ You can capture raw 802.11 packets with Prism II cards on Linux
+ systems with the 0.1.14-pre6 or later version of the linux-wlan-ng
+ drivers (see the linux-wlan page, and the linux-wlan-ng tarball
+ directory).
+
+ Those require either Solomon Peachy's patch to libpcap 0.7.1 (see his
+ libpcap-0.7.1-prism.diff file, or his RPMs of that version of
+ libpcap), or the current CVS version of libpcap, which includes his
+ patch (download it from the "Current Tar files" section of the
+ tcpdump.org Web site). If you apply his patches to libpcap 0.7.1 and
+ rebuild and install libpcap, or if you build and install the current
+ CVS version of libpcap, you would have to rebuild Ethereal from
+ source, linking it with that new version of libpcap; an Ethereal
+ binary package would not work. Ethereal binary packages might work if
+ you install the libpcap-0.7.1-1prism.i386.rpm RPM, as it might install
+ a libpcap shared library in place of the one on your system.
+
+ You may have to run a command to put the interface into monitor mode,
+ or to change other interface settings, and you might have to capture
+ on a wlanN interface rather than a ethN interface, in order to capture
+ raw 802.11 packets. The interface settings are available in your
+ wlan-ng.conf file. See the wlan-ng FAQ for additional information.
+
+ On other platforms, capturing raw 802.11 packets on Prism II cards is
+ not currently supported.
+
+ Orinoco Silver and Gold cards:
+
+ On Linux systems, there are patches on the Orinoco Monitor Mode Patch
+ Page that should allow you to do capture raw 802.11 packets. You will
+ have to determine which version of the driver you have, and select the
+ appropriate patch.
+
+ Note that the page indicates that not all versions of the Orinoco
+ firmware support this patch. It says, for some versions of the patch,
+ "This patch should allow monitor mode with v8.10 firmware (untested w/
+ 8.42);" if you have version 8.10 or later firmware on your Orinoco
+ cards, you might have to use those patches, with the corresponding
+ versions of the Orinoco driver, in order to run in monitor mode.
+
+ That patch is written for the drivers included with the pcmcia-cs
+ drivers, but works equally well for the Orinoco drivers provided with
+ Linux kernels up to 2.4.20. To apply a patch to your kernel drivers,
+ simply copy the orinoco-09b-patch.diff file to the
+ /usr/src/linux/drivers/net directory and patch according to the
+ directions on the Orinoco Monitor Mode Patch Page. You can double-
+ check the version of the Orinoco drivers that shipped with your kernel
+ by examining the first few lines of the orinoco.c file.
+
+ Te Orinoco patches require either Solomon Peachy's patch to libpcap
+ 0.7.1 (see his libpcap-0.7.1-prism.diff file, or his RPMs of that
+ version of libpcap), or the current CVS version of libpcap, which
+ includes his patch (download it from the "Current Tar files" section
+ of the tcpdump.org Web site). If you apply his patches to libpcap
+ 0.7.1 and rebuild and install libpcap, or if you build and install the
+ current CVS version of libpcap, you would have to rebuild Ethereal
+ from source, linking it with that new version of libpcap; an Ethereal
+ binary package would not work. Ethereal binary packages might work if
+ you install the libpcap-0.7.1-1prism.i386.rpm RPM, as it might install
+ a libpcap shared library in place of the one on your system.
+
+ On other platforms, capturing raw 802.11 packets on Orinoco cards is
+ not currently supported.
+
+ Other 802.11 interfaces:
+
+ With other 802.11 interfaces, no platform allows Ethereal to capture
+ raw 802.11 packets, as far as we know. If you know of other 802.11
+ interfaces that are supported (note that there are many "Prism II
+ cards", so your card might be a Prism II card), please let us know,
+ and include URLs for sites containing any necessary patches to add
+ this support.
+
+ On platforms that don't allow Ethereal to capture raw 802.11 packets,
+ the 802.11 network will appear like an Ethernet to Ethereal.
+
+ Q 5.31: How can I capture packets with CRC errors?
+
+ A: Ethereal can capture only the packets that the packet capture
+ library - libpcap on UNIX-flavored OSes, and the WinPcap port to
+ Windows of libpcap on Windows - can capture, and libpcap/WinPcap can
+ capture only the packets that the OS's raw packet capture mechanism
+ (or the WinPcap driver, and the underlying OS networking code and
+ network interface drivers, on Windows) will allow it to capture.
+
+ Unless the OS can be configured to supply packets with errors such as
+ invalid CRCs to the raw packet capture mechanism, Ethereal - and other
+ programs that capture raw packets, such as tcpdump - cannot capture
+ those packets. You will have to determine whether your OS can be so
+ configured, configure it if possible, and make whatever changes to
+ libpcap and the packet capture program you're using are necessary to
+ support capturing those packets.
+
+ Q 5.32: How can I capture entire frames, including the FCS?
+
+ A: Ethereal can't capture any data that the packet capture library -
+ libpcap on UNIX-flavored OSes, and the WinPcap port to Windows of
+ libpcap on Windows - can capture, and libpcap/WinPcap can capture only
+ the data that the OS's raw packet capture mechanism (or the WinPcap
+ driver, and the underlying OS networking code and network interface
+ drivers, on Windows) will allow it to capture.
+
+ For any particular link-layer network type, unless the OS supplies the
+ FCS of a frame as part of the frame, or can be configured to supply
+ the FCS of a frame as part of the frame, Ethereal - and other programs
+ that capture raw packets, such as tcpdump - cannot capture the FCS of
+ a frame. You will have to determine whether your OS can be so
+ configured, configure it if possible, and make whatever changes to
+ libpcap and the packet capture program you're using are necessary to
+ support capturing the FCS of a frame. Most if not all OSes probably do
+ not support capturing the FCS of a frame on Ethernet, and probably do
+ not support it on most other link-layer types.
+
+ Q 5.33: Ethereal hangs after I stop a capture.
+
+ A: The most likely reason for this is that Ethereal is trying to look
+ up an IP address in the capture to convert it to a name (so that, for
+ example, it can display the name in the source address or destination
+ address columns), and that lookup process is taking a very long time.
+
+ Ethereal calls a routine in the OS of the machine on which it's
+ running to convert of IP addresses to the corresponding names. That
+ routine probably does one or more of:
+ * a search of a system file listing IP addresses and names;
+ * a lookup using DNS;
+ * on UNIX systems, a lookup using NIS;
+ * on Windows systems, a NetBIOS-over-TCP query.
+
+ If a DNS server that's used in an address lookup is not responding,
+ the lookup will fail, but will only fail after a timeout while the
+ system routine waits for a reply.
+
+ In addition, on Windows systems, if the DNS lookup of the address
+ fails, either because the server isn't responding or because there are
+ no records in the DNS that could be used to map the address to a name,
+ a NetBIOS-over-TCP query will be made. That query involves sending a
+ message to the NetBIOS-over-TCP name service on that machine, asking
+ for the name and other information about the machine. If the machine
+ isn't running software that responds to those queries - for example,
+ many non-Windows machines wouldn't be running that software - the
+ lookup will only fail after a timeout. Those timeouts can cause the
+ lookup to take a long time.
+
+ If you disable network address-to-name translation - for example, by
+ turning off the "Enable network name resolution" option in the "Name
+ resolution" options in the dialog box you get by selecting
+ "Preferences" from the "Edit" menu - the lookups of the address won't
+ be done, which may speed up the process of reading the capture file
+ after the capture is stopped. You can make that setting the default by
+ using the "Save" button in that dialog box; note that this will save
+ all your current preference settings.
+
+ If Ethereal hangs when reading a capture even with network name
+ resolution turned off, there might, for example, be a bug in one of
+ Ethereal's dissectors for a protocol causing it to loop infinitely.
+ The bug should be reported to the Ethereal developers' mailing list at
+ ethereal-dev@ethereal.com.
+
+ On UNIX-flavored OSes, please try to force Ethereal to dump core, by
+ sending it a SIGABRT signal (usually signal 6) with the kill command,
+ and then get a stack trace if you have a debugger installed. A stack
+ trace can be obtained by using your debugger (gdb in this example),
+ the Ethereal binary, and the resulting core file. Here's an example of
+ how to use the gdb command backtrace to do so.
+ $ gdb ethereal core
+ (gdb) backtrace
+ ..... prints the stack trace
+ (gdb) quit
+ $
+
+ The core dump file may be named "ethereal.core" rather than "core" on
+ some platforms (e.g., BSD systems)
+
+ Also, if at all possible, please send a copy of the capture file that
+ caused the problem; when capturing packets, Ethereal normally writes
+ captured packets to a temporary file, which will probably be in /tmp
+ or /var/tmp on UNIX-flavored OSes and \TEMP on Windows, so the capture
+ file will probably be there. It will have a name beginning with ether,
+ with some mixture of letters and numbers after that. Please don't send
+ a trace file greater than 1 MB when compressed. If the trace file
+ contains sensitive information (e.g., passwords), then please do not
+ send it.
+
+ Q 5.34: How can I search for, or filter, packets that have a
+ particular string anywhere in them?
+
+ A: If you want to do this when capturing, you can't. That's a feature
+ that would be hard to implement in capture filters without changes to
+ the capture filter code, which, on many platforms, is in the OS kernel
+ and, on other platforms, is in the libpcap library.
+
+ In releases prior to 0.9.14, you also can't search for, or filter,
+ packets containing a particular string even after you've captured
+ them.
+
+ In 0.9.14, you can search for, but not filter, packets that have a
+ particular string; this has been added to the "Find Frame" dialog
+ ("Find Frame" under the "Edit" menu, or control-F).
+
+
+ Support can be found on the ethereal-users[AT]ethereal.com mailing
+ list.
+ For corrections/additions/suggestions for this page, please send email
+ to: ethereal-web[AT]ethereal.com
+ Last modified: Tue, August 19 2003.