[PCTECH] Ethereal -- network protocol analyzer

[David Gibbs <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Folks:

Joe Pluta was recently looking for a ethernet protocol analyzer ... I 
had heard about Ethereal, which was an open source product for analyzing 
network traffic.

I just downloaded the latest version of this and am very impressed ... 
It's got some very advanced features that I really don't understand 
(although I'm sure a network tech would) ... but it does have something 
that I think would be of use to just about anyone who is trying to work 
with TCP/IP programming (on or off the iSeries).  It's a feature that 
lets you choose a packet and the FOLLOW the stream completely.

So, if you've ever wanted to figure out exactly what information is 
being exchanged between a client and server, this is a very useful tool.

Being open source, you can't beat the price ... and you know it's 
constantly being updated.

More information can be found at http://www.ethereal.com

It's available for various *nix flavors and Windows (Windows version 
requires the installation of a packet capture library ... WinPCap ... 
also open source).

This software has just become a standard part of my toolbox.

david



--
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you 
and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have 
an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

- George Bernard Shaw