On Wed, Apr 10, 2002 at 04:52:08PM -0700, Chris Waters wrote:
> Is anyone working on, or considering, writing a dissector for
> Bluetooth?
I don't know of any, but perhaps there are people considering it.
> The biggest challenge for using Ethereal with BT will be
> getting the packets into the computer. I am curious if anyone has any
> ideas about how to do this.
Well, if you're only doing IP-over-Bluetooth - or other networking over
Bluetooth - there will probably be a network interface (of the sort
known to "ifconfig" on UNIX), and that network interface might support
the native packet capture mechanism (or, on Windows, NDIS+WinPcap) on at
least some OSes.
If there's a "standard" non-Bluetooth-specific link-layer protocol
running atop Bluetooth (PPP, Ethernet emulation, etc.), the packets
supplied to the packet capture mechanisms might be packets for that
link-layer protocol, in which case no changes to libpcap or programs
using it (such as tcpdump or Ethereal) would be needed.
If IP, and possibly other protocols, are running directly atop some
Bluetooth-specific protocol or protocols, the packets supplied to the
packet capture mechanisms might have headers for those protocols, in
which case you'd need a new DLT_ type for libpcap, and support for that
DLT_ type in tcpdump, Ethereal, etc.. (Ask tcpdump-workers@xxxxxxxxxxx
for DLT_ type values; don't just invent your own and start using them.
I will normally reply quickly to requests sent there.)
If, however, you want to see *all* the Bluetooth packets, even if no
conventional networking is being done - so that there's no network
interface on which to sniff - you might have to invent your own capture
file format and your own capture mechanism in the OS, and add code to
Ethereal to read that capture file.
