Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] Win32 only: very detailed NDIS network driver information ava
Loris Degioanni wrote:
> Probably more, but be careful: most of them are optional, and almost
> no boards implement them.
Yes, I've noticed that too. I check every return value and will show
simply '-' if that specific function failed, so this shouldn't be a
problem. Trying to show all the values is the best I can do on this. I
hope no NDIS driver will just crash when simply asking the "correct
question", but you'll never know ...
> Moreover, a lot of them are very techincal (winpcap just opens a
> connection to NdisRequest, which is used by protocol or intermediate
> drivers to query NIC drivers) and are of few interest to user level
> users.
Well, I would guess that Ethereal users are usual technical staff...
So some will be interested in that info while others may not. E.g. I was
asked several times if it's possible to show the Ethernet FCS failures
somehow.
The information about the WLAN BSSID list (showing the available remote
stations) *is* probably very useful even for the normal user.
> If you apply these restrictions, you start to fit a lot better inside
> pcap_if.
Don't understand you here?!?
>> Please prove me wrong, and I'll be happy to add additional libpcap info
>> to the Ethereal GUI ...
>
> I don't think it's a matter of proving anything. I'm very Windows
> oriented, probably even more than you, but I just gave my 2 cents
> about how I'd like the thing to look.
And I 100% agree with you, but have to face the facts ... ;-)
> Said that, I'm very happy about any addition to Ethereal you want to
> make, especially because I added this precise feature to Analyzer 6
> years ago.
Hmmm, we might sit down and have a beer together someday ...
> just be careful to check the version of packet.dll you use, and to
> inform the users *very clearly* about the winpcap version they'll have
> to install, because your code will not be compatible with past versions.
Do you have detailed information in which version the functions:
PacketOpenAdapter, PacketCloseAdapter and PacketRequest *are* available
in it's current form (e.g. parameters unchanged)? As far as I see it, at
least all current 3.x versions should work. What about the 2.x versions?
> If you don't do that, the users will see "random" crashes in
> packet.dll, and they will almost surely complain with me and the other
> winpcap developers...
I currently don't do that check and have to add it somehow. You guys are
doing a great job and I don't want to give you work I have to do ;-)
If you would like to see the results, you could download the current
buildbot build from:
http://www.ethereal.com/distribution/buildbot-builds/, revisions since
SVN 14408 includes the new feature.
One question I would like to ask you: Do you have knowledge how the
accuracy of the values returned is? I do understand that this will be
very driver specific, but what are your experiences? I'm especially
asking about the network error return values like the FCS counter and
alike. Can you usually trust it or do most drivers return simply 0 (or
other bogus values) each and every time?
Regards, ULFL
P.S: Do you know if there is an estimation of the WinPcap 3.1 release date?
