> i just downloaded 8.20 and installed it. i gave it a small[200K] netapp packet
> trace to read and it sits there saying loading for minutes, shows info for some
> of the data and never finishes. i gave up. same results each time. my pc is
> nt4.0 sp6a 700mhz p3 with 256 MB of mem. is this normal?
There are two possibilities:
1) it's trying to do name resolution, which sucks even worse on
Windows than it does on UNIX, thanks to the way NetBIOS-over-TCP
reverse name lookups are done;
2) there's a bug in a protocol dissector that causes a loop in
the dissector.
Try starting up Ethereal *without* a packet trace, choose "Options" from
the "Display" menu, *disable* network name resolution, click "OK", and
then select "Preferences" from the "Edit" menu and click "Save". (Yes,
we know, you should be able to save from the display options menu, or
that option should really be in the Preferences window.)
Then try to read the capture. If it finishes, the problem was name
resolution suckage. If it doesn't finish, the problem may be a bug in a
protocol dissector; we'd need to see the trace file in order to find
where it is and fix it.
