Ethereal

Ethereal is already quite well-known in the Linux community. I just found out that there is also a Ethereal version for Windows.

So, what is Ethereal?

Ethereal is a GUI network packet analyzer. It captures packets from network interface and displays the protocol information inside packets so that the end users can read and understand.

As stated in Ethereal office web site (http://www.ethereal.com) , here are some examples people use Ethereal for:

- network administrators use it to troubleshoot network problems

- network security engineers use it to examine security problems

- developers use it to debug protocol implementations

- people use it to learn network protocol internals

For me, I belong to group four in the above categories. I use Ethereal for fooling around and seeking funs in the Internet world.

Try not to be happy too soon. Great software requires great skills. Ethereal is very difficult to learn and to use. One needs to have a good understanding and practical experience on TCP/IP before he can manage this gigantic software.