> An issue which is cropping up & will do more in the future
> is the need to analyse the encapsulated packet stream
> between a broadband modem (in our case Alcatel ADSL)
> & the client's router to determine causes of problems
>
> Can anyone advise re ethereal capability in this area or point
> me to any resources on the subject. Could not see any mention of
> this in the documentation online
What sort of Alcatel ADSL modem?
What sort of encapsulated packet stream? And in what is encapsulated?
Is this an Ethernet or an ATM-25 interface?
Alcatel home modems, when using the Ethernet interface, just send
un-encapsulated Ethernet packets, so presumably that's not what you're
referring to (especially given that you said "client's router", as that
sounds more like a business DSL system).
If it's Ethernet, then Ethereal does support PPPoE, if that's what's
being used.
If it's ATM-25, then
1) whether you can snoop traffic on your ATM-25 interface
depends on whether the raw packet capture mechanism on the
machine with the ATM-25 interface allows it, and whether
libpcap supports that;
2) Ethereal can handle "raw ATM" (as in "frames are, for
example, AAL5 PDUs), although we'd need to add a new DLT_
type to libpcap for "raw ATM". There's no PPPoA support,
however.