Ethereal-users: Re: [Ethereal-users] Using Ethereal Windows version for monitoring IEEE 802.11b

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From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 11:57:32 -0800 (PST)
> To use Ethereal to monitor 802.11 frames requires (at this time) a Linux 
> system running a utility called "Prismdump",

Actually, I believe current Linux kernels allow you to place at least
some of the Cisco Aironet cards into monitor mode *and* capture on them
using libpcap; the current CVS, and 0.7 beta, versions of libpcap
include support for 802.11.  The current version of Ethereal, and the
current CVS and 3.7 beta versions of tcpdump, should, when linked with
the current CVS or 0.7 beta versions of libpcap, be able to capture on
those cards without needing prismdump.

In addition, Doug Ambrisko, as I remember, has FreeBSD patches to add
similar support for those Cisco cards, and stuff to allow some Cisco
utilities for Linux to run on FreeBSD, so it might be possible to
directly capture with 3.7-beta or current-CVS tcpdump, and current
Ethereal, on FreeBSD with those cards as well.

It might be nice to have drivers for other cards adopt this as well, so
that you don't need prismdump.