["Fardid, Reza" <RFardid@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you.
The process is clear to me now.

-----Original Message-----
From: James Fields [mailto:jvfields@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 2:28 AM
To: Fardid, Reza
Cc: ethereal-users@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Ethereal-users] File Sharing and Media Protocols


A good example of what Guy is talking about is the Citrix ICA protocol.
It's listed at IANA, and the ports it uses are well-documented.  However the
protocol itself is proprietary and Citrix will not release enough
information to decode it.  I have figured out how to read the browse
messages by staring at the packets, but until Citrix publicly documents the
scheme I will never know for sure :-)

In short, don't assume that having a port number "registered" means there is
a public record about what goes in the packets generated by any specific
application.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Guy Harris" <guy@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Fardid, Reza" <RFardid@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <ethereal-users@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2003 8:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Ethereal-users] File Sharing and Media Protocols


> On Mon, Feb 24, 2003 at 05:44:30PM -0800, Fardid, Reza wrote:
> > Pardon me for asking, but what or who constitutes "a fully
> > and publicly documented protocol" ?
>
> A protocol where you can get documentation on what the packets look like
> without having to sign a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent one
> from making publicly available software that dissects those packets.
>
> > What I know is that is can be sniffed,
>
> *ANY* protocol "can be sniffed" if, for example, it runs on Ethernet.
> That's hardly sufficient to make it possible to write a dissector for
> it; that just means you can read the raw bytes of the packet into a
> sniffer; it doesn't mean the sniffer will be able to dissect the packet
> and show you what the fields in the packet are.
>
> > and IANA recognizes it.
>
> "Recognizes" it in the sense that they have, for example, assigned a
> port number to it?
>
> If so, that's also insufficient to make it possible to write a dissector
> for it.  That just means somebody's filled out this form:
>
> http://www.iana.org/cgi-bin/usr-port-number.pl
>
> and gotten a port number back for the IANA; having gotten that, they can
> use that port number for a proprietary protocol and not publish
> information on how it works.
>
> > I am trying to find out what I need to contribute, if I am
> > neither the protocol developer, nor affiliated with the
organization/entity
> > that has developed the protocol ?
>
> You need to contribute either
>
> 1) a protocol spec for the protocol
>
> or
>
> 2) information about how to get a protocol spec for the
>    protocol.
>
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