I hope this is the proper forum for a suggested feature request? If
not, perhaps I can at least get some comments on whether this is
considered a useful feature for more users before I post to the -dev
list.
In the ethereal GUI an active logging session has a smaller pop-up
window displaying the number of packets received and a "stop" button.
I would like to have another button (e.g. named "Mark") that enables
me to insert a fake marker packet into the log. This means that I can
trace a socket over time and mark periods of waiting for the server,
as opposed to normal periods of inactivity.
Example:
A database front-end is perceived as "hanging" at times by the end
users. It is not clear whether this is a client app problem or a
server response issue. A network trace shows large deltas at times,
but some of these are normal periods of network inactivity, others
are periods of waiting for a result set. It is not easy to filter
these as the application may have many connections open in parallel.
A solution could be to install Ethereal on a test client machine
together with the application and have a user work on this for a day
or two, pressing the "Mark" button when s/he feels there is a
problem. This log, compared with datetime stamps from app log and
server log, should show exactly what was going on in the problem
periods - even if there are several problems related to network
activity.