["Bruce W. Apple MA, NCC" <bapple@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings Friends,

I am stumped.  I have win2k, NIC is 3com 3C3905tx, and a linksys BEFSR41 Version 2 4port router.  I run zone alarm pro, and Antivir. (I have disabled ZA, and AV programs temporarily  for testing purposes).

The only device that ethereal sees is my NIC, and there is no way to edit or enter another device (router or cable modem MAC for example).  Thus it appears that the router may be what is preventing Ethereal from capturing data.  My brother in law has the program loaded, and he and I walked thru his setup/config to make sure we didn't miss anything...i.e., to avoid cockpit errors (wrong button selected etc.)

I asked Gerald C, who referred me to the news letter.  He asked:

"What happens when you select Start->Capture and click the "OK" button?
The window you're describing is the "Capture Options" dialog, which lets
you configure settings for a capture.  Capturing doesn't actually start
until you click "OK"."

 

I Of Course clicked OK  I didn't expect capture to start by magic... (DUHHH   let's not start by insulting each other's intelligence please) to start capture.  The capture dialogue box opens, and all the values remain at zero.zero 0.0 Except for the number at the bottom, i.e. the elapsed time of data capture mode counts.  I let it run for 20 seconds.  There was no data captured and all values remained at zero.

 

I suspect that the problem is that the linksys router is preventing ethereal from "seeing any data".  I have been thru the manual several times (yup, I printed a 70 page document which was NO help to make sure I hadn't missed anything in the router config). 

My hope is that there is someone "out there" who has a system configuration like mine.  Linksys routers are common, even the Version 2 (much less convoluted than Version 3) incidentally, I updated the firmware for the router to 1.44z, which is the latest release from linksys/cisco, the z specifies the zone alarm version.  Ergo, I am reasonably confident that I have the proper firmware.  The NIC is a plain vanilla offering from 3com (3c3905Tx) again, a very common device that is configured to run at 10Mb FDX.

I would be most appreciative if someone could help me solve this.  I believe that ethereal is a quality piece of code, I've seen it work, which is why I wanted to run it in the first place.  I have been thru the FAQs ad nauseum (quite literally hours, yup, it takes that long to read all of it.) and the FAQs while are in general a good idea, none were pertinate to my particular situation.  There was very, very little on linksys routers in general, and nothing specific to the issues that are making me crazy trying to solve.

I have tried uninstalling, completely wiping all registry entries/keys and running a search to make sure I had a good clean re-install, with the same results.

I am not a quitter, but I am approaching the point where I am just about done with what has become tantamount to flogging a dead horse.  I don't recall having ever been so frustrated.

I should be eternally grateful to anyone who can offer their kind assistance, and am ready to do what ever makes sense to help resolve the no capture issue.  One closing note, I ran winpcap (uninstalled and reinstalled too).

It looks like ethereal "is happy" with winpcap from the standpoint that 1. same version as brother (his is the one that works sans router) and on the reinstall, I loaded winpcap second and sure enough, ethereal asked for it.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and offer what ever assistance you deem helpful. 

I am disabled and so am home pretty much 24/7 exclusive of Mondays and I don't have a problem with receiving phone calls.  (unlisted) ----> (321) 729-0487

Sincerely Yours,

Bruce Apple MA, NCC