[Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Feb 10, 2004, at 9:56 AM, Joe Walsh wrote:

> Do I understand correctly that ethereal cannot be use on Windows XP 
> with a
> PPPoE connection to the internet or am I missing something?

WinPcap 2.x doesn't really support capturing on PPP interfaces very 
well.

WinPcap 3.0 refuses to even *allow* you to capture on PPP interfaces.

WinPcap 3.1 beta can, at least on Windows NT 5.x, (you're using Windows 
NT 5.1, even though Microsoft's marketoons decided to call it "Windows 
XP"), capture on PPP devices using Microsoft's Network Monitor driver.

Ethereal, like WinDump and Analyzer and a number of other programs, 
uses libpcap/WinPcap to capture packets, and thus is subject to the 
limitations of libpcap (and the underlying OS mechanisms it uses) on 
UN*X and to the limitations of WinPcap on Windows.

> I have a
> machine with an Intel motherboard with onboard Intel Pro/100 network
> interface connected to my DSL modem.  When I set the capture interface 
> to
> "pro/100" I get an error message that basically says ethereal doesn't
> support capturing on PPP/WAN interfaces.
>
> Is there something I can do to overcome this limitation?

Try un-installing whatever version of WinPcap you have installed, and 
then installing Winpcap 3.1 beta:

	http://winpcap.polito.it/install/default.htm

Note that it's beta software, so it might have more bugs than the final 
3.1 release will.