[Guy Harris <gharris@xxxxxxxxx>]

Silverstein, Jeffrey wrote:
> Hi, I'm testing out Ethereal on Windows XP by connecting 2 machines with 
> a crossover cable.  I have installed Ethereal on both machines.   When I 
> look at the list of interfaces in the "Interface:" field in the dialog 
> box popped up by "Capture->Start", all I can see is the local 
> interface.  When I try to capture the other interface by entering the IP 
> or the MAC address, Ethereal gives me an error.

WinPcap doesn't capture on IP or MAC addresses, it captures on network 
devices plugged into the machine on which you're running; Ethereal uses 
WinPcap to do capturing on Windows.  You can't specify an IP or MAC 
address in the "Interface:" field, you have to specify a name for an 
interface on your machine; you're getting an error because what you're 
entering isn't the name of an interface on your machine.

A network interface on some *other* machine won't show up, *regardless* 
of whether that interface happens to be plugged into the same LAN 
segment as an interface on your machine (there's nothing magical about a 
crossover cable - as far as the hardware and the OS are concerned, 
that's no different from plugging the two interfaces into the same hub 
or switch), and the only way to capture on it would be to use a remote 
capture protocol, as per Ian Schorr's mail.