[Paul Wozney <paulwozney@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'd like to close this as well for now.  The problems I had here, were
ultimately related to the fact that I was using display filters - I
had some problems getting capture filters to work so I tried to kludge
the problem.

Since then Guy has assisted and my capture filters work - and they're
MUCH more effective than the display filters.

> > It's not always the same length of time, nor is it after
> > the capture file is a certain size.  I notice that as tethereal runs
> > it eats ram constantly; does this not seem strange behavior as it is
> > writing it to a file?
> 
> No, because you're using a display filter, which requires that it dissect
> packets to build protocol trees.  Packet dissection is stateful, so the
> memory used will increase over time, although, unless reassembly is being
> done, it shouldn't increase quickly over time.


1) tethereal has a stable memory profile now

2) it's not crashing any more as I believe that was a function of
running out of system memory

Again, I really appreciate your help.

Paul