Ethereal-users: Re: [Ethereal-users] Dropped packets while Capturing to a File - How can I tell?

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From: Ulf Lamping <ulf.lamping@xxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 02:38:47 +0100
Feeny, Michael (TD&DS, Applications Infrastructure Svcs.) wrote:

Hi,

I am capturing with Ethereal (0.10.13) on a virtual Windows 2000 server, which is running atop VMWare, and Ethereal is experiencing packet drops. This is based on seeing �Drops: 522� at the bottom of capture screen, and from numerous �Previous Segment Lost� warnings within the packet list.

After reading the Ethereal Performance Wiki, I will try increasing the buffer size (it�s only 1MB now), and I�m hoping this will improve things. But my question involves recognizing packet drops in a capture file.

I almost always capture to files, and then analyze the files later. Had I not seen the �Drops: 522� at the bottom of the screen, I would not have realized packets were getting dropped. Is there any way, when looking at a capture file created by Ethereal, to know if packets were dropped? From the �Drops: 522� message, it seems that Ethereal recognizes drops when they occur. Does Ethereal indicate drops in the capture file??? (I looked, but I did not find such an indication.)

No, Ethereal don't indicate packet drops any further as the libpcap file format doesn't keep this information.

Regards, ULFL