Hello to the 'Linux' World!

The Most Beautiful and Best OS IN the World!

My question is...

What are the uses for 'ethereal?' How can I benefit from it?

Plain and simple! Thanks!

why would you ask about an application that you don't know the purpose of?

ethereal is an etheral packet sniffer. it records data off the wire for analysis and interpretation. it lets you extract minute details of network traffic to see what's actually happening on your network.

You answered your own question.

Thats EXACTLY why I asked! Because I DONT know its purpose.

I thought that, if it could benefit me in some way that I would install it.

So what you are describing is; if I am connected to a 'network', and I am the 'Admin.' then by using 'Ethereal' I can discover what others on the 'NetWork' are doing?

Thanks For the info!

You don't need to be network admin, just admin on your box. And it will only let you see whats going on in your own network (I forget whether it's a switch or a router that stops those packets, I'd like to say switch).

Chances are if you don't know what a program is/does you probably won't benifit from knowing what it does. If I have a need for a certain type of program then I'll go and find programs that do what I want. But if you're curious then I'd say it wouldn't hurt to ask questions. The only thing I can say about packet sniffers is to be carefull, if you own the network chances are the person who does won't want you using that type of program (you can use PS for bad purposes if you wanted).

LOL! I DO OWN the 'NetWork!' "Bad Purposes?" Not ME!

As For "Owning." My 'NetWork' is a 'HomeNetWork.' I'm interested in knowing what My son is doing on the 'Web' when we are absent!

Am I in the right 'BallPark'?

OH, and I use a 'Router' if that helps!

It depends. Packet sniffing seems to be a roundabout way of monitoring web activity. Usually, packet sniffers are used

1. To debug network problems
2. To do bad stuff (on a network that you don't `own')

If you already `own' the network, and you know everything is working correctly, there are much better ways to monitor web activity. For example, you can locally install a utility (on your son's computer) that monitors web sites attempted to be viewed. You might create some netfilter rules either on his computer or some other computer between him and the internet (i.e., router). You might create a transparent proxy, which, in addition to logging activity, can also make pages load faster (if you enable caching).

As for whether or not sniffing works on your router, it depends. Most routers have built-in switches, but some have built-in hubs instead. Switches can do arp routing, and don't let computers listen to traffic which should not concern them. There are a few ways to trick switches (i.e., arp spoofing), but that's kind of complicated. A hub is a very simple device that connects everything to everything else. Common wires are shared throughout the network (much like in-home telephone wiring). If your router has a built-in switch (instead of a hub), you can always buy one or build your own (when you're building yourself, make sure to invert the order of the wires from the ethernet jacks. otherwise, you'll be needing a lot of cross-over cables).

i see that over use of quotation marks is your chosen "thing" huh? it's not 'NetWork', it's just network....

and a router has nothign to do with any of this.

/me is off to find a million programs he's never heard of before for fun.

HA HA! 'Thanks' 'Buddy'! 'You' 'Have' 'been' 'A' 'Great' 'Help!'

Thank You 'Osor' You have been a big help!

I'm sorry I started this thread.

I just noticed that you're a Moderator. I thought that you were here to help those that are new to Linux.

I asked a very simple question. I wanted to know what a program was BEFORE I installed it, thats all.

Hence...

"LinuxQUESTIONS.org"

asking questions isn't a bad thing, but keep in mind that sites like this have finite amounts of bandwidth and resources, not to mention a finite number of users trying to help a seemingly infinite number of other users. the first stop for informational questions like yours (as opposed to an "operational" question, or someone having a specific problem) is probably your local search engine, not LQ. did you even do any research or reading on ethereal before you asked? if you had, you probably would have had a pretty good idea of what it was, and then you could have asked a specific question at that point if you needed to, like how you should implement it, is it the best tool for the job, etc. linux is about empowering you, and part of that deal means finding out as much as you can on your own.

You are Right, Thank You!

But I did Google it and really could not find anything helpful.

Thats why i posted here.

The search engine results were not answering my questions.

But Thank You again, SlackHack! For a Polite and Clear reply.

Not sure how you could google it and not find anything.. the first hit is the ethereal website.. a brief overview at the top of the page states that ethereat is for network protocol analysis.. http://www.ethereal.com/

For monitoring your sons activities on the web you would be better off looking at setting up a web proxy like squid, or something similar. lots of security apps out there that will do logging and monitoring of web activities.

smoothwall - Linux firwall with some URL logging capabilities
dansguardian (web content filtering .. set it for logging instead of blockiong.. )
clark connect - linux gateway, does content filtering and much more..

that would be more along the lines of things you might want to look at for your purposes..

a better initial question might have been. I want to be able to monitor where my son is going on the internet, what are some software options that would allow me to do this ?

but hey, hindsight always is 20/20 isn't it?

Thanks Farslayer!

yes I read the google link of ethereal. I guess I was just looking at the wrong program!

Thanks Again!