Packetyzer FAQs

So is the name Packetyzer or Packetizer?
Packetyzer is a contraction of Packet Analyzer, so it is Packetyzer.

Can Packetyzer capture 802.11 packets?
Packetyzer can only capture 802.11 packets directly when using a WSP100, Neutrino or WildPackets RFGrabber. However, Packetyzer can open and manipulate 802.11 captures made with other programs.

The only thing I see in the adapter list is a colon ":".
You need to restart Windows after installing winpcap.

I have loaded an 802.11 trace or captured 802.11 traffic, but I don't see any management frames.
Have a look at the WLAN Options tab of the Options dialog box. It is likely that Stumbling Mode is enabled.

How do I compile ethereal.dll?
You will need to already be able to compile ethereal.exe according to the Ethereal instructions for compiling under Windows.

1. Download the DLL patch and source.
2. Unzip this file into your Ethereal source directory.
3. Apply the make.patch file to the standard Ethereal makefile.
4. Build the DLL by typing nmake -f makefile.nmake ethereal.dll at the command prompt.
5. Copy the resulting ethereal.dll file to your Packetyzer directory.

Can Packetyzer decode H.323 packets?
Yes, with the help of the Voice2Sniff plugin. Download the plugin and copy it to the plugin directory where you installed Packetyzer. Note that the version of the plugin must match the version of the Ethereal DLL which is being used. You can determine the version by the name of the subdirectory under the plugins directory. e.g., currently all plugins are installed in the plugins/0.9.7 directory and correspond to version 0.9.7 of the Ethereal DLL.

I select the adapter in the Capture Options dialog box, but each time I exit Packetyzer it forgets my setting.
Since Packetyzer is designed to work with multiple adapters simultaneously, the adapter selection for a capture session is specific to that window. i.e. setting the adapter in the Capture Options dialog box will only affect that capture window. When a new capture window is created it will read the setting from the Global Options. If you usually work with only one adapter you can make it your default choice by using the Global Options. The Adapter dialog box is another way to get directly to the default adapter setting.

Packetyzer doesn't work on my dual-processor machine, or my new Xeon based machine. What is the problem?
The winpcap capture driver that Packetyzer uses does not support multi-processor or multi-threaded machines. See the winpcap FAQ for more information.

How do I compile Packetyzer from the source code?
These instructions apply to Packetyzer 0.6.1.

1. You will need Borland C++Builder 6. I use the professional edition, but the standard may be sufficient.
2. Download and install the Virtual Treeview component from http://www.delphi-gems.com/VirtualTreeview/. Version 3.5.1 for C++Builder is recommended. You need to follow the instructions in the readme file to the letter, the install process is quite involved.
3. Download and unzip the Packetyzer source code.
4. Install the HexDumpGrid.cpp file as a component into C++Builder.
5. You will need an Ethereal source installation that can build the Ethereal DLL. Have a look at the question above about building the DLL.
6. The makelib.bat file shows how to copy the relevant files from the Ethereal build directory to the Packetyzer build directory. You may need to modify it to suit the directories that you have used. Run this batch file after any changes are made to Ethereal.
7. Open the .bpr file in C++Builder and build all. You will probably need to play around with the include and library paths to make everything match your setup.
8. You may get a compile error in VirtualTrees.hpp in the TVTDragManager class. I don't know how to fix this properly, but simply commenting out the lines with the errors seems to work.

How do I use Packetyzer with SNMP?
Since version 0.6.4 Packetyzer has included the capability to display names along with OIDs in the decode view. To allow SNMP packets conforming to an unsupported MIB to be decoded, copy the MIB, and any dependent MIBs, to the snmp/mibs directory where Packetyzer was installed. You will need to restart Packetyzer before it will recognize the new MIBs.

When I run Packetyzer I get the message "Abnormal Program Termination" and it exits immediately?
This can be caused by a conflict with the Sniffer Pro capture driver. Try removing the Sniffer capture driver.