The Branch Gateway packet sniffing service enables you to analyze packets that pass through the Branch Gateway’s interfaces. Packets are captured to a buffer based on the criteria that you specify. You can use the Ethereal or Wireshark analysis tool to upload and analyze the buffer.
The packet sniffing service on the Branch Gateway offers several advantages to the network administrator. The capture file is saved in the libpcap format, which is the industry standard. To read the file, use Tetheral or Tshark software of S8300 and standard versions of Ethereal or Wireshark for Unix, Windows, and Linux (see http://www.wireshark.org).
Note:
Ethereal or Wireshark is an open-source application.
In addition, the Branch Gateway’s packet sniffing service can capture non-Ethernet packets, such as frame-relay and PPP. Non-Ethernet packets are wrapped in a dummy Ethernet header to enable them to view in a libpcap format. Thus, the Branch Gateway enables you to analyze packets on all the device interfaces.
The Branch Gateway’s packet sniffing service gives you full control over the memory usage of the sniffer. You can set a maximum limit for the capture buffer size, configure a circular buffer so that older information is overwritten when the buffer fills up, and specify a maximum number of bytes to capture for each packet.
