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Figure 1.1. Ethereal captures packets and allows you to examine their content.
1.1.3. Live capture from many different network media
Despite its name, Ethereal can capture traffic from network media other than Ethernet. Which media
types are supported, depends on many things like the operating system you are using. An overview
of the supported media types can be found at: http://www.ethereal.com/media.html.
1.1.4. Import files from many other capture programs
Ethereal can open packets captured from a large number of other capture programs. For a list of in-
put formats see Section 5.2.2, “Input File Formats”.
1.1.5. Export files for many other capture programs
Ethereal can save packets captured in a large number of formats of other capture programs. For a list
of output formats see Section 5.3.2, “Output File Formats”.
1.1.6. Many protocol decoders
There are protocol decoders (or dissectors, as they are known in Ethereal) for a great many proto-
cols: see Appendix B, Protocols and Protocol Fields.
1.1.7. Open Source Software
Ethereal is an open source software project, and is released under the GNU General Public Licence
(GPL). You can freely use Ethereal on any number of computers you like, without worrying about
Introduction
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