[Winpcap-users] Please help bringing a new big program to WinPCap/libpcap

Alexey Eremenko al4321 at gmail.com
Mon Feb 19 17:59:38 GMT 2007


Hi all !

Introduction:
There is a new program released last month under OSS license, called VirtualBox.

This is a very nice and promising VMware replacement. Full virtualizer
for x86. User-Friendly with GUI, Very Fast, Stable, capable of
Networking and Audio, with Guest VM integration, supporting both
Windows and Linux.

This is first chance for the OSS community to build a Free
high-quality replacement for the proprietary VMware.

I have even written an article about VirtualBox on openSUSE here:
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=WTNLU2VsT01rWTk1VEE9PQ

Link to VirtualBox. Home Page:
www.virtualbox.org

That was the good part of the story, now begins the problems.
==============================================

Unfortunately, we have a serious problem with Host Netwroking.
Currently we use TAP driver for Host Networking, but I think this is
very brain-dead design. Our current solution is so bad, that we need
to change the whole current networking model of VirtualBox.
I am pushing the move to WinPCap/libpcap as best solution for our Host
networking problem. I think this is the best approach for our current
problem, because  products such as Wireshark and Dynamips have proved
to be a total success (and part of this success is due to using Pcap
networking).

We need a networking solution that is:

-Easy to understand
-Cross Platform
-Easy to Use (with a GUI)
-Scalable
-Stable
-Fast
-Secure

Note, that those requirements are from final product, not from Pcap alone.
Actually, we have solved nearly all problems, at least theoretically,
except security.

This program is supposed to run with user-priviledges, while pcap
requires Admin/root-priviledges. I think this is a solvable problem,
just my knowledge of Pcap is not solid enough to point at best
solution. I need your help, pcap'ers !

There is a long discussion about it, but please participate in it,
help me prove to others that going pcap is better than staying with
TAP.

The discussion is on VBox bugzilla, so please help !
http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/18

Since this is a big project, such a collaboration will hopefully help
improve Pcap itself and bring many new users.

-Alexey Eremenko


More information about the Winpcap-users mailing list