[comp.dcom.lans] workstation based FDDI monitor/analyzer

khasin@hub.toronto.edu (Kha Sin Teow) (04/23/91)

I'm curious as to whether an FDDI monitor/analyzer exists on a UNIX
workstation, something similar to "etherfind" on a Sun workstation.
I'm aware of a couple of specialized FDDI analyzer products but they are
in the order of 40K or up!
Any pointer is appreciated.

khasin@hub.toronto.edu

vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver) (04/25/91)

In article <1991Apr23.121637.25574@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>, khasin@hub.toronto.edu (Kha Sin Teow) writes:
> 
> I'm curious as to whether an FDDI monitor/analyzer exists on a UNIX
> workstation, something similar to "etherfind" on a Sun workstation.
> I'm aware of a couple of specialized FDDI analyzer products but they are
> in the order of 40K or up!


Doesn't etherfind run on a Sun with a Sun FDDI board?  I would expect it
to, as well as tcpdump or your other favorite alternative.  However, I've
never had an occassion or opportunity to try, because the snooping
facilities on the boxes on this side of the Mtn.View dump run on FDDI to
SLIP, as well as ether.  You can buy a workstation from Sun for far less
than $40K, and I bet also get an FDDI board.  I know you can buy such a
thing from Silicon Graphics, and you also get to run dogfight over the
fiber when you're not snooping on it.

For very low speed snooping, it should be possible to get an AMD Fastcard
or National equivalent for a PC clone, and to write your own snooping
code.  If your time is free, you should be able to get something usable
for not much more than $10K.

What you don't get with the workstation monitors I know about is symbol
level debugging.  I don't think anyone but FDDI developers need the ability
to capture strings of symbols, but many people disagree.


Vernon Schryver,   vjs@sgi.com