Wireshark · Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Enable extcap by default or not

[Steve Karg <skarg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Roland,

For the BACnet mstpcap (RS485 serial packetizer, third party, open source), the users currently just drag-n-drop the mstpcap.exe file into the extcap folder, and it starts working as it should when Wireshark is launched. It only adds interfaces if the PC has serial ports detected/connected. Having it enabled by default avoids the hassle and support emails since it "just works", so that is what I prefer.

Best Regards,

Steve

On Fri, Sep 9, 2016 at 12:42 AM, Roland Knall <rknall@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello List

There is currently a discussion going on in https://code.wireshark.org/review/#/c/17498 in regard to enabling extcap features by default or not.

There are basically two sides to the argument:

Cons - extcap interfaces are advanced features, which will not be used by a majority of users. As more and more of those interfaces emerge, it clutters up the list. Therefore disabling them by default and enabling them when needed is ok. 

Pros - There are users out there, who use Wireshark solely together with extcap interfaces. Lots of those users are not very familiar with Wireshark in general. extcap was intended to bring capture device support to Wireshark where otherwise it would not be present or very complicated to do so. For those users to enable the support before using it seems like an unnecessary hassle.

I just wanted to get the meaning of the list, on how we should proceed here, and if three are other arguments for or against enabling extcap by default.

To clarify, I am a Pro guy as I fear 3rd party users will not understand this and this will lead to support cases which will generate the opinion "Wireshark is overly complicated, let's use something else".

regards

Roland

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