Welcome to TokenPeek! This easy-to-use Token Ring analysis software allows a network manager to:
• Capture every frame on the Token Ring wire for 15 seconds
• Decode packets
• Filter packets by address, protocol or specific byte pattern
• Monitor and analyze network traffic patterns
• Send packets for testing purposes
• Set traffic alarms and send an electronic page
WHAT YOU NEED TO RUN THIS DEMO
Hardware Requirements:
TokenPeek will run on any Macintosh for which a supported Token Ring adapter is available. At this release, supported adapters are available for the following:
All members of the Macintosh Quadra Family
All members of the Macintosh II family
Macintosh Performa 600 and 800
Macintosh LC family
Token Ring Adapter Cards Supported by this Demo Version:
DCA/Avatar (Tri-Data) Lanway TR card
DCA MacIRMAtrac card
Software Requirements:
System 6.0.5 or greater and AppleTalk version 54 or greater.
Any System 7 revision
ABOUT THIS DEMO VERSION
This demonstration software is intended to provide you with a complete and thorough overview of all of the features and functionality included in TokenPeek 2.0.3. The only use restrictions in this demo are:
1. All features which create and send packets are disabled
2. The user is limited to one capture period for a maximum of15 seconds per TokenPeek launch (unlimited number of launches possible).
HOW TO INSTALL TOKENPEEK
Installation is very easy. Just create a TokenPeek folder on your hard disk and copy the entire contents of the demo diskette to the folder.
HOW TO RUN TOKENPEEK
Double-click on the TokenPeek™ Demo application. Select the Token Ring adapter for TokenPeek to use and be sure to select the proper speed for your network (4MB or 16MB) using the radio buttons in the upper right corner of the select adapter window. In order to capture packets on your Token Ring network, TokenPeek must take control of your Token Ring adapter, so you may want to quit any other network programs you have running prior to starting up TokenPeek.
Please refer to the "QuickTour" booklet which accompanies this demonstration software for specific examples and product feature exercises. This document gives a short summary of some of TokenPeek’s powerful new features in the form of a short tutorial.
New FEATURES OF TOKENPEEK v. 2.0.3 (AND HOW TO USE THEM)
• Create Name Table Entries More Easily
One of the powerful features of TokenPeek is the ability to replace confusing addresses with user names. You can create entries in the Name Table from any of the node or protocol statistics windows or by using packets selected in the Main Window. Simply click on the items of interest and choose "Insert Into Name Table..." from the Special menu. TokenPeek will only prompt you for the names of any items which are NOT already in the Name Table.
If you would like to exercise this feature, simply follow these steps:
1. Capture some packets in the Main Window by selecting the Start Capture button or load packets from the samples included on this demo. To load sample packets, select "Load Packets" under the File menu, double-click TokenPeek Samples and then double-click one or more of the sample packet files provided.
2. Once packets are displayed in the Main Window, highlight one of them by clicking once on a packet line.
3. Select "Insert Into Name Table" in the "Special" menu. The Name Table Entry window will appear.
4. Type in the node name in the Name box.
5. If you have a color monitor, select a color for this station, then click OK or Add Another if you wish to enter another address and name.
6. When finished, click OK, choose "Name Entry" in the display Options menu and the node will appear by the name and color you've specified in all displays and graphs throughout the program.
-OR-
Start capture and open the "Dual" stats window under the Statistics menu. Once the bar graph is displayed, open the Special menu and follow steps 2 through 6 above.
• New Filters in TokenPeek v. 2.0.3
TokenPeek’s filtering mechanism has been greatly enhanced. Choose "Filters..." from the "Capture" menu. Then, double click on one of the filter names shown in the window, or add a filter by choosing Add or Duplicate from the Filter menu. TokenPeek can have an unlimited number of filters, each of which has an address, protocol, offset and error section. For a packet to “pass” the filter and be captured, it must pass each enabled section of the filter, i. e., it is AND’d with any other enabled sections. A packet must pass only one of multiple, enabled (checked) filters to be captured ( i. e., multiple filters which are enabled are OR’d together). The filter mechanism is identical when used during capture or post-capture analysis, or for start and stop triggering, although each of these cases has its own independent enabling mechanism.
• Support for More Protocol and Address Types
The Name Table and the filters in TokenPeek now fully support DECnet addressing..
• Pre-Configured Names & Filters
The “TP Names & Filters” folder which is on the distribution disk contains many pre-configured filters broken into protocol categories: AppleTalk, DECnet, IP, NetWare, SNA and Other. When filters are loaded, they are stored in the TokenPeek Preferences file in the System Folder. These folders also contain Name Table text files which can be imported into the Name Table in TokenPeek to take advantage of some pre-configured known names for the protocols and addresses of interest.
• New Filter Statistics Window
This latest release of TokenPeek includes a Filter Statistics window, which allows you to view the number of packets captured through enabled capture filters during or after capture. To exercise the power of TokenPeek's filtering mechanism and experience the usefulness of the new Filter Statistics window, try the following:
1. Bring up the Filters Window and enable a few filters that will capture packets on your network.
2. Click on the Start Capture button. If you resize TokenPeek‘s Main Window to be wider, a column is displayed on the right which shows which filter each packet passed in order to be captured.
3. Choose Filter statistics from the Statistics menu. The number of packets captured by each filter is shown in a bar graph.
To generate the most useful filter statistics, you may want to control the order that filters are applied to packets. For example, you may wish to filter first for NBP Reply packets and then for other NBP packets. If the NBP filter is applied first, then the NBP Reply filter will never be used since NBP packets will always pass via the NBP filter applied first. However, if the NBP Reply filter is applied first instead, the NBP filter will indicate all NBP packets which are not an NBP Reply. Initially, filters are applied in the order that they are enabled (checked). However, whenever the filters are sorted or the program exits and then is re-launched, the filters are thereafter applied in the order that they appear in the filter window (if they are enabled). For this reason, once you have an ordering of the filters that you like, you may want to sort the window by the order that the filters were enabled or by the depth of filtering in the packet. Both of these sorting options are provided by the Sort item under the Filter menu.
• New Analysis Features
All of the statistics are recomputed when you use post-capture filtering (Select) and the "Swap Selected" and "Hide" options under the Edit menu. Once packets are selected in the Main Window, as a shortcut you may hold down the option key while pulling down the Edit menu and the "Hide Selected Packets" item becomes "Hide Unselected Packets".
• Create New Filters More Quickly
There are also several shortcuts for creating filters. You can select one or more packets in the Main Window and then choose the "Make Filter..." item from the "Special" menu. A filter is created for each selected packet with the address and protocol fields pre-configured based upon the corresponding fields in the selected packets. You can also create a filter based upon a node or protocol in a statistics window and (optionally) another node or protocol in the statistics details windows. Click on the node or protocol in the statistics window and then click on the Show Details button. Click on additional nodes and/or protocols in the detail window. Then choose the Make Filter... item from the Special menu. A filter is created with the relevant corresponding information. In all cases, the filter is presented so that you may edit the fields over and above the pre-configured information. You may also Cancel and NOT add the filter if you change your mind.
• Quick Select of Related Packets
In some cases, you may not need to create a filter to see packets involved in a network conversation. In each of the situations described in the section above about creating filters more quickly, you may choose the Select Related Packets item from the Special menu instead of Make Filter... as described. This will cause TokenPeek to create a temporary filter and then select packets using it, all in one step!
• Smart Decoders & Threads
In decoding packets, some protocols can reveal more information in their decode if a “thread” is formed between the request packet and the response packet of a transaction. Among all the protocols that TokenPeek decodes, this improvement is only necessary within NetWare, the IP protocol NFS and within the AppleTalk protocols PAP, ASP and AFP. Other protocols decoded by TokenPeek do not require (nor could they benefit from) “threads” per se. TokenPeek automatically forms threads and makes use of them as you step through the decoding of successive packets. However, if you select one packet in the Main Window and then choose the Make Threads item from the Special menu, TokenPeek will try to find any corresponding request and response packet related to the selected packet in order to subsequently decode the selected packet with more information. If two or more packets are selected in the Main Window when the Make Threads item is chosen, TokenPeek will only look among the selected packets for the request and response pairs. Stated another way, if you use post-capture filters (Select) or Select Related Packets to select packets in the Main Window and then look at those packets in order, there is really no need to use the Make Threads command. However, if you select a packet at random or select multiple packets in a conversation that you wish to view in reverse or random order, Make Threads may help you get more decoded information out of those packets.
• Use Wildcards to Help Investigate
Another new feature of TokenPeek is the introduction of wild cards in address and protocol specifications. This powerful feature can be used to find generalized protocol types (e. g., all forms of DECnet) and also as an aid to investigate unknown addresses using the established vendor IDs which are defined for Token Ring interfaces. A Name Table containing the vendor IDs is contained in the “Other” folder contained in the “TP Names & Filters” folder.
• Additional Demo Notes
Since capture time is limited to 15 seconds in this demo, sample data is also provided, should you wish to use it. Choose "Load Packets" under the File menu when TokenPeek's Main Window is the frontmost window on the screen to select any of the sample files in the TokenPeek Samples folder.
Thank you for reviewing TokenPeek!
The AG Group provides powerful, low-cost, user-friendly tools which help keep networks running at peak performance. Our products currently include:
EtherPeek™ and LocalPeek™ - similar to TokenPeek in that they capture and analyze data packets and protocols. Lets users view and diagnose all Ethernet (EtherPeek) or LocalTalk (LocalPeek) network activity.
Net Watchman™ - a network polling program that dynamically monitors network nodes, zones and services, alerts the net manager via audible alarms, message windows and paging of changes in these services (e.g., a server going down) and then logs network activity for later analysis. As Net Watchman currently uses high level AppleTalk protocols, it will work with any physical medium which support these, including LocalTalk, Ethernet and Token Ring.
NetPatrol™ Pack - network management bundles currently consisting of combinations of TokenPeek, EtherPeek, LocalPeek and Net Watchman.
Silver Cloud™ - Hierarchical "Chooser" for AppleTalk networks. Silver Cloud replaces the Mac Chooser and allows network managers to centrally configure end users' "view" of the network. Borrowing from the Finder, Silver Cloud includes the folder metaphor for hierarchical structures and the convenience of zone and device aliasing.
We have also announced a new product:
Skyline™ (available Q1/94) - Historical traffic archiving and analysis software for Ethernet, Token Ring and LocalTalk-based networksthat continually captures and records utilization in real time and alerts you when user-specified events occur.
