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This article was originally published in Linux Format magazine.

Gerald Combs: My first experience with a computer?

Thats what got me hooked.

They gave me this internet sniffer.

It was this gear that weighed quite a bit.

After that I took a job at a small ISP that couldnt afford a sniffer.

Suddenly I had this analyzer and released it to the public.

The project also just grew from there.

Loris Degioanni: My first computer was a Commodore 64 Im old as well!

The computer where I actually learned a lot of stuff and that made me a programmer was an Amiga.

I was 14 or 15, and I got a summer job as a bartender in Italy.

I got enough money saved to buy myself either a computer or a scooter.

Everybody in Italy at that time wanted a scooter, and all my friends were buying them.

I decided to buy the computer because I was so passionate about that, and thats where I startedprogramming.

So, thats what got me intooperating systemsand Linux.

Otherwise I could only runLinuxon the command line.

And there was active development, and being able to contribute was so powerful and fascinating for me.

As Gerald has mentioned, online grid analyzers were extremely expensive and were not really accessible.

And the other problem was that the labs at that point were running Windows.

That was the first serious software project I did.

While doing that, I also ported tcpdump to Windows.

I put all this stuff on the little server under the desk.

Wed never met in person, but we created two things that were complementary.

He created the user interface part and I created the capture engine for Windows.

Gerald Combs: As far as the actual internet sniffer goes, it was a product of its time.

They were called luggables and were suitcase sized.

Maybe they had a CRT.

So, that made it expensive and made it heavy, but it did the job at the time.

I just had a minimal awareness of the Windows world for however that worked.

This was quite radical at that point.

The tcpdump port for Windows was called Windump, so a different name.

It wasnt tcpdump for Windows, because the authors of tcpdump didnt want to tie their name to Windows.

In practice, this was quite game changing.

At this point, there was still a clear separation, not only technical, but philosophical and politically.

For a while, there was a internet analyzer created by Microsoft, that just wanted an alternative.

But after a while, our open source tool was just better, more widely embraced by the community.

So, it enables some workflows that not even Microsoft could enable on itsoperating system.

It showed a path that has been followed by other projects, other companies, including even Microsoft.

So, it wasnt orthodox, but it was cool and exciting to be part of something like that.

Linux Format: Youve almost answered our next question about developing the community around Wireshark.

I had to go build everything myself.

That really helped the project grow as well.

There was nosocial media, so even advertising your project was on newsgroups.

With development, at least at the beginning, my releases were ZIP files.

Linux Format: So, what were the other main issues you had to overcome?

I got in contact with Loris and asked if there was a way to solve this problem.

Linux Format: Youre coders you want to code, you dont want to worry about legalese.

So, we formed the project.

And in fact, you know, that proved to be successful.

And the name Wireshark is memorable.

Everybody who has done networks now knows Wireshark.

And it does this through a process called dissection.

It takes every field in each of the packets and breaks it down and shows you.

Whats the name, whats the value, what are we looking at here.

Loris Degioanni: Gerald and I are launching a new member of the Wireshark family.

Linux Format: This isnt expanding Wireshark or sitting beside it?

Gerald Combs: Its a sibling tool to Wireshark.

Its its own program that you’ve got the option to download.

We chose the latter because theres stuff that we wanted to make unique and optimised.

It could have been a bit overwhelming or confusing for users who had to switch between two operating modes.

Were applying the Wireshark philosophy, but creating a new tool.

The full spectrum of Linux applicability.