> But Roger - that's exactly what a sniffer is for!
> 
> Many useful tools exist and are fully developed to provide 
> comprehensive
> details to aid in debugging of TCP socket connections. There 
> are tools for
> windows as well as *nix os's, and all of them have more 
> function than one
> could ever hope to shoe-horn into an application.

True -- but they are confusing overkill when what you're trying to see is
what conversation a client and a server are having at upper levels of the IP
stack.

> They don't require access to the networks you are connecting 
> to, and can
> even be inserted (without program modifications) through use 
> of firewall
> redirection rules... All without bulking up the application 
> for normal use.

Those may be lots of other things, but they are not sniffers.

A sniffer is a system that can be put on a network segment in promiscuous
mode to analyze traffic from other nodes.

In-system low-level protocol analyzers such as those you name are not
sniffers.  (Isn't "Sniffer" a trademark?)

> Not a list topic though - you'd probably want to read up on your os's
> firewall redirection and transparent proxy capabilities and a 
> few other
> things like tcpdump, sniffit, etc.

An awful lot of work to do to compensate for a server that's too lazy to log
its own chat.  I shouldn't have to pick through gunk at the packet level to
see what any program should be designed to do by itself.

I should only have to sniff packets -- either the classic way or in my own
protocol stack -- when I'm looking at lower-level protocol issues.

It's easy enough -- speak a protocol, log a protocol.




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