-*-text-*- Q. Why did you implemented ziffy? A. because of my own personal needs! Q. What can ziffy do for me? A. ziffy can promiscuously capture network packets from different interfaces, including of course Ethernet, PPP and ISDN lines, and other interfaces that your OS supports. Each packet, as read from the network, is stripped from the lower-level protocols (Ethernet/IP/TCP) header information and then passed to a Z39.50 ASN.1/BER Decoder. All valid Z39.50 packets are passed to a pretty print function to show all the Z39.50 information that the packet carries. Q. Why I should use this program? A. So, if you are interestered in Z39.50 APDUs, please give ziffy a chance to run on your system. Perhaps you are interested in network statistics collection, security monitoring, network debugging, etc. If you are a trusted user, ziffy is your friend! Q. Why does ziffy use the Packet Capture Library libpcap? A. Well, the libpcap package provides a portable framework for low-level network monitoring. Its system-independent API helps in porting and alleviates the need for several system-dependent packet capture modules. libpcap is the choice by default for tools such as ziffy! Q. Why does ziffy use the YAZ Toolkit by IndexData? A. This is a long story. To perform its task ziffy needs ASN.1 run-time BER decoding and printing routines. The initial version was based on the ZETA Core Library by Finsiel S.p.A., which in turn includes and uses the Finsiel X/ASN.1 Toolkit to perform Z39.50 encoding/decoding/printing routines. I still have and maintain this version of the X/ASN.1 software. But I do not have permissions to let this software run free on the Net because of copyrigth restrictions. That is the reason I decided to port ziffy on freeware ASN.1 Toolkits. The popular Yaz Toolkit: o provides the required Z39.50 decoding and printing functionalities o it is largely used in different contests by several people and organizations o it is in the public domain So it is the choice by default. Thanks to Sebastian Hammer and Adam Dickmeiss for their superb and clean work Q. Had ziffy been compiled against other public domain ASN.1 Toolkits? A. Yes. I have a version of ziffy written on top of the SNACC ASN.1 Toolkit, that is not so popular in the Z39.50 community so the YAZ Toolkit does. If you know of other public domain ASN.1 Decoders with a pretty print APDUs routines, please drop me a mail. I will try to include different printing routines as run-time options in the following releases of ziffy. Q. Can I know the list of OSs and supported platforms ziffy run on? A. I written and tested the program on my intel based linux box. And I ported it on the Solaris 2.6. I think it should be ported with minimal effort on o Ultrix 4.1.3 o Irix 6.2 AIX? who can say? it is a so different flavor of Unix NT? oh no, again! please don't ask. Q. Where can I get the latest version of ziffy? A. You can download it from ftp anonymous site: ftp://zeta.tlcpi.finsiel.it/pub/z3950/ziffy Q. Where can I get more information on ziffy? A. Visit the ziffy official home page. http://zeta.tlcpi.finsiel.it/z3950/ziffy Q. Are there any mailinglist dedicated to ziffy? A. No! for the time being. Q. If I need support can I contact you? A. Yes, but I am so busy. So send me a mail and please be patient!