[Winpcap-users] Is it possible to use the wincap as the Tx/Rx data path of my own TCP/IP protocol stack?

[Guy Harris]

simonmychen wrote:

>     I am developing an network enable embedded device. I need to setup a 
> simulation environment to test my TCP/IP protocol stack in windows.
> 1. Can I use the winpcap as my network driver(winpcap can get/send the 
> packet to ethernet chip) to connect with my TCP/IP protocol?

Any IP packet sent to your machine will be processed by Windows' IP 
stack.  A copy will also be handed to WinPcap, but that does *NOT* mean 
that the Windows IP stack will not also receive the packet.

Libpcap/WinPcap is for

	1) applications that passively sniff traffic (tcpdump/WinDump, 
Ethereal, Analyzer, snoop, etc.)

or

	2) applications that are implementing protocols that the OS on which 
it's running does *NOT* implement.

It is *NOT* for replacing the OS's code to process a protocol; in 
particular, the packet capture mechanisms it uses are *NOT* designed to 
let you "take over" the processing of packets from the OS, so it's *NOT* 
designed to let you do your own TCP/IP protocol stack.