AirPcap Adapter Causes Wireshark to Hang

Question

Running Wireshark 1.4.2 on a Dell Vista64 laptop. Whenever my AirPcap Nx device is attached (driver version 06/03/2009) to the laptop, Wireshark hangs upon loading. If I unplug the AirPcap adapter, Wireshark completes the loading process. If I then plug the AirPcap back in and click "Interfaces", it hangs again, until I unplug the AirPcap adapter. It then shows the Interfaces screen, along with the AirPcap adapter visible. If I then plug it back it and click Start on the AirPcap item, it hangs again, until I unplug the adapter, at which time WS spits out about 10 error dialog boxes.

I bought the AirPcap Nx to capture wireless traffic with Wireshark -- any ideas why this combination is not working?

Answer 1

This is a known bug in Windows Vista which requires a registry fix. If you can send a registry dump to CACE support as described at http://www.cacetech.com/support/airpcap_faq.html#faq_11 they can send you a fix.

Answer 2

You might try to update your driver. Looking at the CACE download page, it looks like there is a newer version of the driver available than what you're using:

Driver V 4.1.1 (Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7, 32 and 64 bit)
Download » (01/18/2010)
Release Notes » (01/18/2010)

If that doesn't help, then you might want to try to contact CACE technical support.