Gerald Combs
Wireshark made detailed packet inspection broadly accessible. Its growth from Ethereal into a large open-source project shows how tools, contributors, documentation, and conferences form a durable technical community.
Gerald Combs created Ethereal, the open-source packet analyzer later renamed Wireshark. He began the tool in 1997 while working to understand network problems and learn more about networking.
From Ethereal to Wireshark
Ethereal attracted patches, dissectors, bug reports, and contributors. In 2006 the project adopted the Wireshark name, preserving the codebase community while moving beyond the Ethereal trademark.
A tool and a community
Wireshark is used for troubleshooting, protocol development, and security investigation. SharkFest, launched in 2008, is a place for the developer and user community to exchange packet-analysis practice.
Timeline
- 1997Begins writing Ethereal.
- 1998Releases Ethereal 0.2.0.
- 2006Project is renamed Wireshark.
- 2008SharkFest begins as a packet-analysis educational conference series.
Gerald Combs
- Type
- Person
- Era
- 1990s-Present
- Known for
- Creator of Ethereal/Wireshark; Open-source packet analysis; SharkFest community
- Tags
- wireshark, ethereal, packet-analysis, open-source, sharkfest
Created by Joas A Santos · Something wrong or want it removed? Open an issue.