For historical reasons, only Unix system administrators are permitted to capture network traffic. Given current networking technology, such a restriction amounts to little more than Security Through Obscurity. Nevertheless, since Mac OS X continues the historical policy, FrameSeer needs to obtain special privileges to capture network traffic.

When you first launch FrameSeer after installation, you are asked to grant permission for FrameSeer to obtain the privileges it needs by entering the username and password of an administrator. The privileges FrameSeer acquires depend upon how you are logged-in:

• If you are logged-in as an administrator, FrameSeer will only permit administrators (or anyone who can authenticate as an administrator) to capture traffic.
• If you are logged-in as an ordinary user, FrameSeer will permit all users to capture traffic.

If the default privilege level is not what you need, you can change it from the Security tab of the Preferences window. The options are:

All users on this computer

Any user who can login to any account on this computer will be able to launch FrameSeer and capture network traffic.

Any user who can authenticate as an administrator

Only administrators, or ordinary users who can provide the username and password of an administrator will be allowed to capture network traffic:

• Administrators are deemed to be able to authenticate as administrators and are not asked to enter their username and password.
• Ordinary users will be asked to enter the username and password of an administrator the first time that they launch FrameSeer in any session. The security credential is remembered until the user logs-out.

Only administrators on this computer

Only administrators will be able to capture network traffic. Ordinary users will still be able to launch FrameSeer but the Start button will be disabled and the status area will say “Insufficient privileges for capture”. Ordinary users will also be able to open files in tcpdump format for which they have read permission.

Note: On Panther systems, this setting asks for the username and password of an administrator each time FrameSeer is launched. If the user authenticates properly, the capture of network traffic will be allowed until FrameSeer is quit.

Any changes in the Security tab need to be authorized by an administrator. In addition, FrameSeer must be quit and re-launched before security changes come into effect.