ViewComm System (VCS) Overview

ViewComm II - Additional Functional Overview

The Greenleaf ViewComm II System	Greenleaf VCS is a comprehensive system of data monitor and protocol analyzer solutions. The ViewComm System includes analyzers for Ethernet, asynchronous EIA-232 (and, using converters or proper serial card, EIA-442 and EIA-485). The VCS product family members share a common GUI for ease of use. We offer Async bundles (hardware with the software): 1 or 2 port PCMCIA and PCI cards for RS-232 or software selectable RS-422/485. When you purchase ViewComm, you can order a bundle (one of nine) to avail yourself of discounted hardware prices and assure easy and fail-safe installation. Please don't try to use those really cheap cards you see advertised. The Quatech cards we offer are made by a company whose core business is serial connectivity solutions These cards have been acid-tested not only in conjunction with ViewComm but in a plethora of applications in business and industrial areas. And it is all affordable!

About ProtocolWorks	VCS Frame View shows packets decoded by DecoderScript© scripts (we call them decodes). You can write custom decodes in a text editor. Syntax highlighting provided for UltraEdit.. With a capture file open, click "Reload Decodes" to see the results of your changes. Capture File Builder program lets you prototype your protocol--you then see see the results of your custom decoding with a capture file that you control. ProtocolWorks used to be an option; it is included standard in ViewComm II -- Async and Ethernet. You can debug your protocol and the way it appears in Frame View before you write a single line of protocol implementation code!

CLARITY	See in real-time. Clarity is important when looking at highly complex data streams. You need simplicity on the outside, power under the hood. You need Greenleaf ViewComm II. See Events, Signals, Frames, and Statistics all at once or separately. Capture to unlimited disk file, see, review, compare. Use Capture File Viewer to look at two or more frames -- side by side. See...How could you Fix it If you can't see it?

Here's Capture File Viewer open twice; each instance has two Frame View windows open. We could also have done this with four...or eight... instances of Capture File Viewer...


One Family of Tools, Many Uses	If you are working with, developing, or maintaining Ethernet, Internet, W3C or other protocols, serial communications hardware or software, you will find as many do, that "ViewComm pays for itself the first time you use it."

What ViewComm Can Do	VCS Async II can passively monitor or emulate a DTE or DCE Check out the ViewComm Async II brochure to see the multitude of ways you can tap into an RS-232 communications link and SEE! Need to see the ViewComm Ethernet brochure? Finally and completely SEE everything on the LAN! VCS Ethernet shows you an incredible array of information. Over 250 flavors of Ethernet. Capture to unlimited size file. Store timestamps. View captured data and see exactly what happened and when. With clarity! VCS supports a long list of protocols. You can bring up windows that show different views into the link session. Curious about ViewComm Ethernet II test capabilities? Check out the Cable Guide PDF Add ProtocolWorks to Async, Async Plus, Viewer, or VCS for Ethernet to customize protocols.

How ViewComm Works	ViewComm runs on any Pentium or better PC running Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4, 2000, or XP. For Async RS-232, installation replaces the Windows serial driver with a special extended driver matching the OS and which gives ViewComm access to hardware. ViewComm for Ethernet peeks at the interface to a standard Network Interface Card. To see how it works, click here for the long answer or here for the short one. Want to see complete specifications?

What You Can See	Important ways in which ViewComm lets you view the link include Events, Frame, Statistics, and Signals View. There's more, but let's explore each of these just a bit.

Viewing Events	Events include not only characters of data that come over a link (along with control signal states and timestamps), but changes in link state, start and end of frames or packets of data, errors, and numerous other kinds of things that happen in the real world of communications.

Protocols Decoded	Frame View works in conjunction with protocol decodes, which are scripts that ViewComm uses to unscramble data on the link according to a chosen protocol stack. You can choose standard stacks or create your own. With ProtocolWorks installed, you can create your own protocols and stack. A list of frames appears; selecting a particular frame shows not only the header, data and overhead in the frame, but a tree view that you can expand as desired to show inner layers of a protocol stack. If you have the TCP/IP Protocol Stack active, you can see inner protocols such as TCP, HTTP, VJP, and others. Other protocol decodes are SLIP, Async PPP, and Ethernet. You really have to see this to believe it! Download the (VCS Async Plus Pro) demo now!

Statistics	Statistics View gives you an overview of the contents of a capture buffer or file, presenting things like errors, utilization, and much more. Graphic views are also available.

Signals	Signals View (and a special Breakout Box view) show the state of control signals and indicates the number of transitions (changes of state) of each (not relevant to VCS for Ethernet).

Interactivity: Emulating a DCE or DTE	VCS Async models in Source Mode (interact with a device), two Transmit Views are available: Transmit from Keyboard and Transmit from File. ViewComm for Ethernet: There is a utility that lets you send--providing an amazing range of tricks!

More about Decodes	Frames are decoded at the bit level. This means the Protocol Decode pane of Frame View can be expanded to let you see individual bitfields, flags, addresses, CRC, and other elements of a protocol header / trailer.

The Importance of Coordination	These views are coordinated in timeline. For example you can select a particular character or other event in Events view and the same exact character will automatically be highlighted in Frame and Signals view. The Frame View will jump to whatever packet the character or other event is part of. Not only can you keep all these views open in their own windows, you can even open multiple windows (e.g. you can view two packets side by side).

NOW: Brew Your Own Protocol	If you work on protocols, developing, responding to RFCs for a new flavor of some protocol or a totally new one, the VCS ProtocolWorks option lets you interactively design and test a protocol decode. You can modify existing decodes, adapt them to your use, or start from scratch. ProtocolWorks include a complete DecoderScript Language Manual with a comprehensive tutorial, and a Methods Reference. You can also create custom methods using Visual C++ 6 within DecoderScript. Methods add power to decode scripts.

Speeds, Feeds & Models	Until the release of Greenleaf ViewComm II or Version 6.6, Greenleaf had a bunch of versions of ViewComm Async, such as Viewer, which didn't use cables; only spied on a port. Async itself was cable-bound, could not spy on a port. So we had a version called Async Plus which did both. To Complicate matters, we sold High Speed (HS) as an add-on or an ingredient to a sub-family of ViewComm, e.g. Greenleaf ViewComm Async HS Plus. There was the matter of ProtocolWorks. We sold it as an add-on as we do now for those of you who own ViewComm Async 3.3, and we bundled it into versions like ViewComm Async Pro, and so-forth. Today, that's all simplified. Greenleaf ViewComm Async II is configured like ViewComm Async HS Plus Pro. We still make the ingredients of the "old" configurations available for those who prefer to stick with version 3.3, though upgrading to ViewComm II is a better deal. This version has only one model, and it spies, uses cables, runs at high speed, and has ProtocolWorks.

Common GUI and Beyond	All of these products share common GUI elements and operational logic, protocol decodes, and other aspects that will get you and your staff up to speed on upscale products quickly. Want USB? FireWire? Talk to us.

ViewComm Async II