New to Network Programming

[austin0902016]

HI All,

I have a 10 +years Networking Experience. I don't have any programming background. I am interested in layer 3 and layer 2 Networking protocol development (programming).

Kindly suggest the step bye step detail plan for the same.

looking forward to your valuable opinion and suggestions.

Regards
AJ

[kjsisco]

What language are you looking into?

[OReubens]

2 (data link) and 3 (network) are low level layers. An OS typically doesn't provide you access to these from an "regular application".

If you need this for Windows: Looks like you'll be needing to either dive into driver development (good luck figuring this out on your own) or into driver-hooks and/or filter drivers.

Some drivers have hooks at the app level but even those require elevated acces.

if you want to develop your own drivers...
You will probably need the DDK for layer 2 work, and the DDK and/or WDK for layer 3, both are available on MSDN.
You'll need a kernel level compiler and debugger (again, there's a basic one of each in the DDK, but they are "basic").

Alternatively... if you only need access to the layers but don't want to write a driver yourself, check out
WinDivert (open source network layer (3) hook framework for capturing and diverting packets)
WinpkFilter (commercial, datalink layer (2) filter driver that you can hook into)
pcausa (commercial, datalink layer (2), supposedly something similar to winpkfilter, but I have no experience with it)
Winpcap (free, datalink layer packet capture) this is the library Wireshark uses.