Options for Reading Raw Ethernet Packets With LabVIEW™

Updated Jul 31, 2026

Reported In

Software

  • LabVIEW

Issue Details

I am attempting to read raw Ethernet packets in LabVIEW, similar to how packet capture tools such as Wireshark operate. Are there any supported functions or application programming interfaces (APIs) in LabVIEW that allow access to raw Ethernet frames?

Solution

LabVIEW does not provide native APIs for reading raw Ethernet packets. The built-in Ethernet and networking functions in LabVIEW operate at higher protocol levels and require the use of defined communication protocols, which prevents direct access to raw Ethernet frames.

 

You can use several LabVIEW networking APIs for Ethernet-based communication, depending on the protocol required by your application. These options are documented in Using the Right Networking Protocol. However, these APIs do not allow packet sniffing or access below the protocol layer. 

 

If your application requires reading raw Ethernet packets, you must use a third-party packet capture library. One approach is to create a wrapper around an external Ethernet packet sniffing library. The following community example demonstrates this method by providing a set of VIs that wrap packet capture functionality from WinPcap, a Windows packet capture library: Ethernet Packet Sniffer Utility Using WinPcap Functions example