Help with discoverying devices using Wincap/Npcap - Vocia and Tesira
WinPcap was the de facto standard library for packet capture and link-layer packet injection on Windows devices for over a decade. WinPcap enabled packet capture right from a network adapter and presented it to Wireshark before any processing was done by the OS. Many open source and commercial network tools used WinPcap for network access and filtering, but it has been unmaintained since 2013 and is no longer supported.
Since then, Npcap has replaced WinPcap for modern Windows systems. Npcap is the exciting and feature-packed update to the venerable WinPcap packet capture library for the Windows OS. Building on the successful WinPcap legacy, Npcap brings increased speed, security, and Windows 11 support. All of WinPcap's packet capture and injection features are included, with a few great additions like raw 802.11 frame capture.
Programs that use the Npcap library include Wireshark, Riedel AVB Manager, Biamp Vocia Software, and others, though the OS or Security Settings can prevent Npcap from automatically starting at boot up or block its services all together.
Riedel AVB Manager - Uncaught Exception - No interfaces found!
Riedel AVB Manager will never open beyond a variation of the below error. Enabling the npf service will resolve.
Vocia - Device Discovery Troubles
There will be devices discovery issues if the NetGroup Packet Filter Driver service is disabled. Vocia uses installs a version of Npcap which may be older or conflict with the PC's current version. If unsure, use the latest version in comparison during the installation.
Wireshark - Unable to see NICs
NIC options will be blank. Enabling or restarting NetGroup Packet Filter Driver service may help.
The Fix - Enable/Restart the NetGroup Packet Filter Driver service
Run Command Prompt (CMD) as Administrator and enter command "net start npf" to start the NetGroup Packet Filter Driver service. This is typically Npcap/WinPcap (Windows) which is installed with Wireshark.
In some cases, you need to restart the NetGroup Packet Filter Driver service. First, send "net stop npf", then send "net start npf".
If CMD is not run as admin, System error 5 "Access is denied" will occur. If running CMD as admin still gets this message, there is likely a lack of admin rights/privileges and IT must be contacted.
Contact IT
If there are not enough admin rights or privileges on this PC to stop/start/install the Npcap service, the technician should contact their IT or owner of the PC to grant the necessary rights to make these changes and allow the app through.