(1) To configure libpcap under AIX 4.x, you should use DLPI instead of BPF, since IBM's version of BPF includes some undocumented and unsupported changes to the original BPF. This can be done by specifying the flag: --with-pcap=dlpi to the "configure" script for libpcap. (2) Also, it is a good idea to have the latest version of the DLPI driver on your system, since certain versions may be buggy and cause your AIX system to crash. DLPI is included in the fileset bos.rte.tty. I found that the DLPI driver that came with AIX 4.3.2 was buggy, and had to upgrade to bos.rte.tty 4.3.2.4: lslpp -l bos.rte.tty bos.rte.tty 4.3.2.4 COMMITTED Base TTY Support and Commands Updates for AIX filesets can be obtained from: ftp://service.software.ibm.com/aix/fixes/ These updates can be installed with the smit program. (3) After compiling libpcap, you need to make sure that the DLPI driver is loaded. Type: strload -q -d dlpi If the result is: dlpi: yes then the DLPI driver is loaded correctly. If it is: dlpi: no Then you need to type: strload -f /etc/dlpi.conf Check again with strload -q -d dlpi that the dlpi driver is loaded. Alternatively, you can uncomment the lines for DLPI in /etc/pse.conf and reboot the machine; this way DLPI will always be loaded when you boot your system.