v.0.2.5 Fixes Report and Windows Docs and PS fix

PacketReporter v0.2.5 Release Summary

Release Date: January 16, 2026
Status: Public Beta
Changes: Bug fixes, documentation improvements, Windows support enhancements

What's New in 0.2.5

🐛 Bug Fixes

IP Address Display in Top 10 Talkers Report

• Issue: IPv4 addresses were truncated (e.g., "192.168.5..." instead of full IP)
• Solution:
  • Increased character limit from 12 to 15 characters
  • Implemented adaptive font sizing (9pt → 8pt → 7.5pt based on label length)
  • Full IPv4 addresses now display properly in both Summary and Detailed reports

Windows Prerequisites Checker Enhancement

• Improved PDFtk Detection:
  • Now checks system PATH first
  • Falls back to common installation paths (Program Files, Program Files (x86))
  • Better error messages for troubleshooting
• Critical PATH Warning:
  • Added prominent reminder to log off/on after PATH modifications
  • Prevents confusion about tools not being found immediately after installation

📖 Documentation Improvements

Windows Quick Install Manual (New)

• English Version: WINDOWS_QUICK_INSTALL_MANUAL_en.html / .pdf
• German Version: WINDOWS_QUICK_INSTALL_MANUAL_de.html / .pdf

Features:

• Professional 5-page installation guide
• Step-by-step rsvg-convert installation (Option A: System32, Option B: Custom PATH)
• Step-by-step PDFtk installation with critical warnings
• Prerequisites verification using PowerShell script
• Installation and configuration walkthrough
• Troubleshooting section for common issues
• Proper A4 page formatting with optimized spacing

📐 Page Layout Optimization

• Optimized margins and padding for A4 pages
• Improved section spacing to prevent orphaned content
• Better list density for comprehensive coverage
• Cleaner visual hierarchy

File Changes

New Files

installers/windows/
├── WINDOWS_QUICK_INSTALL_MANUAL_en.pdf       (382 KB)
└── WINDOWS_QUICK_INSTALL_MANUAL_de.pdf       (384 KB)

Modified Files

packet_reporter.lua                   (IP address display fix)
check-prereqs.ps1                     (Enhanced PDFtk detection & warnings)
CHANGELOG.md                          (Added v0.2.5 release notes)
README.md                             (Updated version badge to 0.2.5)

Installation & Testing Recommendations

For Windows Users

1. Use the new Quick Install Manual (EN or DE)
2. Follow step-by-step installation of rsvg-convert and PDFtk
3. Run prerequisites checker: powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File check-prereqs.ps1
4. Verify all tools are found before proceeding

For All Users

1. Update to v0.2.5 from latest release
2. Generate a test report to verify IP addresses display correctly
3. Check that all dependencies are found (run prereq checker on your platform)

Known Limitations

• Windows: Brief console windows may appear during PDF generation (Lua limitation)
• PDF export requires external tools (rsvg-convert, pdftk, etc.)
• Windows PATH changes require log off/on to take effect

Future Improvements

• Silent PDF generation on Windows
• Configurable top-N limits
• Additional protocol analysis modules
• Report templates and custom color schemes

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Questions or Issues? Please report on GitHub: https://github.com/netwho/PacketReporter/issues

v.0.2.4 Focus on Windows Installer and TLS version Detection

PacketReporter v0.2.4 Release Notes

🎯 Key Improvements

Enhanced TLS/SSL Detection

• Completely rewritten TLS version detection for improved accuracy
• Now correctly identifies TLS 1.3 using supported_versions extension (RFC 8446) and cipher suite detection
• Fixed false TLS 1.2 reporting for TLS 1.3 connections
• Only counts handshake packets to avoid false positives from application data
• Improved QUIC protocol detection via UDP port 443

Better User Experience

• Streamlined dependency reporting - Only shows messages when dependencies are missing
• Improved chart display - TLS version labels positioned at end of bars with white text for better visibility
• Chart subtitle now clearly indicates "Values represent the number of observed handshakes"

Code Quality

• Removed all debug code for cleaner operation
• Enhanced error handling and dependency checking

📋 Technical Details

• TLS Detection Priority: supported_versions extension → cipher suite (0x1301-0x1305) → protocol string matching → handshake.version
• Removed misleading record.version fallback (TLS 1.3 uses 0x0303 for compatibility, causing false TLS 1.2 detections)
• Dependency checks now prevent PDF export if required tools are missing, with clear error messages

🔧 Requirements

• Wireshark 4.0 or later
• For PDF export: rsvg-convert (recommended) or inkscape/imagemagick
• For multi-page PDFs: pdfunite (recommended) or pdftk

📦 Installation

See README.md for platform-specific installation instructions.

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Full changelog: See CHANGELOG.md for complete details.

v.0.2.3 - Focused on Windows optimization

Release v0.2.3 - Windows Console Window Suppression

🎯 Major Improvement: Silent Windows Execution

This release dramatically improves the Windows user experience by virtually eliminating console window flashes during report generation.

✨ What's New

Windows-Specific Enhancements:
• 🔇 VBScript wrapper for completely silent command execution (no console windows)
• 📦 Batched PDF conversion - all pages converted in a single operation
• ⚡ Cached converter detection - tools detected once, cached for subsequent operations
• 🚀 Deferred startup checks - no dependency scanning at Wireshark launch on Windows

Result: ~95% reduction in console window visibility
• Before: 10-20+ visible CMD windows during report generation
• After: 0-2 barely perceptible flashes (only on first PDF export)

📝 Documentation
• New WARP.md - Project guidance for Warp AI development
• Updated WINDOWS_CONSOLE_FIX.md - Technical implementation details
• New WINDOWS_IMPROVEMENTS_SUMMARY.md - Comprehensive summary

🔧 Technical Details
• VBScript wrapper creates temporary batch files executed with intWindowStyle = 0 (hidden)
• All PDF operations (conversion, combining, opening) use silent execution on Windows
• PowerShell fallback for operations requiring output capture
• Converter detection results cached in memory

Small Bug Fixes Reporta Page added

Small improvement to the Windows LUA (CMD Window creation)

• I tried to minimize the CMD Windows create during the pre-requist cheks and Report Genereation
• Still a few but improved (Thats limitation on LUA on Windws when calling external toosl)
• The only way to eliomiate would be to creat a VBscript Wrapper which has some oothe drawbacks

Added Protocol Hirarchy Section on the Reports (io,phs)

Example:

Protocol Hierarchy Statistics
Filter:

frame frames:16714 bytes:12276132
eth frames:16714 bytes:12276132
ip frames:16243 bytes:12245662
igmp frames:24 bytes:1392
udp frames:1474 bytes:241827

Minor Changes to the formatting

Minor changes to the reporting (A4 and legal)

• Top 10 x Tables needed more space for the Text based fileds (All fields like counters and text had the same width)
• Ther was an error in the TLS tabel, corrected.

v0.2.0 - Initial Public Beta

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