There is no official documentation available for Peek or Poke. These programs
have never been sold by Apple and were created as internal network utilities.
At one time, they may have been distributed to developers, but they have never
been supported for end users. Internally, LTPeek is the name of an Alpha 4.28
version of the Peek software. LTPeek and a similar utility used internally
called EPeek or EtherTalk Peek are not public domain products and should not
be made available to customers. They have been developed for our own testing
and development purposes.
As far as we know, there are no LocalTalk Peek versions that specifically
support AppleTalk Phase 2 networks. Peek captures the entire packet from the
LLAP header down, so you should not have a problem using it from a LocalTalk
cable.
We do not think that Peek and Poke are proper tools for learning to about
supporting AppleTalk Internets. (This is analagous to learning to support UNIX
by learning to use a debugger.)
A more informative approach for learning to support Internets would be to start
with TrafficWatch, CheckNet, LAN Ranger, or other third-party "available and
supported" products.
LocalTalk Peek only records and displays network data. If you want to read
this data, you must first read "Inside AppleTalk." Poke is very similar. You
must have a full understanding of the desired packets before they can be
created. Poke requires the actual packet data to be typed into the data window
by the user. It provides minimal help in creating a header. It is not
designed as an end-user tool; it is a development tool.