# Using Protocol Agents for protocol validation

Protocol Agents can be used to validate communications against standards of specific protocols. Exactly how this works depends on the protocol in question.

Here are a few examples:

- The FTP Protocol Agent can be set to strictly limit the allowed commands within the control connection to standard commands as listed in the FTP specifications. If other commands are sent in the control connection, the connection is dropped.
- The Oracle Protocol Agent can control the size of the Oracle TNS packets, or the location of the Listener service regarding the database services.
- The SSH Protocol Agent can ensure that the SSH handshake is performed at the beginning of an SSH connection.