Book Image

Learn Wireshark, - Second Edition

By : Lisa Bock
5 (1)
Book Image

Learn Wireshark, - Second Edition

5 (1)
By: Lisa Bock

Overview of this book

Wireshark is a popular and powerful packet analysis tool that helps network administrators investigate latency issues and potential attacks. Over the years, there have been many enhancements to Wireshark’s functionality. This book will guide you through essential features so you can capture, display, and filter data with ease. In addition to this, you’ll gain valuable tips on lesser-known configuration options, which will allow you to complete your analysis in an environment customized to suit your needs. This updated second edition of Learn Wireshark starts by outlining the benefits of traffic analysis. You’ll discover the process of installing Wireshark and become more familiar with the interface. Next, you’ll focus on the Internet Suite and then explore deep packet analysis of common protocols such as DNS, DHCP, HTTP, and ARP. The book also guides you through working with the expert system to detect network latency issues, create I/O and stream graphs, subset traffic, and save and export captures. Finally, you’ll understand how to share captures using CloudShark, a browser-based solution for analyzing packet captures. By the end of this Wireshark book, you’ll have the skills and hands-on experience you need to conduct deep packet analysis of common protocols and network troubleshooting as well as identify security issues.
Table of Contents (28 chapters)
1
Part 1 Traffic Capture Overview
6
Part 2 Getting Started with Wireshark
11
Part 3 The Internet Suite TCP/IP
16
Part 4 Deep Packet Analysis of Common Protocols
21
Part 5 Working with Packet Captures

Describing HTTP

HTTP is an application-layer protocol responsible for exchanging data between a client browser and a web server. HTTP allows us to gather, distribute, collaborate, and disseminate a wide range of data. Although a stateless protocol, HTTP has several request methods, error codes, and headers that allow us to access resources from many different types of applications.

Note

HTTP is used to transport data across the network. Two other protocols that transport data include File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). All are essential in providing an efficient way to exchange data.

In this section, we'll begin by outlining the definition of a web page and describe HTTP's function in retrieving objects from a website. We'll compare the role of client and server, outline the versions in use today, and then summarize with a review of the different types of HTTP methods.

Let's start by reviewing the elements of a web...