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

Opening the Wireshark welcome screen

Once you launch Wireshark, you'll find the menu choices across the top of the Wireshark welcome screen. If you don't have a capture file loaded, you will see that all of the menu choices are available. However, the icons might be dimmed, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 4.1 – The Wireshark welcome screen

The icons will become active once you have a file open or are actively capturing packets.

Once in the welcome screen, you'll most likely either launch a file or begin capturing traffic. So, let's start with the many options that are available when opening a packet capture.

Selecting a file

Beneath the icons and the display filter, you'll see a banner that reads Welcome to Wireshark. Underneath the banner, you will see the Open label, which will identify any previously opened packet captures that are available.

If you right-click on a file, you have the following options...