

Just remember not to abuse the software, because wiretapping is illegal and it would raise some strange questions if you got caught using it a work, school, or on any network you don’t personally own. If you’re new to networking protocols already, the amount of data that it collects in real time might seem very intimidating. Not only is the software very powerful, but it is open source software that can be used free of charge. On the other hand, a Wireshark user could choose to capture every single packet flowing over an interface, and then sift through all the data at their own leisure. For example, if a network administrator wanted to see which websites and individual computer or group of computers were accessing, then he/she might run a packet capture for only HTTP and DNS traffic.

The tool is actually rather sophisticated and allows network administrators and hackers to capture specific types of traffic. world, it is sometimes called a protocol analyzer, packet sniffer, packet capture utility, or packet analyzer – and these terms are synonymous and are mostly interchangeable for all but the most anal network engineers.

Wireshark is a program that has the ability to record and analyze every last bit flowing through a network interface. It’s uses are seemingly endless, but before we dig into the inner workings of this impressive piece of software, we need to lay some groundwork. Believe it or not, a competent Wireshark user can even see personal information that is transmitted in plain text, provided they are using a man-in-the-middle attack or redirecting other users’ traffic via DNS-based attacks. In my humble opinion, it’s one of the best packet sniffers and protocol analyzers available, and it’s truly mind blowing how much detailed information it can gather. And there are few other programs that have such a steep learning curve as Wireshark. It can be daunting trying to learn how to use a new piece of software, even if you already possess a fair amount of knowledge regarding information technology.
