It captures network traffic from ethernet, Bluetooth, wireless (IEEE.802.11), token ring, and frame relay connections, among others, and stores that data for offline analysis.Įditor’s Note: A “packet” is a single message from any network protocol (e.g., TCP, DNS, etc.).Įditor’s Note 2: LAN traffic is in broadcast mode, meaning a single computer with Wireshark can see traffic between two other computers.

Wireshark is a packet sniffer and analysis tool. Using Wireshark to look at packets without permission is illegal. You should only use Wireshark on networks where you have permission to inspect network packets. There truly isn’t a better way to learn low-level networking than to look at traffic under the Wireshark microscope. Government agencies, corporations, non-profits, and educational institutions use Wireshark for troubleshooting and teaching purposes. A global organization of network specialists and software developers supports Wireshark and continues to make updates for new network technologies and encryption methods. Wireshark is an open-source network protocol analysis software program, widely considered the industry standard. Wireshark is the de facto, go-to, you-need-to-know-how-to-use, application to capture and investigate network traffic.Īnd because Wireshark is the predominant tool for this job, let’s go over some application basics, such as where you can download Wireshark, how to capture network packets, how to use filters, and more.

If you find yourself troubleshooting network issues, and you have to inspect individual packets, you need to use Wireshark.