User Guide
iii
Preface ............................................................................................................................ ix
1. Foreword .............................................................................................................. ix
2. Who should read this document? .............................................................................. ix
3. Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ ix
4. About this document ............................................................................................... x
5. Where to get the latest copy of this document? ............................................................. x
6. Providing feedback about this document ..................................................................... x
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. What is Wireshark? .............................................................................................. 1
1.1.1. Some intended purposes .............................................................................. 1
1.1.2. Features ................................................................................................... 1
1.1.3. Live capture from many different network media ............................................. 2
1.1.4. Import files from many other capture programs ............................................... 2
1.1.5. Export files for many other capture programs .................................................. 2
1.1.6. Many protocol decoders .............................................................................. 2
1.1.7. Open Source Software ................................................................................ 3
1.1.8. What Wireshark is not ................................................................................ 3
1.2. System Requirements ............................................................................................ 3
1.2.1. General Remarks ....................................................................................... 3
1.2.2. Microsoft Windows .................................................................................... 3
1.2.3. Unix / Linux ............................................................................................. 4
1.3. Where to get Wireshark? ....................................................................................... 5
1.4. A brief history of Wireshark .................................................................................. 5
1.5. Development and maintenance of Wireshark ............................................................ 5
1.6. Reporting problems and getting help ........................................................................ 6
1.6.1. Website .................................................................................................... 6
1.6.2. Wiki ........................................................................................................ 6
1.6.3. Q&A Forum ............................................................................................. 6
1.6.4. FAQ ........................................................................................................ 6
1.6.5. Mailing Lists ............................................................................................. 7
1.6.6. Reporting Problems .................................................................................... 7
1.6.7. Reporting Crashes on UNIX/Linux platforms .................................................. 8
1.6.8. Reporting Crashes on Windows platforms ...................................................... 8
2. Building and Installing Wireshark ...................................................................................... 9
2.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 9
2.2. Obtaining the source and binary distributions ............................................................ 9
2.3. Before you build Wireshark under UNIX ................................................................ 10
2.4. Building Wireshark from source under UNIX .......................................................... 11
2.5. Installing the binaries under UNIX ......................................................................... 12
2.5.1. Installing from rpm's under Red Hat and alike ............................................... 12
2.5.2. Installing from deb's under Debian .............................................................. 13
2.5.3. Installing from portage under Gentoo Linux .................................................. 13
2.5.4. Installing from packages under FreeBSD ...................................................... 13
2.6. Troubleshooting during the install on Unix .............................................................. 13
2.7. Building from source under Windows ..................................................................... 14
2.8. Installing Wireshark under Windows ...................................................................... 14
2.8.1. Install Wireshark ...................................................................................... 14
2.8.2. Manual WinPcap Installation ...................................................................... 16
2.8.3. Update Wireshark ..................................................................................... 16
2.8.4. Update WinPcap ...................................................................................... 16
2.8.5. Uninstall Wireshark .................................................................................. 17
2.8.6. Uninstall WinPcap .................................................................................... 17
3. User Interface ............................................................................................................... 18
3.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 18