LAB0: GETTING UP TO SPEED VERSION 1.

Introduction to Wireshark1
Objective
In this lab, the student shall work individually to:
1. Learn about packet sniffers and see how they capture and analyze network traffic.
2. Install Wireshark and start to learn how it works.

Theory: Packet Sniffers

Packet sniffers are a basic tool for observing the messages on a network. As the name
suggests, a packet sniffer captures (“sniffs”) messages being sent/received from/by your
computer; it will also typically store and/or display the contents of the various protocol
fields in these captured messages. A packet sniffer itself is passive. It observes messages
being sent and received by applications and protocols running on your computer, but never
sends packets itself. Similarly, received packets are never explicitly addressed to the packet
sniffer. Instead, a packet sniffer receives a copy of packets that are sent/received from/by
application and protocols executing on your machine.

packet sniffer
application (e.g., browser,
ssh client, skype)
packet
analyzer
application

operating system
Transport (TCP/UDP)

Network (IP)
packet
copy of all Ethernet
capture Link (Ethernet)
frames sent/recieved
(pcap)
Physical (CAT5, Radio)

to/from network

The figure above shows the structure of a packet sniffer. At the right are the protocols (in
this case, Internet protocols) and applications (such as a web browser or ftp client) that
normally run on your computer. The packet sniffer, shown within the dashed rectangle, is an
addition to the usual software in your computer, and consists of two parts. The packet

1Substantial amounts of this lab instruction manual are borrowed from “Wireshark Lab: Getting Started”
by Kurose and Ross

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 LAB0: GETTING UP TO SPEED VERSION 1.8

capture library receives a copy of every link-layer frame that is sent from or received by your
computer. As you know, messages exchanged by higher layer protocols such as HTTP, FTP,
TCP, UDP, DNS, or IP all are eventually encapsulated in link-layer frames that are
transmitted over physical media such as an Ethernet cable. In the figure, the assumed
physical media is an Ethernet, and so all upper layer protocols are eventually encapsulated
within an Ethernet frame. Capturing all link-layer frames thus gives you all messages sent/
received from/by all protocols and applications executing in your computer.
The existence of the packet capture box in this figure should give you cause to pause and
think, particularly down two trains of thought. Firstly, it shows that any packet in a shared
medium (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, etc) can be captured and examined without notification of the
sender or receiver. You cannot rely on common link-layer protocols to protect your secrets
or your privacy online. At a minimum, you should be using encryption protocols (generally
buried in the application layer, though sometimes found elsewhere) to protect all network
traffic you generate or receive. Secondly, you have the ability to act as the “bad guy” and
capture the network traffic of other people, examine it and exploit what you find. You need
to learn to use this tool in a responsible fashion. Remember the movie quote: “With great
power comes great responsibility!” We will use a filter to ensure Wireshark doesn’t display
traffic other than your own, but this is purely a voluntary measure. Please act ethically and
responsibly in your use of Wireshark.
The second component of a packet sniffer is the packet analyzer, which displays the
contents of all fields within a protocol message. In order to do so, the packet analyzer must
“understand” the structure of all messages exchanged by protocols. For example, suppose we
are interested in displaying the various fields in messages exchanged by the HTTP protocol.
The packet analyzer understands the format of Ethernet frames, and so can identify the IP
datagram within an Ethernet frame. It also understands the IP datagram format, so that it
can extract the TCP segment within the IP datagram. Finally, it understands the TCP
segment structure, so it can extract the HTTP message contained in the TCP segment.
Finally, it understands the HTTP protocol and so, for example, knows that the first bytes of
an HTTP message will contain the string “GET,” “POST,” or “HEAD,” as shown in Figure
2.8 in the text.
We will be using the Wireshark packet sniffer [wireshark.org] for these labs, allowing us to
display the contents of messages being sent/received from/by protocols at different levels of
the protocol stack. (Technically speaking, Wireshark is a packet analyzer that uses a packet
capture library in your computer). Wireshark is a free network protocol analyzer that runs
on Macintosh, Windows, and Linux/Unix computers. It’s an ideal packet analyzer for our
labs – it is stable, has a large user base and well-documented support that includes a user-
guide (wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked), man pages (wireshark.org/docs/man-pages),
and a detailed FAQ (wireshark.org/faq.html), rich functionality that includes the capability
to analyze hundreds of protocols, and a well-designed user interface. It operates in
computers using Ethernet, Token-Ring, FDDI, serial (PPP and SLIP), 802.11 wireless LANs,
and ATM connections (if the OS on which it's running allows Wireshark to do so).

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Procedures
1. Get Wireshark
1. In order to run Wireshark, you will need to have access to a computer that supports
both Wireshark and the libpcap or WinPCap packet capture library. The libpcap
software will be installed for you, if it is not installed within your operating system,
when you install Wireshark.. See wireshark.org/download.html for a list of supported
operating systems and download sites
2. Download the Wireshark binary from wireshark.org/download.html and install it.
Make sure to also download the Wireshark user guide.
3. The Wireshark FAQ has a number of helpful hints and interesting tidbits of
information, particularly if you have trouble installing or running Wireshark.
4. You may need to disable anti-virus protection software (McAffee, I'm looking at
you!) before your own IP address will show up in captured data.
5. You should be connected to an Ethernet connection. If you only have WiFi, you'll
need to figure out how to set your WiFi physical layer into monitor mode, which may
be difficult or impossible, depending on your operating system. Failure to follow this
instruction will mean you only see traffic originating or being sent to your own
computer, which is sub-optimal for these labs.
display filter
2. Run Wireshark specification
command
1. When you run menus
the Wireshark
program, the
Wireshark listing of
captured
graphical user packets
interface will
be displayed.
Initially, no details of
selected
data will be packet
header
displayed in
the various packet content
windows. in ASCII and
hexadecimal
By the way, the
pictures I show in
this lab guide may
differ, perhaps substantially, from the interface you see on your computer, depending on
your installed version and operating system. Be flexible.

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 LAB0: GETTING UP TO SPEED VERSION 1.8

2. The Wireshark interface has five major components:

1. The command menus are standard pulldown menus located at the top of the
window or in your menu-bar (not shown in the figure on the previous page). Also
included is a toolbar (shown in the figure).. Of interest to us now are the File and
Capture menus. The File menu allows you to save captured packet data or open a
file containing previously captured packet data, and exit the Wireshark
application. The Capture menu allows you to begin packet capture.
2. The packet-listing window displays a one-line summary for each packet
captured, including the packet number (assigned by Wireshark; this is not a
packet number contained in any protocol’s header), the time at which the packet
was captured, the packet’s source and destination addresses, the protocol type,
and protocol-specific information contained in the packet. The packet listing can
be sorted according to any of these categories by clicking on a column name. The
protocol type field lists the highest level protocol that sent or received this
packet, i.e., the protocol that is the source or ultimate sink for this packet.
3. The packet-header details window provides details about the packet selected
(highlighted) in the packet listing window. (To select a packet in the packet listing
window, place the cursor over the packet’s one-line summary in the packet listing
window and click with the left mouse button.). These details include information
about the Ethernet frame (assuming the packet was sent/receiverd over an
Ethernet interface) and IP datagram that contains this packet. The amount of
Ethernet and IP-layer detail displayed can be expanded or minimized by clicking
on the plus-or-minus boxes to the left of the Ethernet frame or IP datagram line
in the packet details window. If the packet has been carried over TCP or UDP,
TCP or UDP details will also be displayed, which can similarly be expanded or
minimized. Finally, details about the highest level protocol that sent or received
this packet are also provided.
4. The packet-contents window displays the entire contents of the captured
frame, in both ASCII and hexadecimal format.
5. Towards the top of the Wireshark graphical user interface, is the packet display
filter field, into which a protocol name or other information can be entered in
order to filter the information displayed in the packet-listing window (and hence
the packet-header and packet-contents windows). In the example below, we’ll use
the packet-display filter field to have Wireshark hide (not display) packets except
those that correspond to HTTP messages.
3. Take Wireshark for a “Test Run.” The best way to learn about any new piece of
software is to try it out! Do the following:
1. Start up your favorite web browser, which will display your selected homepage.
2. If you are using a proxy (especially a host-based one), disable it if possible. You want
to examine uncached network traffic.
3. Start up the Wireshark software. You will initially see a window similar to that shown
above, except that no packet data will be displayed in the packet-listing, packet-

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header, or packet-contents window, since Wireshark has not yet begun capturing
packets.
4. To begin packet capture, select the Capture pull down menu and select Options.
This will cause the “Wireshark: Capture Interfaces” window to be displayed. There
are three sections to this window: Input, Output and Options, as shown below.
The Input window allows
you to select which
interface you will use for
capture. You can see that
the computer where I took
this screenshot has Wi-Fi
and a bunch of Ethernet
interfaces, as well as the
loopback interface. Only
one of them is in use, so I'll
pick that one.
The Output window lets
you choose to dump all the
collected packets in to a
file. This is handy for
scripting (wouldn't you love
to grab a 1MB capture file
at midnight every night?
Who wouldn't?) Note that
you can limit the file sizes.
I generally don't touch
anything in this window.
The Options window lets
you specify when the
capture should quit (in
packets, files, size or time),
controls the listing section
of the main window during
the capture (update or not?
Scroll or not?) as well as
choose to resolve names or
not.

5. You can use most of the default values in the Options window, but check “Show extra
capture information dialog.” The network interfaces (i.e., the physical connections)
that your computer has to the network will be shown in the Interface pull down
menu at the top of the Capture Options window. In case your computer has more
than one active network interface (e.g., if you have both a wireless and a wired

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Ethernet connection), you will need to select an interface that is being used to send
and receive packets. After selecting the network interface (or using the default
interface chosen by Wireshark), click Start. Packet capture will now begin - all
packets visible to your network interface (including those being sent/received from/
by your computer) are now being captured by Wireshark!
6. {Note: I can't get this window to appear on new versions of WireShark. You might,
on your version and your operating system} Once you begin packet capture, a packet
capture summary window will appear. This is the window that you decided not to
hide in the previous step. This window summarizes the number of packets of various
types that are being captured, and (importantly!) contains the Stop button that will

allow you to stop packet capture. Don’t stop packet capture yet.
7. While Wireshark is running, enter the URL http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~ini740/Lab0/
lab0.html (Those are three zeros, not the letter o) and have that page displayed in
your browser. Make sure to clear your browser cache if you have previously displayed
this webpage -- you want to get it across the internet, not from your cache. In order
to display this page, your browser will contact the HTTP server at www.ece.cmu.edu
and exchange HTTP messages with the server in order to download this page, as
discussed in section 2.2 of the text. The Ethernet frames containing these HTTP
messages will be captured by Wireshark.
8. After your browser has displayed the lab0.html page, stop Wireshark packet capture
by selecting stop in the Wireshark capture window. This will cause the Wireshark
capture window to disappear and the main Wireshark window to display all packets
captured since you began packet capture. The main Wireshark window should now
look similar to the figure on page 3. You now have live packet data that contains all
protocol messages exchanged between your computer and other network entities!
The HTTP message exchanges with the www.ece.cmu.edu web server should appear
somewhere in the listing of packets captured. But there will be many other types of

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packets displayed as well (see, e.g., the many different protocol types shown in the
Protocol column in Figure 2). Even though the only action you took was to
download a web page, there were evidently many other protocols running on your
computer that are unseen by the user (as well as data sent via various protocols by
other computers on your network). We’ll learn much more about these protocols as
we progress through the course! For now, you should just be aware that there is often
much more going on than “meet’s the eye”!
9. Type in http (all protocol names are in lower case in Wireshark) into the display
filter specification window at the top of the main Wireshark window. Then select
“Apply” in the filter toolbar. This will cause only HTTP message to be displayed in
the packet-listing window. Add the filter ip.src == <your IP address> ||
ip.dst == <your IP address> to filter out traffic that isn’t going to or from your
computer. This will keep other people’s traffic private and get rid of lots of HTTP
exchanges from other computers that you don’t care about. Filters are combined
with C operators. For example, if your IP address is 169.1.19.87, then your filter
should be http && (ip.src == 169.1.19.87 || ip.dst == 169.1.19.87).
10.Select the first http
message shown in the
packet-listing window.
This should be the
HTTP GET message
that was sent from
your computer to the
www.ece.cmu.edu
HTTP server.2 When
you select the HTTP
GET message, the
Ethernet frame, IP
datagram, TCP
segment, and HTTP
message header
information will be
displayed in the
packet-header window.3
By clicking the
triangles to the left side
of the packet details window, minimize the amount of Frame, Ethernet, Internet
Protocol, and Transmission Control Protocol information displayed. Maximize the

2You may have other applications and services running on your computer that use HTTP. In such case,
you'll have to dig through them and figure out which was the first HTTP GET message.
3 Recall that the HTTP GET message that is sent to the www.ece.cmu.edu web server is contained
within a TCP segment, which is contained in an IP datagram, which is encapsulated in an Ethernet
frame. If this process of encapsulation isn’t quite clear yet, review section 1.5 in the text.

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amount information displayed about the HTTP protocol. Your Wireshark display
should now look roughly like this figure. (Note, in particular, the minimized amount
of protocol information for all protocols except HTTP, and the maximized amount
of protocol information for HTTP in the packet-header window).
11.To use Wireshark effectively, you need to learn how to filter the results so you aren’t
wading through too much data. Wireshark uses two different filters, one to filter the
results that get captured and another to filter the results that are displayed.
Unfortunately, both use different languages to specify the filter. You’ve already been
introduced to display filters, which use a C-like set of operators. You can also use a
more English-like term to describe the same operators. For instance, the filter you
used earlier http && (ip.src == 169.1.19.87 || ip.dst == 169.1.19.87)
can also be specified as http and (ip.src eq 169.1.19.87 or ip.dst eq
169.1.19.87). Another powerful operator you should know about is “contains”
which, you might have guessed, does a substring match. The actual values being
combined can come from any of the protocols and any of the protocol fields that
Wireshark knows about (called “dissector” in Wireshark lingo). So, you might search
for HTTP traffic from Macintosh computers with http.user_agent contains
AppleWebKit. Take a look at the Wireshark User Manual, section 6.3-6.5 for more
details about Display filters.
12.The capture time of each packet is quite important, so is displayed in the packet
listing area as the second column. By default, this time is "number of seconds since
the beginning of capture." However, you have control over what is displayed.
Explore the View ➙ Time Display Format menu to see display formats as well as
precision choices. Also of interest is the ability to change the time reference so that
all times are displayed relative to the capture time of a chosen packet. First, chose a
packet from the display list by clicking on it. Then, go to the Edit ➙ Set/Unset Time
Reference, which will toggle your choice to use the chosen packet as the reference.
When set, you will see the time for that packet changed to "*REF*" All other
packet's time has been changed to seconds before or after the capture of that
reference packet. This is a particularly handy way to figure out round-trip-time. Set
the request packet as the reference, then find the reply packet. The time given on
that packet will be the number of seconds it took from the request packet for it to
arrive. No arithmetic necessary!
13.The display filter language is also used to define rules that Wireshark uses to assign
colors to particular packets in the user interface. Take a look in Chapter 10.3 of the
Wireshark User Guide to learn about coloring rules. Using the captured packets,
practice temporary color changes by selecting a packet and then pressing <ctrl> 1,
<ctrl> 2, etc. Also, examine the coloring rules dialog and experiment with defining
permanent coloring rules (you might want to export the default set of coloring rules
before messing around with them).
14.Capture filters are also quite useful. They let you restrict the amount of data you
collect in the first place. Whereas display filters don’t actually change the contents
of the data that Wireshark collects, merely which of the packets that have been
captured are displayed. Capture filters are entered in the “Filter” field of the

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“Capture Options” dialog box. The capture language is based on tcpdump and
requires a bit more protocol knowledge to use. For now, simply experiment with
host <ip address> to ensure you don’t capture data from other network users.
15.Exit Wireshark
Congratulations! You’ve now completed setting up an important network engineering tool
and learning a bit about its operation.

Turn-in
The goal of this first lab was primarily to introduce you to Wireshark. The following
questions will demonstrate that you’ve been able to get Wireshark up and running, and have
explored some of its capabilities. Answer the following questions, based on your Wireshark
experimentation.
1. List up to 10 different protocols that appear in the protocol column in the unfiltered
packet-listing window in step 7 above. As I don’t have control over the data flowing
over your network at the time of your lab, I don’t know exactly how many and what
protocols those will be. I do expect that you have a bunch (if less than 5, please look
harder). Just list out those that you see, but don’t bother to list more than 10. (5 Points)
2. How long did it take from when the HTTP GET message was sent until the HTTP OK
reply was received? (By default, the value of the Time column in the packet-listing
window is the amount of time, in seconds, since Wireshark tracing began. To display the
Time field in time-of-day format, select the Wireshark View pull down menu, then
select Time Display Format, then select Time-of-day.) Include a screenshot and
describe where you got the data to answer this question. (15 Points)
3. What is the Internet address (IP address) of www.ece.cmu.edu? What is the Internet
address of your computer (This might be a private address, if you are behind a NAT
device. No worries, we’ll learn about that later)? Include a screenshot and describe
where you got the data to answer this question. (15 Points)
4. How many packets did you capture (total of all protocols, not just HTTP)? Now, use
display filters to determine how many packets contain your ip address (hint: Use ip.addr
instead of the clumsy ip.src or ip.dst format I taught you in Step 8). What is this filter
you used? Now, reverse the filter to determine how many packets don’t contain your ip
address. See any problems here? If not, you've already figured out the point of this
question, so explain how you did so. If so, how can this problem be fixed? What are
the appropriate display filters to use? How does Wireshark warn you of such a problem?
(This is an important detail to remember about Wireshark. Please ensure you've
discussed the problem well enough so that the grader can ensure you explored it
thoroughly. If your numbers show you don't have a problem, then figure out how you
might reverse the filter in such a way as to cause a problem.) (25 Points)
5. Use your newly acquired Wireshark skills to capture the process when your browser
loads the front page of INI's website (i.e. http://www.ini.cmu.edu). How many packets
did you capture? Were all of them HTTP? How many HTTP requests did you make?
Were all the replies "200 OK"? Did you find anything else interesting? Please ensure

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you have examined this packet capture in detail, using appropriate Wireshark
functionality. Write up what you saw (yes, please include screen captures where you
think they are necessary). (40 Points)
6. Turn in your answers in a single PDF file and submit it to the Lab0 “Assignment” on
Canvas. Make sure to submit your answers — every year we seem to get one student
who submits this handout instead (and thus gets a zero score. Ooops!)

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