ABSTRACT
Wireshark can be downloaded for Windows-based computers at the uniform resource locater (URL) address of www.wireshark.org/ download. This program includes a significant amount of valuable features, to include the ability to inspect hundreds of protocols, capture data on the fly as well as perform an offline analysis, use a variety of filters to reduce data to your field of interest, perform an analysis of Voice over IP (VoIP), and read and write a variety of file formats, ranging from Microsoft’s Network Monitor to Cisco IDS to Network General’s Sniffer and Sniffer Pro to Network Instruments Observer. Through the use of this program you can even capture compressed files, and it also supports Novell’s LANalyzer. You can output data to extensive markup language (XML), PostScript, CSV, or as a standard text file. If you go to the home page of Wireshark, move your cursor over the term Wireshark and select About from the drop-down menu. This action will result in a display of program features followed by the name of the original author and his email address, and a comprehensive list of contributors and their email addresses.
