The Benefits of Wireshark

Wireshark offers several benefits that make it appealing for everyday use. It is aimed at both the journeyman and the expert packet analyst and offers a variety of features to entice each. Let's examine Wireshark according to the criteria I defined in Chapter 1 for selecting a packet sniffing tool.

Supported Protocols

Wireshark excels in the number of protocols that it supports—over 850 as of this writing. These protocols run from common ones like IP and DHCP to more advanced proprietary protocols like AppleTalk and BitTorrent. And because Wireshark is developed under an open source model, new protocol support is added with each update. If there is a protocol that Wireshark doesn't support, you can code that support yourself ...

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