What this book covers

Chapter 1, Installing Wireshark, will provide you with an introduction to the basics of the TCP/IP model and a step-by-step walk-through of the installation of Wireshark on your favorite operating system.

Chapter 2, Introduction to Wireshark and Packet Analysis, will help you understand the basics and science behind packet analysis, as Wireshark come in handy and proves to be a Swiss Army knife for professionals dealing with network, security, and digital forensics. In this chapter, you will also understand the trick of placing the sniffer in a strategic location to get most out of your network.

Chapter 3, Filtering Our Way in Wireshark, will help you identify and apply the Wireshark filters, namely the capturing and displaying filters. Filtering provides a powerful way to capture or see the traffic you desire; it's an effective way to remove the noise from the stream of packets we desire to analyze.

Chapter 4, Analyzing Application Layer Protocols, will help you understand the approach and methodology for analyzing application layer protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, FTP, and DNS through Wireshark. As we know, application layer protocols typically interface between a client and a server. It is critical to understand the structure and behavior of application layer protocols packets in order to identify anomalies with efficiency.

Chapter 5, Analyzing the Transport Layer Protocols TCP/UDP, will help you understand the underlying network technology, enabling the movement of network packets across routing infrastructures through the analysis of transport layer protocols such as TCP and UDP. TCP and UDP are the basis of networking protocol, and it is important to understand their structure and behavior.

Chapter 6, Network Security  Packet Analysis, will guide you through using Wireshark to analyze security issues, such as analyzing malware traffic and footprinting attempts in your network.

Chapter 7, Analyzing Traffic in Thin Air, will help you in understand the methodology and approach involved in performing wireless packet analysis. This chapter shows you how to analyze wireless traffic and pinpoint any problems that may follow. We will also learn the cool trick of decrypting wireless traffic using Wireshark.

Chapter 8, Mastering the Advanced Features of Wireshark, will provide you with insight into the advanced options and elements available in Wireshark, such as a statistics menu, and will also provide a brief and summarized approach on how to work with command-line packet sniffing applications, such as Tshark.