Let's Talk About Packet Sniffing

[DRF138]

I have A program Called Packetyzer ( It uses EtherReal )
I don't really know much about packet sniffing And I am trying to Increase my knowledge base, Hell for that matter I don't know much about networking- I have a small 3 to 4 Computer Lab and no hub or router this is all crossed over 1 comp talks to two or three- Anyway Maybe that's not so much Important but it just gives you an idea of what type of network I am on- if that matters at all where packet sniffing is concerned....
Any and all Posts are appreciated... David

what a exactly are you wanting to know?

how to use the program or how does the program work?

to be honest i would look at the help or the guide. im sure it can give you alot of information on what you want to know

[DRF138]

Just want to learn more about packet sniffing from those more familiar with it...software & hardware is just posted as to give an idea of what I'm working with to learn on-not that relevant in the query really..Sorry for any confusion. David

[SiliconJon]

All I know is dogs seem to identify each other with it...

:9

(sorry, somebody had to say it!)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...et+sniffing%22

[Praetorian]

Hmm...I'm going to take a shot in the dark here.

When Ethereal captures packets, you usually see just a bunch of jibberish. This jibberish is called Hex, and if you get a hex to text converter, or you can turn it into something humanly readable. I believe it's the top header of the ethernet packet.

I THINK that's it, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm 100% wrong. Maybe DVNT1 will come in in here and clarify this issue for us.

[vass0922]

I've never used this packet sniffer.. most times like when you run Win2k Network monitor (cheesy packet sniffer but effective at times) you will see EACH packet with its information. Sometimes its just jibberish code, other times its plain text. However, a single packet doesn't include a lot of information

There is a full blown package think Computer Associates makes, that if you're sniffing a guy cruising the web that it will even render the html pages he's viewing.. FARRRRRRRRR from free mind you.

Packet sniffers (the common use) are good for detecting lower level problems on the network. For instance ifa router isnt' working correctly it could be doing a broadcast storm. To the PC you won't see much.. but if you actually look at the packets you'll see a FLOOD of ARP packets.

To REALLY understand what its doing you should read up on TCP/IP
Otherwise the SYN/ACK stuff won't make a lick of sense to you.
There's a LOT going on there in each packet.

[SpookyEddy]

You are just looking at the packets on the wire, most of the information displayed will be the headers of each packet with various bits decoded from the payload.

Some basic understanding of TCP/IP would be a good place to start.

Regards

ed

[DRF138]

Thanks alot my gears are really spinning now....Hex to text Eh?
Where is a good place to learn more about tcp/ip-The most I can do is ping an adapter or host....Checking out the link,too..Got further ? Please post it is greatly appreciated.
David