TCP retransmission – where do they come from and why
When TCP sends a packet or a group of packets (refer to the How it works… section later in this recipe), it waits for acknowledgment to confirm the acceptance of these packets. Retransmissions, obviously, happen due to a packet that has not arrived, or acknowledgment that has not arrived on time. There can be various reasons for this, and finding the reason is the goal of this recipe.
Getting ready
When you see that the network becomes slow, one of the reasons for this can be retransmissions. Connect Wireshark in the port mirror to the suspicious client or server, and watch the results.
In this recipe, we will see some common problems that we encounter with Wireshark, and what they indicate.
How to do it...
Let's get started:
Start capturing data on the relevant interface.
Go to the Analyze | Expert Info menu.
Under Notes, look for Retransmissions.
You can click on the (+) sign and a list of retransmissions will open. A single mouse click on every...
