Examining the Wireshark interface

Wireshark offers a comprehensive framework for analyzing network traffic, and it performs well on most operating systems. The interface is streamlined and intuitive, with shortcuts and methods to make navigation easier and get you up and running with analyzing traffic. In this section, we’ll discover how Wireshark presents information, along with where to find a list of keyboard shortcuts. We’ll also take a look at the many authors who have made this application possible, and describe some ways you can obtain help and learn more about Wireshark.

Let’s start with a brief look at the Wireshark interface.

Streamlining the interface

When you first launch Wireshark, you will see a list of active interfaces. Some have a sparkline (or a moving graph symbol) next to the interface(s). When present, a sparkline represents actively exchanging data, and you can select that interface and begin capturing traffic.

As shown in the...