Chapter 5: Tapping into the Data Stream

Wireshark provides the ability to capture and analyze network traffic. It is used by network administrators and security analysts in a wide variety of industries, governments, and non-profit organizations. Prior to analysis, you'll need to tap into the data stream and capture packets from the network. Once captured, you can analyze the packets to understand the traffic flow. In this chapter, we'll review the different network architectures, along with the various types of media that can be found on today's networks. Once outlined, this will help you get a better understanding of the complex nature of today's networked environment.

So that you can confidently begin capturing traffic, we'll look at the various options, including capture, input, and output. We'll then review what happens when you tap into a network so that you can identify what types of traffic you'll see. We'll also compare and contrast...