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Capturing packets between two laptops sending text files between each other

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Hi there,

I am currently doing a university project. I am trying to send a text file from one laptop to another over wi-fi, with both laptops connected to the same network. I am then using a third laptop to try and capture the packets of this file transfer but I cannot seem to capture anything coming or going from these two laptops.

Can anyone please help me?

Thanks,

Anish

asked 02 May '12, 03:59

4ni5h's gravatar image

4ni5h
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accept rate: 0%


2 Answers:

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did you check, and follow, the instructions in the WLAN sniffing wiki?

http://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/WLAN

1.) What's the OS on your sniffer machine (Windows, Linux, BSD)?

2.) Is the Wifi connection encrypted? If so: How (WEP, WPA, etc.)?

Regards
Kurt

answered 02 May '12, 04:45

Kurt%20Knochner's gravatar image

Kurt Knochner ♦
24.8k1039237
accept rate: 15%

Hi Kurt,

Thanks for your reply, yes i had a brief look at that a while back but I will look into that in more detail now.

The sniffer machine is windows 7.

With regards to the encryption, the router is encrypted with WPA. However I want to carry out the experiment with encryption on and off. When I tried both these tests yesterday I still had trouble finding anything even when encryption was disabled.

Anish

(02 May '12, 04:52) 4ni5h

did you connect the windows 7 sniffer machine to the SSID of the test clients?

(02 May '12, 04:54) Kurt Knochner ♦

please consider the limitations of Wifi sniffing on the windows platform. Search for "Capturing WLAN traffic on Windows" in the wiki link mentioned above.

(02 May '12, 04:57) Kurt Knochner ♦

All three laptops were connected wirelessly to the same network.

(02 May '12, 06:43) 4ni5h

as menitoned above, please check the wiki and the limitations on windows.

(02 May '12, 06:54) Kurt Knochner ♦

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See the Wiki page on Wireless LAN capturing HERE.

answered 02 May '12, 05:07

grahamb's gravatar image

grahamb ♦
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accept rate: 22%