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What device on the network was responsible for the most data transfer ?

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Does anybody know how I could use Wireshark to find the device on my network that transfers the most data?

asked 17 Jan '16, 13:44

Balter%20Wenjamin's gravatar image

Balter Wenjamin
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accept rate: 0%

  • what kind of network? Wired, wireless...
  • can you capture the total traffic of that network at a single place at the same time? (requires monitor mode for wireless networks and special arrangement for wired networks)
  • do the devices in your network talk to each other or only to the internet through a gateway device?

Wireshark provides summary information, so once you capture the complete traffic, it is enough to sort the conversations by amount of packets or bytes transferred, but the key is not to miss a part of the total traffic flow.

(17 Jan '16, 13:53) sindy

I'm on a wireless network connected to the internet through a 802.11n wireless router. If I captured traffic for say five minutes what should I look at to find the device, on my network that transferred the most data?

(17 Jan '16, 13:57) Balter Wenjamin

One Answer:

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Assuming you've captured using monitor mode (don't confuse it with promiscuous mode), you should go Statistics -> Conversations, and in the right bottom part of the window which opens, click Conversation types and put a checkmark to IEEE 802.11. This will create a corresponding tab in that window. Select that tab and click the column header named "Bytes" (4th from the left, sum of Tx and Rx traffic of the device) twice to sort the rows of the table by the number of packets with highest values on top.

Then, one of address A and address B columns of the topmost row contains the AP's MAC address, and the other one contains the MAC address of the device responsible for the biggest deal of the traffic.

Higher protocol layers, such as IP, are likely inaccessible unless your wireless network uses no encryption, so you'll not be able to see any other than MAC addresses. If that is an issue for you, you'd have to configure Wireshark to decrypt the wireless traffic and to reconnect all your devices to the AP while capturing.

answered 17 Jan '16, 14:11

sindy's gravatar image

sindy
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accept rate: 24%

edited 17 Jan '16, 14:12