CODEWITHSUNDEEP
network-programmingtcpwindows-cenetwork-protocolswireshark
B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven
B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven

Reputation: 10247

Why am I seeing no conversations between my desktop and my handheld apps with Wireshark?

I've got a Windows app that runs on my desktop and connects to a Windows CE app on a handheld device. The handheld fetches data using the Windows app as its conduit (it downloads tables and then converts them into another format, but that's probably neither here nor there as far as this question goes).

Because of the bizarre anomaly we experience where in certain rare instances the handheld app hangs (if the filesize is a very specific number - see Why would a fetch operation crash when the amount of data is divisible by 1023 or 1024?), I want to see just exactly what is being passed between the two devices.

I've gotten the IP Address for both machines/devices using "ipconfig" at the command line. Running Wireshark while they communicate (activity is taking place) and then poring over the capture afterwards, I see several occasions where the desktop machine's IP Address is involved (both as the Destination and the Source) but never do I see the handheld device's IP Address...Why not?

A lot of the "talking" that the desktop machine is engaged in seems to be with wireshark, too.

So the two devices/apps obviously are communicating, but it's as if Wireshark is blind to it...???

Upvotes: 0

Views: 75

Answers (1)

user862787
user862787

Reputation:

If the desktop and handheld are communicating over a Wi-Fi network, and you're running Wireshark on the desktop machine, that should work, if you capture on the Wi-Fi network (leave promiscuous and monitor mode turned off in this case).

If you're running Wireshark on some third machine, you will have to capture in either promiscuous or monitor mode on the third machine, and monitor mode won't work on Windows. If the network is protected (WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc.), you will need to configure Wireshark to decrypt packets on the network.

If the desktop and handheld are communicating over a mobile phone network, you might be able to run Wireshark on the desktop and capture the traffic (but probably not on Windows), but you won't be able to run it on a third machine.

Upvotes: 1

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