In development and testing, it is often necessary to perform packet capturing. This article will introduce how to efficiently perform packet capturing on different platforms. Currently, packet capturing software is mainly divided into two categories: one that captures HTTP packets by setting up a proxy, such as Charles and mitmproxy; and another that directly captures all protocol packets passing through the network card, the most famous of which are Wireshark and Tcpdump. The following will focus on introducing the features and usage methods of these four packet capture tools.
Wireshark is a well-known packet capture tool suitable for all platforms. It can capture all protocol data on a specified network card. Although powerful, it is not very friendly to beginners. Beginners need to learn how to filter for the data packets of interest, and those unfamiliar with Wiresharkâs filtering syntax may find it confusing.
Wiresharkâs filtering syntax is simple, starting with a protocol, followed by protocol attributes, and then a judgment symbol. For example, to display HTTP protocol content, simply enter âhttpâ in the filter input box.
Tcpdump is a built-in packet capture software for Linux, also powerful, and can capture all protocol packets on a specified network card. As a command-line tool, it captures packets that are not easy to analyze, and usually needs to be used in conjunction with Wireshark.
Simple filtering parameters can be used to specify the content to be captured and output it to a file, then use Wireshark for analysis.
Charles is an HTTP packet capture tool that captures via proxy. After the proxy is configured, Charles starts capturing packets. It supports viewing HTTP protocol content but cannot decrypt HTTPS packets unless Charlesâs certificate is installed.
Wireshark is a tool designed to assist in developing iOS applications for Apple mobile phones. It provides a series of functions to help improve iOS application performance, including CPU, memory, GPU performance monitoring, network monitoring, and network packet capturing. These functions can comprehensively detect and optimize the performance of applications regarding memory, network, CPU, etc., thus enhancing the overall performance of the applications.
In addition, Wireshark also offers features like real-time log and crash log analysis, assisting developers in efficiently developing and debugging iOS applications. Moreover, it provides powerful application management and file management functions to help developers efficiently manage iOS applications on phones.
For these four packet capture tools, the appropriate tool can be selected based on different needs:
The above is a brief introduction and comparison of the four major network packet capture tools.