Task 5 – Capture and Analyze Network Traffic Using Wireshark

📌 Objective

The objective of this task is to capture live network packets using Wireshark, identify basic protocols, and analyze traffic types.

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🛠 Tools Used

• Wireshark
• Npcap

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📂 Steps Performed

1. Installed Wireshark along with Npcap for packet capturing.
2. Opened Wireshark and selected the active network interface (Wi-Fi in my case).
3. Started packet capture and generated traffic by:
   • Browsing websites
   • Running ping google.com in Command Prompt
4. Captured packets for approximately 1 minute.
5. Stopped the capture and applied display filters for specific protocols:
   • http – to view HTTP traffic
   • dns – to view DNS queries and responses
   • tcp – to view TCP connections
6. Saved the capture file as task5_capture.pcap.
7. Took screenshots of filtered packet views for documentation.

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🔍 Protocols Identified

Protocol	Description	Example Packet Observation
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol – used for web communication	Request to example.com with status code 200 OK
DNS	Domain Name System – resolves domain names to IP addresses	Query for google.com resolved to IP 142.250.x.x
TCP	Transmission Control Protocol – connection-oriented reliable protocol	3-way handshake observed between client and server

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📸 Screenshots

1. HTTP Filter

2. DNS Filter

3. TCP Filter

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📁 Files in Repository

• task5_capture.pcap – Packet capture file
• README.md – This report
• screenshots/ – Folder containing all protocol screenshots

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📚 Key Learning

• Learned to capture live network traffic using Wireshark.
• Understood the role of HTTP, DNS, and TCP in network communication.
• Practiced filtering and analyzing specific protocol traffic.
• Gained basic awareness of packet structures and network troubleshooting.

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