Install and run Wireshark on the command line (CentOS 5.2)

Using CentOS 5.2 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, install and run Wireshark (formerly Ethereal) over the command line.

Install Wireshark:

yum install wireshark

Run a capture:

tethereal -i eth1 -w ~/mycapture.pcap

This command will run Wireshark/Ethereal, capture on the eth1 interface and output the data to /yourhomedir/mycapture.pcap

Why would you want to do this? If you want to capture packets from a headless or remote Linux PC and analyse the data elsewhere.

Right now I’m at home, but I have a headless CentOS box at work that’s running ntop from a mirrored port, in order to look at network traffic flowing over the router. To increase the capability of the CentOS box, I want to use it to capture packets using Wireshark, then download the .pcap file over WinSCP and look at the data on my laptop using Wireshark for Windows.