Wireshark, previously Ethereal, is a network protocol analyzer that allows you to inspect the packets of hundreds of different protocols. The upgrade process is very straight forward but it doesn’t hurt to mention that it is OK to go ahead and uninstall the previous version during the upgrade. Basically you will be uninstalling your current version of Wireshark (1.0.2 in my case) and then installing the new version (1.0.7). Follow the directions below to complete the Wireshark upgrade process.
- Download Newest Version: You can download the latest version of Wireshark here.
- Double Click Installer: Double click on the Wireshark setup .exe titled wireshark-setup-1.0.7.exe. If a previous version of Wireshark is installed you will be prompted if you want to uninstall the previous version. Agree to uninstalling the previous version which will start the uninstall process as shown below in the image.
- Uninstall Previous Wireshark Version: When the uninstall of the previous version of Wireshark is completed you will see the below window. Click the Finish button which will start the installation of the new version of Wireshark.
- Wireshark Install Wizard: Click the Next button when the below window appears to start going through the Wireshark 1.0.7 install wizard.
- Wireshark License Agreement: After clicking Next in the previous window of the Wireshark install wizard the license agreement below will show. Click “I Agree” to continue through the install wizard.
- Choose Wireshark Components: The next step of the install wizard is where you will choose various components of Wireshark. The default is to do a GTK2 User Interface install with all of the components included. Unless you have a specific reason to not install any of the components then you should go ahead and install all of them. Once you finalize the components configuration then click the Next button.
- Select Additional Tasks: This step of the Wireshark installation wizard is where you will select additional tasks such as file associations and adding a desktop icon. I personally don’t like having icons on my desktop so I remove the check from “Desktop Icon” but choose whatever fits your PC the best. Once you are satisfied with the selections click the Next button.
- Choose Install Location: Now verify the default install location is OK and then click the Next button.
- Install WinPcap: If you had a previous version of Wireshark install the chances are that you have WinPcap installed already so verify you have the current version and if not choose to install the newest version of WinPcap. Once your selection is made click the Next button.
- Install Wireshark: After the last window regarding WinPcap the actual intsall process will begin as shown below.
- Complete & Launch Wireshark: Now that the installation has completed check the “Run Wireshark 1.0.7” option and then click the Finish button. This will finalize the installation and launch Wireshark.
Wireshark is a powerful tool for packet inspection and is very useful to see the specifics of what traffic is coming into or going out of your PC. My suggestion would be that anyone that has to do network administration familiarize themselves with Wireshark.
