Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] wireshark dropping packets? wireshark for xandros?
From: Condor Kim <toothache200873@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:15:34 -0800 (PST)
hi thanks guy. but where on the status bar is the function that shows how many, if any, packets are  being dropped while capture is going on?

--- On Thu, 1/15/09, Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Wireshark-users] wireshark dropping packets? wireshark for xandros?
To: toothache200873@xxxxxxxxx, "Community support list for Wireshark" <wireshark-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009, 3:46 AM

On Jan 13, 2009, at 9:52 PM, Condor Kim wrote:

> i notice lately that if i am downloading or uploading (via ftp) a large
file, like a video, wireshark will show only the packets of the downloading or
uploading. if i happen to visit some webpages while downloading or uploading,
the traffic for visiting these webpages won't register or show at all in my
wireshark. is this normal? does wireshark drop other packets when it's too
busy with one connection?

Wireshark - or, more correctly, the packet capture mechanism used by
libpcap/WinPcap - doesn't know about connections, so it won't drop
packets from other connections if there's too much traffic on one
connection, it could drop some packets from the connection itself, not just
packets not from that connection, and it won't necessarily drop packets not
from that connection.

So it *is* possible that, if you have a lot of network traffic going to and
from your machine, some packets will be dropped. As Jaap Keuter said, check the
status bar while you're capturing; it could (depending on the OS on which
you're running, and the version of that OS, as that controls whether
libpcap/WinPcap can determine whether packets were dropped) indicate how many
packets were dropped by the capture Wireshark is doing.