Using My Eee as a Packet Sniffer/Analyzer

My day job involves doing information/network security checks for the company (and its subsdiaries) I work with.  As an information security professional, one of the "tools of the trade" in my profession is a network sniffer.  After a few sniffing around (pun intended) I discovered that I can install one of my favorite network sniffing tool to my Eee PC -- Wireshark (formerly known as Ethereal).
 

Installing Wireshark on my Eee PC, however, is not a point-and-click affair.  Here's what I did to install Wireshark on my Eee.

• Add a the standard Debian repository to the Synaptic Package Manager (http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stable main non-free contrib)
• Open Terminal (ctrl+alt+T on Easy Mode, or run Applications --> System --> Console from Advanced Mode)
• From the terminal, type "sudo apt-get wireshark" to start the download and install process for Wireshark.  Should the installation process gets interrupted, issue the "sudo app-get wireshark" command again to continue/finish the installation process.
• Once the installation process is complete, run the program by typing "sudo /usr/bin/wireshark" from the Terminal.  If you're running under the Advanced Mode, Wireshark can be found at Application --> Internet --> Wireshark.
  

If you want to sniff wi-fi network packets, choose ath0 as your interface, for your wired ethernet network packets, choose eth0.

That's it! Happy sniffing!

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