what does ethreal do?

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linux1880

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I am just wondering what data does the ethreal captures? Is it just the amount of data that flows in the internal networks or it does capture the data on internet as well. Does it keep the trace of amazon or ebay passorwd ? hotmail yahoo and other chattings?

What is ethreal for? Well I have installed one and I do analyse the traffic and data :) but I don't know anyhing beside that, I don't know the purpose and why I am doing I just know I am network student.

Any help , so that i could spend more time on that.
 
Ethereal captures network traffic. It also allows promiscuous mode capturing so you can see ALL unswitched traffic in your LAN, even if it is not originating or targetting your comp. so yea, you could use it to sniff passwords... however not ebay and amazon passwords as online shops use SSL encryption so you'll not see passwords in plain text.

but since you are a network student I think the purpose is just to get to know how packets look like to analyze them.
also refer to http://www.ethereal.com/faq.html
 
In addition to the above, yes, you can locate and pick out IM conversation relatively easily.

Ethereal comes in handy in many situations. this past summer, a group of us had to locate "trouble traffic" causing a network bogg at Safeco Field (where the seattle mariners play/lose...). when used properly, you can segment a network of any size (in this case over 300 point-of-sale clients) and determine if there is any unnecessary traffic (unnecessary broadcast traffic is a popular one) that causes collisions that effect proper network traffic integrity and propigation. like mentioned above, use it on traffic that is not switched for best results. it really depends on what you are using it for. for true password snooping and conversation snooping it's not the tool to use. this is a real troubleshooting tool.
as far as snooping/sniffing .... there are other snooping applications that were developed for that kind of activity online....i don't recommend ethereal......actually....i wouldn't even recommend windows for that kind of activity.
 
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