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Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] how to start Wireshark automatically at each boot-up?

From: Karthik Balaguru <karthikbalaguru79@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:22:12 +0530
On 1/15/10, Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Jan 14, 2010, at 2:57 AM, Hrishikesh Murali wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 5:20 AM, Dai Nish <dai_nish@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >> Please advise me how you could start Wireshark automatically and use it to monitor network traffic at each boot-up.
> >
> > Just add the line "wireshark&" to /etc/rc.local
>
> ...if you're running on a UN*X with an /etc/rc.local.  That obviously won't help on Windows.
>

I have been searching the internet for having the wireshark up as soon
as the windows boots up  -
1. http://www.tutorial5.com/content/view/43/47/
2. For Windows XP -
Click Start > All Programs > right click the 'Startup' folder > click
'Explore' > copy the Wireshark Shortcut there and you're done !!

The invokation of wireshark as soon as the Windows starts up can be
done using the above methods. But, If wireshark has to get started
with certain specific configurations then at startup, a batch file
should be created for this and the shortcut to launch the batch file
should be placed into the Startup group on the Start menu. The batch
file can have commands to invoke the wireshark with desired
configurations using the command line options that is available with
it. (with the '-i' option to solve the interface selection problem &
other options can also be configured )
http://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChCustCommandLine.html
http://commandwindows.com/batch.htm

Lemme know if there is some other tricks !

> Note that the X server must be running *before* Wireshark is started, as it's an X11-based application on UN*X.
>
> As others have noted, it's not clear that Wireshark - or even the non-GUI TShark - would be the right tool for this purpose.  If somebody wants to record network *usage*, even running dumpcap or "tcpdump -w" might be overkill - capturing traffic won't just give them the amount of network traffic, it'll give you the full *contents* of the network traffic, so if they use, for example, 250GB/month of network traffic, capturing that traffic will consume at least 250GB/month of disk space....
>

Karthik Balaguru