Wireless networks utilize a range of 802.11 specifications to provide connectivity over 2.4 or 5 GHz frequency bands at a variety of speeds. The significant differences between wireless frames and those found on wired networks are as follows:
Wireshark can be used to capture and analyze packets on Wireless networks. However, in order to analyze the control and management frames, as well as select the radio channels to capture on without having to associate with a specific channel, specialized adapters are required. These adapters are available from various networking vendors.
These wireless adapters and their drivers enable Wireshark to display a pseudo header just below the frame header in the Packet Details pane, which includes information about:
802.11
protocol used, and the common types are a, b, g, and nRemember when analyzing wireless networks, the wireless access points utilize a wired LAN connection to the rest of the network that may warrant a separate analysis. The access point strips off the 802.11 header and encapsulates a packet in an Ethernet frame before sending the packet off on the wired network.
The following screenshot illustrates the contents of a typical Radiotap Header and IEEE 802.11 frame; note the Data Rate, Channel frequency, and Signal/Noise values:
18.118.255.169