All projects will be done using Wireshark, a free and open-source packet analyzer.
Download it, install on your computer and search for online tutorials and other handy information.
A good starting point is the Wikipedia page.
You may also find useful these materials for Wireshark Labs (see the bottom table on the page).

Project 1:  Writing Wireshark filter expressions for packet capture

Project 2:  Using ping for RTT distribution and tracert for route discovery

Project 3:  Analysis of RTP and RTCP Packets

Project 4:  Analysis of RTP packet delay and loss

Note: Examples of student project reports will be made available to course instructors upon request ( send email ).

Related Online Information

♦ Hakin9 Magazine,   vol.3, no.1, issue 01/2014(16) ISSN: 1733-7186
Whole issue dedicated to Wireshark.   [local copy]

♦ Also, rich feature set of Wireshark explored in Hakin9 On Demand, 07/2012

♦ Five free, dead-easy IP traffic monitoring tools
By Jack Wallen | September 21, 2011

1. Wireshark:   http://www.wireshark.org/
2. Angry IP Scanner:   http://www.angryip.org/w/Home
   Source code is available on the download page
3. Zenmap:   http://nmap.org/zenmap/
   (graphical front end to the cross-platform Nmap tool)
4. Colasoft Capsa Free:   http://www.colasoft.com/capsa/capsa-free-edition.php
5. EtherApe:   http://etherape.sourceforge.net/

♦ Use Wireshark to inspect packets on your network
By Scott Reeves | September 25, 2012
Illustrates how you can use Wireshark to inspect packets, looking specifically at various points in the OSI layer, to troubleshoot network issues.

♦ Using the flow graph feature on Wireshark
By Scott Reeves | October 23, 2012
Demonstrates the flow graph feature of the Wireshark tool, which can help you check connections between client server, finding timeouts, re-transmitted frames, or dropped connections.

♦ Use jperf and Wireshark for troubleshooting network issues
By Scott Reeves | September 5, 2012
Explains how to use jperf to simulate a TCP or UDP connection and then use Wireshark to analyze the traffic in order to help pinpoint network issues.

♦ Obtaining network information with netstat
By Vincent Danen | January 31, 2011
Offers some tips for getting the most network information possible from the netstat utility as a root user on Linuxs.

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Last Modified: Wed Nov 14 13:51:25 EDT 2012

Maintained by: Ivan Marsic