The following methods can be used to start capturing packets with Wireshark:
- You can double-click on an interface in the main window.
- You can get an overview of the available interfaces using the “Capture Interfaces” dialog box (Capture → Options…). See Figure 4.1, “The “Capture Interfaces” dialog box on Microsoft Windows” or Figure 4.2, “The “Capture Interfaces” dialog box on Unix/Linux” for more information. You can start a capture from this dialog box using the Start button.
- You can immediately start a capture using your current settings by selecting Capture → Start or by cliking the first toolbar button.
- If you already know the name of the capture interface you can start Wireshark from the command line:
$ wireshark -i eth0 -k
This will start Wireshark capturing on interface eth0. More details can be found at Section 10.2, “Start Wireshark from the command line”.