How to Convert a Wireshark Trace to an Open Office Graph

When using a graph, you can easily see the peaks and valleys of the trace rather than staring at a couple hundred packets per second. Give it a try. Here’s how.

Tony Fortunato

March 26, 2019

The hardest technique to master with protocol analysis is spotting a pattern, or to be more precise a change in pattern. A break in pattern may explain a performance issue, disconnection, or application anomaly.

For example, it can be extremely difficult to look at a trace file and determine when throughput dropped or latency jumped up. Wireshark has a graphing facility but many times I want to do something specific or change the chart format.

I have shown analysts how to import a Wireshark trace file to Excel, but I get many requests asking how to do this with an open source spreadsheet. In this article I use Open Office’s Calc and walk you through how to import a trace file and create a simple Bytes/sec graph.

For those of you familiar with CSV files, that is the heart of this exercise.Once you convert a trace file into a CSV file, you can import it into a spread sheet, database or even write your own script to handle the data.

When using a graph, you can easily see the peaks and valleys of the trace rather than staring at a couple hundred packets per second. Give it a try and I’m sure you will be looking at packets graphically instead of the traditional text-based view.

 

About the Author

Tony Fortunato

Sr Network Performance Specialist

Tony Fortunato is a network performance expert who has been designing, implementing and troubleshooting networks since 1989. His company, The Technology Firm, provides clients of all sizes with services ranging from project management, network design, consulting, troubleshooting, designing custom-designed training courses, and assisting with equipment installation. Tony's experience in networking started with financial trading floor networks and ISPs, where he learned to integrate and support equipment from various vendors. Tony has taught and presented at numerous colleges and universities, public forums and private classes. He blogs frequently at NetworkDataPediaand has a popular YouTube channel.

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