Verify Your VPN Traffic Is Encrypted | Installing Wireshark VPN

With VPN being the best choice for being secured online, There is no other thing we have to think about while thinking privacy, Being connected to internet, you need to know the your ISP can save all your browsing information and sell it to agencies who monitor networks for national security, But do you think this is legal, it is not!!

For people who think, Using VPN is only for changing your location, it is not the only thing, You should be careful while choosing a VPN provider, Many services fake their advertisements claiming to be providing complete security but they do not.

The use of Packet Sniffers can solve the issue, But before we proceed, We should know what a packet sniffer is ?

A packet sniffer is a packet analysing technique used by technicians to under the issue in a network, They are commonly used for troubleshooting network issues and finding a solution for the same, But have you ever wondered that these packet sniffers have a disadvantage too, They can be used by network criminals to sniff the network to collect user data or also the password for certain connections, However this is not widely used, the chances are less that packet sniffers are being used by cyber criminals.

Wireshark is one such packet sniffer used effectively by most of the system administrators or network analysers, While having the combination of a VPN and a Wireshark, It is for sure that the connection is encrypted and it can be even witnessed through certain steps. Wireshark can also be used to collect network traffic from secure tunnels.

Protocols supported by Wireshark :

There are no protocols Wireshark does not support, However the most and commonly used protocol for VPN is OpenVPN.

Wireshark’s can be used with VPN after setting up VPN on your device, Once VPN is set up on your device, You can download Wireshark from here

The current stable release of Wireshark is 2.6.1, You can also download the documentation from the above link.

How to Install Wireshark on Windows :

1. Once the file is downloaded, Open the file,

2. The Installation setup file will pop up, Click on “ Next “

3. Agree to the terms and conditions as per user policy.

4. Choose the options you wish to install as below

5. Choose the shortcuts that has to be installed as below

6. Choose the destination folder under any drive and click on “ Next “

7. Click on Install Winpcap and choose “ Next “

8. Click on Install USB Pcap and click “ Install “ Wireshark will start installation.

9. Once done, Installation prompt for setting up Pcap will start, Follow the steps to install.

10. Once the installation is complete, Click on “ Reboot System “ and then “ Finish “

Similarly Wireshark can be installed on MAC and Linux as below :

Installing Wireshark on Linux :

Open up Terminal by selecting CTRL+ALT+T
Type (without quotations): “sudo apt-get update”
And then “sudo apt-get install wireshark”
Wait for installation to complete & type “wireshark”
The Wireshark application will open up!

Installing Wireshark on Mac :

Select Command+Space
Type “Terminal”
Select Enter/Return
Type in the Terminal (without quotations): “ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)” < /dev/null 2> /dev/null”
Select Enter/Return
After the command is complete, type “brew install wireshark”

If you find issues with the installation, Please follow the steps below

Downloading Wireshark straight from the website :

Mount the disk image
Follow the installation prompts
Once installation is complete, Move the Wireshark app to your Applications folder
Open your Utilities for the disk image
Drag the Startup folder to your desktop
Eject the disk image
Open the copied Startup folder
Delete “README.macosx”
Rename the folder to ChmodBPF
Open your Library folder (Not the one in your home directory)
Look for a folder called Startup/Items
If the folder is not there, create it
Open Terminal & type (without quotations) “cd Desktop”
Type “sudo mv ChmodBPF /Library/StartupItems/
Type in your account password

After setup is complete, restart your computer

Wireshark is ready to go!!

How to make sure that the VPN you are using actually encrypts your data :

You should know the Wireshark is the best tool for finding out if your VPN has encryption or not,

Wireshark allows you to inspect the data packets which are sent and received to find out if the connection is secure.

You can find the same by following the steps below :

Connect to your VPN.
Open Wireshark application.
Select the server you are connected to.
Click on “ Recording “
Now search for packets corresponding to “OpenVPN”
Right click on the selected packet and click on “ Follow TCP/UDP Stream “
The result will be a stream with bunch of garbage values which means that your network is encrypted.

Conclusion :

Now that you know the most important steps you need to take while thinking about security for your network, Do not keep thinking, Go ahead and sign up with LimeVPN for the best VPN experience ever, and not to forget, write to us if you have any problem or questions regarding our services!!