This page last changed on Apr 29, 2011 by rhartono.

This is a quick guide to help you start capturing HTTP traffic when requested by support. This can be helpful either for network traffic issues or for understanding issues with page content loading.

When submitting the captured result to support...

Don't forget to mention the IP Address of the servers involved so Support can go through the TCP dump. Also please mention the time when you performed the operation requested by support.

Wireshark

Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer that can be installed on Windows, Linux and Mac. It provides a comprehensive capture and is more informative than Fiddler. This is the preferred tool to use when troubleshooting Sharepoint connectivity issues.

To use:

  1. Install Wireshark. (Mirror here)
  2. Open your Internet browser.
  3. Clear your browser cache.
  4. Open Wireshark
  5. Click on "Capture > Interfaces". A pop up window will show up.
  6. You probably want to capture traffic that goes through your Ethernet Driver. Click on the Start button to start capturing traffic via this interface.
  7. Visit the URL that you wanted to capture the traffic from.
  8. Go back to your Wireshark screen and press Ctrl + E to stop capturing.
  9. After the traffic capture is stopped, please save the captured traffic into a *.pcap format file and attach it to your support ticket.
Wireshark limitation
  • If you are using HTTPS, please disable it in your test environment so Wireshark can be used.
  • Wireshark cannot sniff traffic within the same machine (localhost) on Windows. If you need to sniff local traffic on Windows, try Fiddler.

Fiddler

Fiddler is a web debugging proxy tool that can capture HTTP(S) traffic. It can only run on Windows.

To use:

  1. Download Fiddler.
  2. Open it.
  3. Clear your browser cache.
  4. Browse to your site. Visit the pages that are problematic and a contrasting non-problematic page if appropriate, for contrast.

    Fiddler can capture local traffic by using the machine's name as the host name rather than 'localhost'.

  5. Click File > Save > All Sessions....
  6. Attach the resulting file in .saz format for Support.
Using HTTPS?

Fiddler has a functionality to capture traffic using its decrypt HTTPS functionality. Make sure you enable this before you start capturing.

Document generated by Confluence on Sep 19, 2011 02:50