Network2

Your Name: Nathaniel Morris

NETW202, Professor’s Name: Patricia Entesari

Current Date: 01-19-2015

iLab #2, Introduction to Wireshark

Lab Report

Section I: Watch the video on the iLab page about Wireshark and answer the questions below.

1. Is Wireshark open source or proprietary? What does it mean to be open source versus proprietary in the first place? Give an example of something that is open source versus something that is proprietary in the field of networking and telecommunications. (1 point)

Wireshark is not a Proprietary, it is an open Source Network protocol analyzer. Wireshark is an open source software project, and is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). You can freely use Wireshark on any number of computers you like, without worrying about license keys or fees or such. In addition, all source code is freely available under the GPL. Because of that, it is very easy for people to add new protocols to Wireshark, either as plugins, or built into the source, and they often do! https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChapterIntroduction.html#_open_source_software

* Proprietary Software: Proprietary software is developed by a vendor who then typically charges a license fee for the right to use the software. The vendor or implementation partner will then provide help with implementation of the software as well as ongoing support.

* Open Source Software: Open source software is developed, marketed and distributed by a community of individuals and is available for free. The source code can be viewed and downloaded by anyone and then modified to suit the individual's or organisation's needs. http://www.codagenic.com/company/blog/open-source-vs-proprietary.html

An example of open source is Firefox, one of the most popularly recognized open source applications that anyone that has ever surfed the Internet recognizes by name in appose to proprietary popular systems like Apple’s MacOSX, Microsoft...