When your computer is constantly connected to the Internet or to a network, it is vulnerable to attacks and malware infections. In addition to using a powerful and updated antivirus solution, you can also use a network analysis tool to identify the malicious packets and block them. Such an application is Wireshark and it comes with no price tag.
When deploying Wireshark on your computer, you have the possibility to choose the plugins and extensions you want to install, such as the Dissector plugin, Tree Statistics, SNMP MIBs or the Meta Analysis and Tracing Engine.
Since these utilities are meant to provide a wider range of information about your network traffic and they can be easily disabled, it is advisable to install them as well. The same advice applies to the additional tools included in the setup and to the recommended file associations for the trace files found on your PC.  
The final step before finalizing the initial configuration is for the setup to check whether you have WinPcap installed on your computer, and to install it if it is missing. If you are using several network cards, Wireshark allows you to choose the one you want to use for capturing the network traffic. Once the capture has begun, you can monitor all the connections and their corresponding details – you also get the chance to create filters so as to track only certain types of connections.
Another way to make sure you correctly monitor the type of packets you want is to apply color schemes for each type of connection, so that the most important ones are the most visible. If you are not satisfied with the color templates provided by Wireshark, you can create your own custom one, by specifying the shade you prefer and the string to be monitored.
Wireshark also comes with a Statistics function that can be used to generate reports to be analyzed at a later time. Depending on your necessities, you can choose to view the details of the protocol hierarchy, endpoint, packet lengths or the IO graph.
Overall, Wireshark can come in handy to all those who want to be in control of their network connections and limit them whenever needed. However, it does take an expert to use the app to its full potential.

What's New in This Release:
The following features are new (or have been significantly updated) since version 1.8:
· All Bluetooth profiles and protocols are now supported.
· Tshark can now display only the hex/ascii packet data without requiring that the packet summary and/or packet details are also displayed. If you want the old behavior, use -Px instead of just -x.
· Wireshark can be compiled using GTK+ 3.
· The Wireshark application icon, capture toolbar icons, and other icons have been updated.
· Tshark's filtering and multi-pass analysis have been reworked for consistency and in order to support dependent frame calculations during reassembly. See the man page descriptions for -2, -R, and -Y.
· Tshark's -G fields2 and -G fields3 options have been eliminated. The -G fields option now includes the 2 extra fields that -G fields3 previously provided, and the blurb information has been relegated to the last column since in
· many cases it is blank anyway.