Looking for tool to show IP packets (and do analysis) sent/received from/to my machine (want to debug why can't mount network drive)

1

2

fiddler2 comes close but this only deals with web browsers it seems.

I need this tool to debug why I can't mount a common standard network/NAS drive (e.g. via SMB/SAMBA) in Windows 7 Pro and Home.

Looking for definitive answer to accessing a network drive/NAS/SMB drive via Windows 7 HOME and Windows 7 Professional. Is it possible and how?

therobyouknow

Posted 2011-07-09T11:03:07.037

Reputation: 3 596

2You mean Wireshark? – Daniel Beck – 2011-07-09T11:09:22.233

+1 @Daniel Beck That would be the answer. I guess it can be used for wired as well as wireless connections. I would use it to compare the sequence of packets exchanged on successfully connecting the NAS to XP, with those of the unsuccessful attempt to connect with Windows 7. Does the too provide facilities to compare 'recorded' packets in this way? If you make it an answer, I will likely accept it, after leaving the question open a little longer to give others a chance to contribute. – therobyouknow – 2011-07-09T12:29:23.360

1

Wireshark is pretty extensive and useful for this. A more geeky low level tool (that I prefer, but then I'm a bit old school) is windump http://www.winpcap.org/windump/. This very much a tcpdump for windows.

– Drav Sloan – 2011-07-09T13:12:06.963

Reporting back, so far I can see that the working (i.e. the one that can read the files in the drive) Windows 7 that does mount (home) uses a variable $IPC in the samba messages a lot more than the non-Working windows 7 professional. It's not significant that home works and not professional. They should both work but I think it is some other factor. That's as far as I can ascertain at the moment. I'm not a SAMBA expert so can't deduce much at the moment. But mysteriously the Windows 7 professional began working after a windows update yesterday evening and after some tweaks i tried. – therobyouknow – 2011-07-15T14:21:57.743

I won't call victory just yet though - it might stop working again as it did with home. But not sure if/why it would. – therobyouknow – 2011-07-15T14:26:22.187

Answers

2

Use the Wireshark packet analyzer. It has special support for many protocols and can help you with debugging issues by decoding SMB messages.

Daniel Beck

Posted 2011-07-09T11:03:07.037

Reputation: 98 421

+1 accepted answer. I will report back -- if it helps me find the root cause of my unsuccessful mapping network drive in windows 7. – therobyouknow – 2011-07-09T16:48:14.093

reported back in question above, as promised. – therobyouknow – 2011-07-15T14:27:15.353