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Maneesh_72711's avatar
Maneesh_72711
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Feb 27, 2014

TCPDUMP OUTPUT

I have a strange situation, when I run a tcpdump without the -n switch I do not get any output on the interface, but as soon as I add -n I start seeing the packets. Has anyone else encountered the same and know the reason please.

 

tcpdump -i 0.0 host x.y.z.t ---> No Output

 

tcpdump -n -i 0.0 host x.y.z.t ---> Output

 

3 Replies

  • -n means don't resolve the IP addresses to hostnames.

     

    Do you have DNS set up and is it working? I would recommend always disabling tcpdump name resolution when doing realtime packet captures. i.e. Always use -n for realtime captures!

     

  • Thanks Mike...it has a DNS configured but cannot reach the DNS server at port 53. Would check where it is blocked.

     

  • totally agree with Mike, always -n or even -nn, next to the delay it also causes extra network traffic that can cause surprises in your capture :)