What we want to do here is to make sure we *only* capture the traffic from the mobile device and not every internet packet on the wire including packets originating from the PC itself. Therefore, by capturing the internet traffic on the PC, we can observe the connections the mobile device makes. Step 3: Launch WireSharkīy creating an access point, we are asking the device to connect to the PC and then the PC in turn routes the traffic to the internet. The password required to connect would be the same as specified in step 1. If you are on a WiFi network, select “Wireless Network Connection”.Ĭreate an access point using mHotspot Step 2: Connect DeviceĬonnect your device (iPad, Android phone, etc) to the WiFi access point as you would connect to any regular wireless network. If you are connected using a cable select “Local Area Network”. This value will be the password a device will need when connecting to this access point. Enter the access point name in the “Hotspot Name” field.Download and install mHotspot from here.However I found it much easier to set up the access point using a third party software called mHotspot which uses the Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter underneath but greatly simplifies the setup process. Windows 7 (and above) allows setting up an access point using the “Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter”. Step 1: Configure A WiFi HotSpot (access point) We then use existing free tools on the PC to analyze the captured packets. The article explains the steps to capture network traffic of a mobile device using Windows 7 (and above) by creating a rogue WiFi access point. It is relatively easy to monitor network traffic on a PC or a laptop using a network interface sniffer but for a mobile device it can get a little tricky. For example, you can find out whether data is being sent to the back-end service securely over TLS or is sent as clear text. You can collect a lot of useful information about an application’s backend services by observing the network connections it makes.

Wireshark capture all wifi traffic