// WSUG Appendix Messages

[[AppMessages]]

[appendix]
== Wireshark Messages

Wireshark provides you with additional information generated out of the plain
packet data or it may need to indicate dissection problems. Messages generated
by Wireshark are usually placed in square brackets (“[]”).

[[AppMessagesList]]

=== Packet List Messages

These messages might appear in the packet list.

==== [Malformed Packet]

Malformed packet means that the protocol dissector can’t dissect the contents of
the packet any further. There can be various reasons:

* __Wrong dissector__: Wireshark erroneously has chosen the wrong protocol
  dissector for this packet. This will happen e.g. if you are using a protocol
  not on its well known TCP or UDP port. You may try Analyze|Decode As to
  circumvent this problem.

* __Packet not reassembled__: The packet is longer than a single frame and it is
  not reassembled, see <<ChAdvReassemblySection>> for further details.

* __Packet is malformed__: The packet is actually wrong (malformed), meaning
  that a part of the packet is just not as expected (not following the protocol
  specifications).

* __Dissector is buggy__: The corresponding protocol dissector is simply buggy
  or still incomplete.

Any of the above is possible. You’ll have to look into the specific situation to
determine the reason. You could disable the dissector by disabling the protocol
on the Analyze menu and check how Wireshark displays the packet then. You could
(if it’s TCP) enable reassembly for TCP and the specific dissector (if possible)
in the Edit|Preferences menu. You could check the packet contents yourself by
reading the packet bytes and comparing it to the protocol specification. This
could reveal a dissector bug. Or you could find out that the packet is indeed
wrong.

==== [Packet size limited during capture]

The packet size was limited during capture, see “Limit each packet to n bytes”
at the <<ChCapCaptureOptions>>. While dissecting, the current protocol dissector
was simply running out of packet bytes and had to give up. There’s nothing else
you can do now, except to repeat the whole capture process again with a higher
(or no) packet size limitation.

[[AppMessagesDetails]]

=== Packet Details Messages

These messages might appear in the packet details.

==== [Response in frame: 123]

The current packet is the request of a detected request/response pair. You can
directly jump to the corresponding response packet by double clicking on
the message.

==== [Request in frame: 123]

Same as “Response in frame: 123” above, but the other way round.

==== [Time from request: 0.123 seconds]

The time between the request and the response packets.

==== [Stream setup by PROTOCOL (frame 123)]

The session control protocol (SDP, H225, etc) message which signaled the
creation of this session. You can directly jump to the corresponding packet
by double clicking on this message.

// End of WSUG Appendix Messages
