The Ultimate Hands-On Wireshark Course On Udemy by Chris Greer | Udemy/David Bombal
QUICK DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT RECEIVE ANY SORT OF COMPENSATION FROM ANYONE FOR SHARING MY THOUGHT ON THIS COURSE.
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Self-Intro:
Greetings, Everyone! 🌟
Hi all. My name’s Sharzun, a fresh graduate with a Bachelor of Electronics Engineering with a passion for Cybersec, namely Penetration Testing. As I mentioned in my previous story of my experience in taking the course, Python 101 for Hackers by Riley Kidd from TCM Security, I took the course, Getting Started With Wireshark: The Ultimate Hands-On Course by Chris Greer. The course is available at Udemy and David Bombal.
Though this course is just 7 hours long, it took me some time to finish it as I was also studying some IT basics through CompTIA A+ on YouTube (Professor Messer). In the morning, I would study some Wireshark before heading to my shop to help my dad, and at the shop, I would be studying the CompTIA A+. Well, let’s talk about this course, shall we?
What in the world is WIRESHARK:
I know you clicked this link because you want to learn Wireshark or packet analysis, and planning to take a course, which could be Chris Greer’s, but to those who have no idea about Wireshark or packet analysis, I would like to give a small intro about it. You may skip this segment if you will.
So, what is Wireshark? What is it used for? Who needs to use Wireshark? Well, simply put, Wireshark is a convenient open-source tool that is used to analyze the network protocol or an application by capturing data in packets form from a network connection, like computers, routers, switches, firewalls, and others. Packets are discrete units of data in an Ethernet network. Wireshark is the go-to tool to sniff packets in the world. Network engineers and analysts, hackers (ethical and illegal), IT administrators, and many other people and organizations related to the network take advantage of this tool to enhance their efficiency in analyzing and improving their network. It is a valuable tool in hackers’ communities for network analysis and packet sniffing as they use it to examine traffic, capture packets, and analyze the data flowing through a network to exploit them. Of course, those who do it ethically would not harm their client but it is also accessible for the illegal hackers which we should be aware of as it can be used to monitor and capture network traffic during malware infections. By doing so, hackers analyze the behapatternsd communication patterns of the malicious software. Again, the intention depends on the hackers, either ethical or illegal. Now that we know what is Wireshark, its use, and its users, let's hop into the course review.
Why Chris Greer’s Wireshadenyingrse?
There is no denial there are a lot of sources out there to learn Wireshark for beginners. Why Chris? What’s so special about him and his course? I have 3 reasons for that. PASSION PRACTICAL and COMMUNITY. See anyone can simply teach you anything just by textbooks articles or text books, but do they love it? That’s a good question, don’t you think? Well throughout the course, I can see the excitement in Chris’ eyes while he was teaching us. They way the course was structured, and the way he taught all single topics and subtopics was extraordinary and FUN. I SIMPLY LOVE IT. Okay, he has passion, is that enough? NOOOO. Chris is a network engineer, analyst, and instructor. He is experienced in this for more than a decade. Thus, he knows what to teach and how to teach. He chose the elements that are essential for beginners to understand to understand the topics easily. On the other hand, he chooses PRACTICALITY rather than THEORY, so that his students know what are they doing and what is happening. This practical method with the files he gave us, together with assignments and quizzes handed to his students greatly helped us to understand the topics and understand what we didn’t understand. I simply went back to his videos to figure out what was wrong with my understanding. Next, as I mentioned is the community. Through Udemy, whenever one finishes and submits the assignment, (s)he can compare the answers with Chris’ answer scheme AND other students’ answers. You can also comment your thoughts on their answers. This particular feature was lacking in David Bombal’s platform which was a disappointment. Also, you could join David’s discord channel to discuss the course or any other things related to IT, Network, or Security or random talks. The thing is you could join a community with the same mindset as you. Imagine, you are a MARVEL/DC, cars, or comics lover joining a class full of people with the same interest. THE PARTY’S ON, isn’t it? Just like that.
Course Intro:
Getting Start With Wireshark: The Ultimate Hands-On Course is an amazing course out there for anyone who seeks to grasp the knowledge and skills of using Wireshark for their career. This course is specifically created and constructed for the sake of newbies like me. You should at least have a basic understanding of computer networks though, such as TCP/IP, ports, and protocols. Chris did a great job in contracting and teaching this course so that his students could learn it seamlessly.
Let’s Dive Into The Course.
Part I(INTRO):
The first 3 sections of the course were to introduce, construct, and configure the lab on your system. In these sections, you do the usual installations and setups and all. Also, you would modify the Wireshark interface to your suit as you wish which gonna be a great advantage later on during the course. This is where you change the interface layout, coloring, profile creations, and many more.
Part II(ACTION):
The real game starts here. The majority of the lessons fall under this category. Here you will learn about almost all the basic stuff you need to learn to start using Wireshark. Some of the topics are types of filters to capture traffic, methods of filtering, what and how to filter, whether should we filter pre or post-capture, and so on. Then, you would learn about the best practices to capture packets, what to do, when to do it, and how to do it when a certain issue arises. Moving forward, you would learn about types of casts, re-encapsulation, and some protocols within it.
The main lessons were IP, TCP, and UDP analysis. These 3 topics are the best and most important in the course. You would learn about IPv4/6, how to get real-world location using the IP captured, what it has to do with DDoS attacks, troubleshooting VoIP & video streams, DHCP & DNS analysis, SEQ/ACK, re-transmissions, RESET/FIN, and many many many more. Between these 3 topics, TCP topics were a little confusing for me as I don’t have a deep understanding of these things. I do know what and how TCP works as I took some networking courses such as Data Communication & Networks and Network Programming at my University. However, my knowledge is not that much compared to those who are from the Computer Science and IT background. I need more time to understand this.
Furthermore, Chris gives some advice on the top 5 things he would look for when troubleshAlling with Wireshark. ALL of the topics have some sort of assessment, either in the form of assignments/labs (mostly), quizzes, or homework. MAKE SURE TO DO EACH AND EVERY TASK GIVEN. By finishing the tasks given, you would be able to apply your understanding and by doing so you would know if your understanding was right or need some improvement or wrong. I was able to get great scores in some, average scores in some, and no score in the TCP assignment (told you it was a bit confusing for me). Otherwise all great.
Personal gain:
My understanding of how the network works has been improved to a greater level. How Wireshark works, how to use it properly, where to use it, how ports and protocols work, and a lot more. If you have read my other reviews about other courses, you’d know I love practical courses. This course wasn’t only structured so that the students would able to do exactly what the instructor was doing, but also enabled us to test our understanding of the knowledge acquired. Usually, I would have an “Improvements” segment in my reviews, but this course is PERFECT. Nothing is lacking from it but if Chris wished to add anything he believes needs to be added, it would be a bonus.
CONCLUSION:
It is undeniable that the course is well structured and every newcomer should take this course if they wanna learn how to use Wireshark properly. Wireshark I a great tool to capture and sniff data packets. It can be used for good and bad things. But the knowledge itself is not a harm one. I am so lucky to get to learn Wireshark under Chris’ instructions as I got this course during a giveaway on David’s YouTube channel. Though it was free for me, I didn’t take it for granted, I did put some much of effort and time to learn it and finish the course.
Almost forgot. As I mentioned before, you might be thinking why and how I ended up having the same course on David’s and Udemy platforms, right? Well, 😬… I made a mistake. If you don’t know, David Bombal always gives giveaways. Most of the time it would courses like this. And ALL THE TIME, the limit would be met instantly (I missed getting my hands on Rana Khalil's Mastering SQL Injection course giveaway a few days back in his channel 😑). So, I thought this course on his platform was a different one, not the same as in Udemy. I didn’t check the course contents before getting it. If I had, I would have known it was the same course I took before in Udemy. The thing is, I did the same thing with David’s Wireshark course, Wireshark for Ethical Hackers 😅. It’s on me, I’m the one to be blamed, my mistake.
However, what is the difference in taking the courses on either of these platforms? Well, nothing much. If you take the course on David’s platform you won’t be getting peer reviews for your answers and mostly the answers would have been given away even before you submitted your answers. In Udemy however, you won’t get the answers before you submit yours and you’ll get coursemates from your course mates in the future, perhaps some advice. Also, in Udemy you could ask questions and help others by answering their questions. This too lacks in David’s platform. It’s not David’s mistake though, it’s just the platform provider, Teachable has no such feature and has fewer students while Udemy has that feature and more uses. That’s all. I would recommend choosing Udemy if you want a better community-driven engagement or David Bombal’s platform if you don’t want to be disturbed by others, haha. Both the Udemy account and David’s platform where the course is available belong to David. Just that if you buy the course on his site rather than in Udemy, I think the commission to Udemy from David’s earnings can avoided. But, as Chris said, IT is YOUR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY.
My next goal is to finish the A+ and Network+ lessons from YouTube, as well as learn how to use NMAP, also by Chris, on Udemy. Let’s see what the future holds for me.
For now, it’s time for me to sign off 😉.
Till then, Peace Out! ✌🏼
REFERENCES:
CHRIS GREER’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
DAVID BOMBIL'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Getting Started With Wireshark: The Ultimate Hands-On Course by Chris Greer | Udemy
Getting Started With Wireshark: The Ultimate Hands-On Course by Chris Greer | David Bombal
Nmap for Ethical Hackers — The Ultimate Hands-On Course by Chris Greer | Udemy
