Intercepting Traffic Moving Between Windows Sharing on a Windows 11 PC

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss how to set up a Windows 11 PC as a Wi-Fi hotspot using a wired network interface card (NIC) and share its internet connection with other devices. We will use Wireshark to monitor the traffic moving between the PC and the connected devices.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure the following conditions are met:

• Your Windows 11 PC is connected to a wired network using an Ethernet cable.
• Your PC is acting as a gateway or router for the Wi-Fi network.

Setting Up a Wi-Fi Hotspot on Windows 11

To set up a Wi-Fi hotspot on Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. Press the Win + I keys to open the Settings app.
2. Click on Network & Internet.
3. Click on Sharing options on the left sidebar.
4. Under the "Related settings" section, click on Change adapter options.
5. Right-click on the wired network connection (Ethernet) and select Properties.
6. Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
7. Select the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) tab and check the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection option.
8. Click on Advanced and add the Wi-Fi adapter's IP address and subnet mask.
9. Click OK to save the changes.

Verifying the Wi-Fi Hotspot

To verify that the Wi-Fi hotspot is working, follow these steps:

1. Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
2. Type netsh wlan show profile and press Enter.
3. Find the Wi-Fi profile that you want to use and note down its name.
4. Type netsh wlan add profile parameter name="ProfileName" interface="Wi-Fi Adapter Name" ssid="SSID" key="Password" and press Enter.
5. Replace ProfileName, Wi-Fi Adapter Name, SSID, and Password with the appropriate values.
6. Type netsh wlan start profile name="ProfileName" interface="Wi-Fi Adapter Name" and press Enter.

Monitoring Traffic with Wireshark

Now that we have set up the Wi-Fi hotspot, let's monitor the traffic moving between the PC and the connected devices using Wireshark:

1. Download and install Wireshark from https://www.wireshark.org/.
2. Run Wireshark as an administrator.
3. Select the Wi-Fi adapter that is connected to the Wi-Fi hotspot.
4. Click on the Capture button to start capturing traffic.
5. Filter the traffic using appropriate filters to view the desired packets.

In this article, we learned how to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot on a Windows 11 PC using a wired NIC and share its internet connection with other devices. We also used Wireshark to monitor the traffic moving between the PC and the connected devices. This setup can be useful in various scenarios, such as when traveling or when the primary internet connection goes down.