"backend" program for DNS and internet..

[ShuckyD]

Hey im not exactly sure how to describe what i am looking for but, for all you network, DNS, and HTTP people out there i am looking for a program that will show me "visually" in plain old text what is really going on when i type in www.theaddy.com or whatevr the address might be, we have been going over DNS in my networks class and we have a presentation comming up soon and i thought that i would probably do mine on DNS, but what would really be cool is if i could find a program that would run in the lower corner or whatver of my screen while i typed in the text address you would see its DNS response messages and the redirect to the IP address. Am i making sense?? i was also wondering if they make a program that would be able to visually show you what the HTTP request and response messages woould loook like, so i could break them apart in a demonstration aka header..sp... etc...

anyone have any ideas on programs that would do this basic idea.. i mean it doesnt seem that hard, actually very simple since all our browser does is hid that stuff from us.. maybe there is something that shows all that goin on in the background..

thanks in advance to whoever takes the time to decypher my question hehe

[Jeordiewhite]

Well that's not actually true that your browser does it for you, your browser makes the request and your network stack does that for you.
For software to do that, you can use this http://www.ethereal.com/ and can start a capture with a filter on port 53 and then stop the capture after visiting the webpage and analyze the packets. You dont have to filter port 53, but that would only capture from that port which is the port your dns requests use.

I would suggest this program as it shows things like headers and what happens during a page request http://www.simtec.ltd.uk/ However I dont believe it will show a DNS request for you since the browser itself doesn't do the lookup, as it uses your network protocols to do that.

[ShuckyD]

thanks much.. i'll let ya know how it goes with them.. if anyone else has any programs i'll give them a shot, but ethereal is looking quite promising

[Jeordiewhite]

I found the specific command filter for you to try:

Filter Toolbar
A display filter can be entered into the filter toolbar. A filter for HTTP, HTTPS, and DNS traffic might look like this:

tcp.port == 80 || tcp.port == 443 || tcp.port == 53

Selecting the Filter: button lets you choose from a list of named filters that you can optionally save. Pressing the Return or Enter keys, or selecting the Apply button, will cause the filter to be applied to the current list of packets. Selecting the Reset button clears the display filter so that all packets are displayed (again).

There is no way to customize the items in the toolbar, however the toolbar can be hidden by View:Filter Toolbar.

[ShuckyD]

arg... im trying to get it to read just from port 53 which i have the command from.... but im on dialup.. which shouldnt matter.. all i haev to do is select the dialup adapter instead of the nforce one

are there any other freeware programs out there for this type of thing?

[MDS]

Are you looking for a real time traceroute for all address entered showing the hops it takes or just the DNS lookup?

[ShuckyD]

both would be nice.. i mean i would like to see a realtime example and then be able to see what is actually passing through port 53... like the DHS resolution from www.x.com to XX.XXX.XX.X ... im a visual person so i sorta wanna see it to understand it better, and im probably gonna base a presentation off of it

[MDS]

There used to be a program called acid scanner that would port scan, traceroute, and UDP logging. I don't know if it is still around or not


edit: still around
http://www.acid-soft.com/acidscan/

[Jeordiewhite]

Well ethereal will show you a complete break down of the packets and their path as it decodes them for you.

However you could try a demo of visualroute 2006 that will produce a visual representation for you to use as well.

[ShuckyD]

thanks guys i'll give them all a shot, i think i just need to play with ethereal more... i got it to log a bunch of stuff but was unable to get the DNS stuff... although i saw UDP "packets" going up on the window