How can I read pcap files in a friendly format?

Wireshark is probably the best, but if you want/need to look at the payload without loading up a GUI you can use the -X or -A options tcpdump -qns 0 -X -r serverfault_request.pcap 14:28:33.800865 IP 10.2.4.243.41997 > 69.59.196.212.80: tcp 1097 0x0000: 4500 047d b9c4 4000 4006 63b2 0a02 04f3 E..}..@[email protected]….. 0x0010: 453b c4d4 a40d 0050 … Read more