You have probably run into an issue with npcap, the third party capture library that is now used by Wireshark.
Unfortunately some users have local issues with npcap failing to install correctly and not making the normal network adaptors available. There have been a number of other questions on this topic posted on this site with suggested answers, have you looked at any of them? The tl;dr suggestion is try re-installing npcap, if that doesn't fix things, head off to the npcap support site.
P.S. I'm guessing that you're using Windows, reporting your OS and the version of Wireshark used in your question makes life easier for those attempting to help.
Ah. I apologize. I should have included those. Its for a class I'm taking and I was not familiar with WireShark very much.It is Windows 10. And I believe I did narrow it down to npcap. If I did not install it, Wireshark seems to run fine.
How do I search the npcap more specifically? I can only find where it did not install correctly and nothing necessarily similar to my problem. Essentially when I let npcap install, the only "adapter" I can listen to is something called a loopback channel.
In general, npcap provides ALL the network adaptors Wireshark uses. If you don't install npcap then you can't capture on network interfaces.
Examples of similar questions found by using the search box at the top with "loopback":
Some of these refer to older versions of npcap that did have some known issues when uninstalling and upgrading npcap.
Thank you! I will try reinstalling and completing some of the steps listed there.
I've tried some of the methods above, to include the Avast registry fix, but I still only have the loop back traffic option. I can't start the npcap either, even though I can tell it is stopped. I think I will just uninstall npcap and use WinCap instead. Unless there is another fix I can try.
Asked: 2020-01-25 19:43:13 +0000
Seen: 1,948 times
Last updated: Jan 26 '20
This is Windows, right?
Yes it is.