Howto:Wireshark - Autoremove remote interfaces

Applies To

This information applies to

• Wireshark v3.x.x and v4.x.x

More Information

If you add remote interfaces to Wireshark, they will be stored in your config, so they will persist on restarting the app.
Later, the before added interfaces might no longer be reachable since you may have disabled the RPCAP trace on the gateway, or you moved to a different network.
Opening up the settings can then take a long time, since Wireshark will wait for timeouts and display an error message for each stored interface.
It is possible to remove them manually, but if you are working with a lot of different devices it can be very tedious.

You can automatically remove those stored remote addresses by using the provided script in this article for starting Wireshark.

Disclaimer

Those scripts are examples.
Use at your own risk.
We do not provide support for the scripts.

Script and Download

Apparently, the way remote hosts were stored changed with version 4.4.2.
Before version 4.4.2 those addresses were stored in the %appdata%\wireshark\recent_common file in a line beginning with "recent.remote_host".
From version 4.4.2 onward, remote hosts are now stored in a separate file: %appdata%\wireshark\remote_hosts.json.

So there are to versions of the script:

Version before 4.4.2

Download: Wireshark before 4.4.2

@echo OFF
REM ------ Settings definition ------

REM Path of the Wireshark binary (executed after removal of recent hosts. Default: "C:\Program Files\Wireshark\Wireshark.exe")
set binpath="C:\Program Files\Wireshark\Wireshark.exe"

REM Directory path for Wireshark user settings (Default: "%appdata%\wireshark")
set appdatadir=%appdata%\wireshark

REM Letter mask contained in the line to be removed
set filter=recent.remote_host


REM ------ Logic ------
REM goto skip_disabled
REM By uncommenting the previous line you can disable the cleanup procedure and just start Wireshark

Echo Cleanup old remote interfaces...

findstr /v %filter% %appdatadir%\recent_common > %appdatadir%\recent_common_
copy /Y %appdatadir%\recent_common_ %appdatadir%\recent_common > Nul
del %appdatadir%\recent_common_

Echo Cleanup complete starting Wireshark...

start /B "" %binpath%
exit

:skip_disabled

Echo Cleanup disabled...
start /B "" %binpath%
exit
‎

Version after 4.4.2

Download: Wireshark after 4.4.2

@echo OFF
REM ------ Settings definition ------

REM Path of the Wireshark binary (executed after removal of recent hosts. Default: "C:\Program Files\Wireshark\Wireshark.exe")
set binpath="C:\Program Files\Wireshark\Wireshark.exe"

REM Directory path for Wireshark user settings (Default: "%appdata%\wireshark")
set appdatadir=%appdata%\wireshark

REM Letter mask contained in the line to be removed
set file=remote_hosts.json


REM ------ Logic ------
REM goto skip_disabled
REM By uncommenting the previous line you can disable the cleanup procedure and just start Wireshark

Echo Cleanup old remote interfaces...
del %appdatadir%\%file%

Echo Cleanup complete starting Wireshark...

start /B "" %binpath%
exit

:skip_disabled

Echo Cleanup disabled...
start /B "" %binpath%
exit

Usage

By executing the script, the stored remote hosts will be removed and Wireshark will be started.
You no longer need to clean up those addresses by yourself or wait for the timeouts and click away the error messages.

You could create a shortcut for the batch file and place it on the desktop or attach it to the taskbar.