Not able to see network activity in JFrame

[Ankit Tripathi]

Hi,

I am trying to develop an application which will be showing a TimeSeries graph(related library JFreeChart) displaying network activity related to a particular network interface embedded in a JFrame.I have created a JPopUpMenu which is having containing a list of JMenuItems showing network interfaces as their String values.Menu is popping up correctly

Further I am selecting a JMenuItem related to a particular network interface to show network activity in TimeSeries graph.On selecting a JMenuItem I can see that graph is moving on constantly but not able to see any network activity.

Pasted the code below :

package com.ankit.analyser;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.Window;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
import java.awt.Color;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.MouseListener;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.NetworkInterface;
import java.net.SocketException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.List;

import javax.swing.AbstractAction;
import javax.swing.Action;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JPopupMenu;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.Timer;

import org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory;
import org.jfree.chart.ChartPanel;
import org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart;
import org.jfree.chart.axis.ValueAxis;
import org.jfree.chart.plot.XYPlot;
import org.jfree.data.time.DynamicTimeSeriesCollection;
import org.jfree.data.time.Second;
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYDataset;




import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.CaptureDeviceLookupException;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.CaptureDeviceOpenException;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.CapturePacketException;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.InvalidFilterException;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.PacketCapture;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.PacketListener;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.RawPacketListener;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.net.Packet;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.net.RawPacket;


public class NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI extends JFrame {
	
	private JPanel contentPane;
	private Component selectedComponent;
	private JPopupMenu menu= new JPopupMenu("Network Interfaces List");
	//private JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(20,40);
	
	public static List<Packet> packetList = null;
	
	private final String FILTER = "";
	
	private final int COUNT = 10;
	
    private  Timer timer;
	private JFreeChart chart;
    private DynamicTimeSeriesCollection dataset;
    
    private static final String TITLE="Network Activity Graph";
    private ChartPanel chartPanel;
	
	PacketCapture pc = new PacketCapture();
	
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		 
		EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
			public void run() {
				try {
					NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI frame = new NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI();
					frame.setVisible(true);
				} catch (Exception e) {
					e.printStackTrace();
				}
			}
		});
	}

	
	public NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI() {
		
		packetList = new ArrayList<Packet>();
		
		
		
		dataset =new DynamicTimeSeriesCollection(1,120, new Second());
        dataset.setTimeBase(new Second(0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 2011));
        dataset.addSeries(new float[0], 0, "Network Activity Graph");
        
        System.out.println("dataset "+dataset);
        chart = createChart(dataset); 
        
        createGUI();
        
        timer = new Timer(1000,new ActionListener(){
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)

            {    long length=0;
                List<Packet> temp = new ArrayList<Packet>(packetList);
                packetList.clear();
                for(Packet i : temp)
                {
                   length+=i.getData().length;
                }
                float[] newData = new float[1];
                
                System.out.println("Packet Length "+length);
                newData[0]=(float)length/1024;
                dataset.advanceTime();
                dataset.appendData(newData);
                }});
        
        chartPanel=new ChartPanel(chart);
		//textArea.setText(e.getActionCommand());
		
		chartPanel.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(500, 270));
		
		
		contentPane.add(chartPanel);
		setContentPane(contentPane);
		setVisible(true);
				
	}
	
	/*
	private void getDevices() {
		
		
	}*/


	private void createGUI() {
		
		setBackground(new Color(240, 240, 240));
		setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		setBounds(100, 100, 800, 800);
		
		contentPane = new JPanel();
		contentPane.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
		contentPane.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
		
		
		final JButton button = new JButton("List");
		button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
			public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
				
				 try {
					 
					 
		
					 
					String[] devices = PacketCapture.lookupDevices();
					
				
					 
					
					 
					 for(int i=0;i<devices.length;i++)
						 
					 {
						 JMenuItem j = new JMenuItem(devices[i]);
						 
						 j.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
							 public void actionPerformed(final ActionEvent e) {
								 
									EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
									
									{
									public void run()
									
									
									{
									
										try {
											
											String adapter = e.getActionCommand().substring(0,e.getActionCommand().indexOf(" ")-1);
											System.out.println(adapter);
											pc.open(adapter,65535, true,20);
											//pc.open(adapter, true);
											timer.start();
										    pc.setFilter(FILTER, true);
										    pc.addPacketListener(new PacketHandler());
										    
										    System.out.println("packetList "+packetList);

										    pc.capture(COUNT);
										} catch (CaptureDeviceOpenException | InvalidFilterException|  CapturePacketException e1) {
									
											e1.printStackTrace();
										}
										
										
										
										
									
									}
									}); 
							 }
						 }
						 );
							 
						 
						 menu.add(j);
						 
						 menu.addSeparator();
						 
						
						 
					 }
					 //menu.addMouseListener(mouseListener);
					menu.show(button, button.getWidth()/2, button.getHeight()/2);
					
					
					
					//selectMenuItem(menu);
				} catch (CaptureDeviceLookupException e1) {
					
					e1.printStackTrace();
				}
				 
				
			}

			
		});
		
		
		contentPane.add(button);
		
		//contentPane.add(textArea);
		
		

	
		
	}


	private JFreeChart createChart(final XYDataset dataset) {
	    final JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createTimeSeriesChart(
	        TITLE, "Time(Seconds)", "Bandwidth KB/s", dataset, true, true, false);
	    final XYPlot plot = chart.getXYPlot();
	    ValueAxis domain = plot.getDomainAxis();
	    domain.setAutoRange(true);
	     ValueAxis range = plot.getRangeAxis();
	      range.setRange(0,1000);
	    return chart;
	}

	
}

class PacketHandler implements PacketListener

{
	 private static int counter = 0;
	 
	 public PacketHandler()
	 {
		 
		 
	 }

	  public void packetArrived(Packet data) {
	   counter++;
	    
	    System.out.println(counter);
	    System.out.println("Received data packet (" + data + ")");
	    
	    NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI.packetList.add(data);
	  }
	


}

Futher I can see that packetArrived method of PacketListener is not being overridden by class PacketHandler as I am not able to see data packets on console and static list in main class is also empty.

Please help me out regarding same.

Thanks!

>

[Claude Moore]

First, I would try to understand if PacketCapture is doing is work or not, and if it's working, if there are problems instead with updating your JFreeChart.
What happen if you try and collect data about network traffic in a simple, textual tool without dealing with Swing ?
Does it work ?

[Ankit Tripathi]

Hi Claude,
Thanks for your reply.
I tried to print packet data over console as in packetArrived() method.Its not working as well.

[Ulf Dittmer]

So... the question is not really about Swing, it is about how to make that networking library work in general?

[Ankit Tripathi]

I was able to open the network device and was able to print raw network data over the console before adding the chart to application but its more looking like a problem related to networking.

[Ulf Dittmer]

I would advise to start with an app that has no GUI at all, and just interacts with the networking/library code. Once you have that working, adding the GUI should be easier.

[Claude Moore]

Ulf Dittmer wrote:I would advise to start with an app that has no GUI at all, and just interacts with the networking/library code. Once you have that working, adding the GUI should be easier.

I agree... from your post it's not clear if the whole thing stopped working after you added GUI parts.

[Ankit Tripathi]

Hi People,

Thanks for your responses so far!
I have tried to print network packet over console using below code :

package com.ankit.analyser;

import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.PacketCapture;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.PacketListener;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.net.Packet;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.net.TCPPacket;

public class Sniffer
{
  private static final int INFINITE = 200;
  private static final int PACKET_COUNT = INFINITE; 
  
 
  
  private static final String FILTER = 
    // "port 23";
    "";

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      if(args.length == 1){
	Sniffer sniffer = new Sniffer(args[0]);
      } else {
	System.out.println("Available network devices on your machine:");
	String[] devs = PacketCapture.lookupDevices();
	for(int i = 0; i < devs.length ; i++)
	  System.out.println("\t" + devs[i]);
      }
    } catch(Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }

  public Sniffer(String device) throws Exception {
    // Initialize jpcap
    PacketCapture pcap = new PacketCapture();
    System.out.println("Using device '" + device + "'");
    pcap.open(device, true);
    pcap.setFilter(FILTER, true);
    pcap.addPacketListener(new PacketHandlerC());

    System.out.println("Capturing packets...");
    pcap.capture(PACKET_COUNT);
  }
}


class PacketHandlerC implements PacketListener 
{
	
	public PacketHandlerC()
	
	{
		
		System.out.println("In PacketHandler class");
	}
  public void packetArrived(Packet packet) {
    try {
    	
    	System.out.println("hii");
      // only handle TCP packets

      /*if(packet instanceof TCPPacket) {
	TCPPacket tcpPacket = (TCPPacket)packet;
	byte[] data = tcpPacket.getTCPData();*/
	    
    	byte[] data = packet.getData();
	/*String srcHost = tcpPacket.getSourceAddress();
	String dstHost = tcpPacket.getDestinationAddress();*/
	String isoData = new String(data, "ISO-8859-1");

	System.out.println(isoData);
      
    } catch( Exception e ) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

This code is either printing all the network interfaces in your system or printing network packet across console if you are providing name of any of interfaces available explicitly.Outputs in both the conditions are given below :

Available network devices on your machine:
PacketCapture: loading native library jpcap.. ok
\Device\NPF_{FDEDD322-89A9-46CD-BD38-18E5B2A98AB0}
Microsoft
\Device\NPF_{E7FC683A-97FA-48C5-863B-F9E4945E94DB}
Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
\Device\NPF_{BBA1CB68-B3FA-4CE9-8610-F402EEA70DEE}
Bluetooth PAN Driver
\Device\NPF_{2D88147C-3A7D-44B9-9770-7B636AFB33AC}
Microsoft

PacketCapture: loading native library jpcap.. ok
Using device '\Device\NPF_{BBA1CB68-B3FA-4CE9-8610-F402EEA70DEE}'
In PacketHandler class
Capturing packets...

In second output I am not able to see network packets at all no matter how much time I am going to wait.(You can increase and decrease value of waiting time by altering the value of variable INFINITE.INFINITE=-1 means program will never terminate)


So from message I can see that native library(jpcap.dll) is loading perfectly which has been kept in C:\Windows\System32.But it's also clear that packetArrived() method declared in PacketListener(Provided by jpcap.jar file) interface is not being defind by my class PacketHandlerC.

Not sure why this is not working!

[Claude Moore]

Are you using any open source library to monitor network activity ?
If it's so, I'd like to have a try with it... and maybe I'll able to help you (I'm quite interested in such things like network monitoring).

[Ankit Tripathi]

Yes,Jpcap is an opensource networking library.Thanks for your response...

[Claude Moore]

Ok, it seems that JPCAP does support only Windows 32, so I searched for another open source library.

I found jnetpcap, it seems very good, at least because website offers a tutorial and some examples.

You may download both 32 and 64 version of this library.. and you need an implementation of libpcap for windows (i used WinPCap which
is opensource too) for make the whole thing work.

I followed the classical example published on website of JNetPCap and I get it running in no time...

Hope this helps !

[Ankit Tripathi]

But still not able to understand because from console I can see that required dll and jars are loading correctly.It should give linkage error if any problem is there as I have got during initial set-ups

[Claude Moore]

Most of time, when output to console works and gui stuff doesn't, there's something wrong with gui updates. Did you try to update gui in a separate thread?

[Ankit Tripathi]

Hi Claude,

I tried to update GUI in separate thread as suggested by you and it seems that finally I got things working.Thanks for same.Below is the modified code :

package com.ankit.analyser;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Component;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.FlowLayout;
import java.awt.Window;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder;
import java.awt.Color;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.MouseListener;
import java.awt.event.MouseAdapter;
import java.awt.event.MouseEvent;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.NetworkInterface;
import java.net.SocketException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.List;

import javax.swing.AbstractAction;
import javax.swing.Action;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JPopupMenu;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.Timer;

import org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory;
import org.jfree.chart.ChartPanel;
import org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart;
import org.jfree.chart.axis.ValueAxis;
import org.jfree.chart.plot.XYPlot;
import org.jfree.data.time.DynamicTimeSeriesCollection;
import org.jfree.data.time.Second;
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYDataset;




import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.CaptureDeviceLookupException;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.CaptureDeviceOpenException;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.CapturePacketException;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.InvalidFilterException;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.PacketCapture;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.PacketListener;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.capture.RawPacketListener;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.net.Packet;
import net.sourceforge.jpcap.net.RawPacket;


public class NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI extends JFrame {
	
	private JPanel contentPane;
	private Component selectedComponent;
	private JPopupMenu menu= new JPopupMenu("Network Interfaces List");
	//private JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(20,40);
	
	public static List<Packet> packetList = null;
	
	private static long tlen=0;
	
	private static  JButton button =null;
	
	private static JMenuItem j =null;
	
	public static  String FILTER = "";
	
	public static int COUNT = 10;
	
    public static Timer timer=null;
    
	private JFreeChart chart;
    private DynamicTimeSeriesCollection dataset;
    
    private static final String TITLE="Bandwidth Utilization Meter";
    private ChartPanel chartPanel;
	

	
	
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		 
		EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
			public void run() {
				try {
					NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI frame = new NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI();
					frame.setVisible(true);
				} catch (Exception e) {
					e.printStackTrace();
				}
			}
		});
	}

	
	public NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI() {
		
		packetList = new ArrayList<Packet>();
		
		
		
		dataset =new DynamicTimeSeriesCollection(1,120, new Second());
        dataset.setTimeBase(new Second(0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 2011));
        dataset.addSeries(new float[0], 0, "PPP0 Bandwidth Utilization Meter");
        
        System.out.println("dataset "+dataset);
        chart = createChart(dataset); 
        
        createGUI();
        
        timer = new Timer(1000,new ActionListener(){
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)

            {    
                List<Packet> temp = new ArrayList<Packet>(packetList);
                packetList.clear();
                for(Packet i : temp)
                {
                   tlen+=i.getData().length;
                }
                float[] newData = new float[1];
                
                System.out.println("tlen "+tlen);
                newData[0]=(float)tlen/8;
                dataset.advanceTime();
                dataset.appendData(newData);
                }});
        
        chartPanel=new ChartPanel(chart);
		
		chartPanel.setPreferredSize(new java.awt.Dimension(500, 270));
		
		
		contentPane.add(chartPanel);
		setContentPane(contentPane);
		setVisible(true);
				
	}
	
	/*
	private void getDevices() {
		
		
	}*/


	private void createGUI() {
		
		setBackground(new Color(240, 240, 240));
		setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		setBounds(100, 100, 800, 800);
		
		contentPane = new JPanel();
		contentPane.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5));
		contentPane.setLayout(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.RIGHT));
		
		
	     button = new JButton("List");
		button.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
			public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
				

				EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
				
				{
				public void run()
				
				
				{
				
				 try {
					 
					 
		
					 
					String[] devices = PacketCapture.lookupDevices();
					
				
					 
					
					 
					 for(int i=0;i<devices.length;i++)
						 
					 {
						  j = new JMenuItem(devices[i]);
						  
						    menu.add(j);
							 
							menu.addSeparator();
							 
						 
						 j.addActionListener(new GraphListener());
							 
						 
						 
						
						 
					 }
					menu.show(button, button.getWidth()/2, button.getHeight()/2);
					
				} catch (CaptureDeviceLookupException e1) {
					
					e1.printStackTrace();
				}
				 
				}});
				
				
				 
				
			}

			
		});
		
		
		contentPane.add(button);
		
		

	
		
	}


	private JFreeChart createChart(final XYDataset dataset) {
	    final JFreeChart xyz = ChartFactory.createTimeSeriesChart(
	        TITLE, "Time(Seconds)", "Bandwidth KB/s", dataset, true, true, false);
	    final XYPlot plot = xyz.getXYPlot();
	    ValueAxis domain = plot.getDomainAxis();
	    domain.setAutoRange(true);
	     ValueAxis range = plot.getRangeAxis();
	      range.setRange(0,1000);
	    return xyz;
	}

	
}

class PacketHandler implements PacketListener

{
	 private static int m_counter = 0;
	 
	 public PacketHandler()
	 {
		 
		 
	 }

	  public void packetArrived(Packet data) {
	    m_counter++;
	    
	    System.out.println(m_counter);
	    System.out.println("Received packet (" + data + ")");
	    NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI.packetList.add(data);
	  }
	


}

class GraphListener implements ActionListener

{

	@Override
	public void actionPerformed(final ActionEvent e) {
		EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable()
		
		{
		public void run()
		
		
		{
		
			try {
				PacketCapture pc = new PacketCapture();
				String adapter = e.getActionCommand().substring(0,e.getActionCommand().indexOf(" ")-1);
				System.out.println(adapter);
				//pc.open(adapter,65535, true,20);
				pc.open(adapter, true);
				NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI.timer.start();
			    pc.setFilter(NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI.FILTER, true);
			    pc.addPacketListener(new PacketHandler());
			    
			    System.out.println("packetList "+NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI.packetList);

			    pc.capture(NetworkAnalyzerMainGUI.COUNT);
			} catch (CaptureDeviceOpenException | InvalidFilterException|  CapturePacketException e1) {
		
				e1.printStackTrace();
			}
			
			
			
			
		
		}
		}); 
		
	}
	
}

attached herein are the screen-shot of GUI for one of the interfaces

and below is the output for packet data from console for same interface

PacketCapture: loading native library jpcap.. ok
\Device\NPF_{2D88147C-3A7D-44B9-9770-7B636AFB33AC}
packetList []
1
Received packet ([UDPPacket: 95.181.56.250.25253 -> 192.168.1.2.44363 l=8,101])
2
Received packet ([UDPPacket: 192.168.1.2.44363 -> 95.181.56.250.25253 l=8,287])
3
Received packet ([TCPPacket: 74.125.236.85.https -> 192.168.1.2.50903 ack[0x33454c6d] psh l=20,58])
4
Received packet ([EthernetPacket: c0:18:85:7b:41:b2 -> 33:33:00:01:00:02 proto=0x86dd l=14])
5
Received packet ([TCPPacket: 192.168.1.2.50903 -> 74.125.236.85.https ack[0x73c7a825] l=20,0])
6
Received packet ([EthernetPacket: c0:18:85:7b:41:b2 -> 33:33:00:01:00:02 proto=0x86dd l=14])
7
Received packet ([UDPPacket: 91.147.203.111.60909 -> 192.168.1.2.44363 l=8,103])
8
Received packet ([UDPPacket: 192.168.1.2.44363 -> 91.147.203.111.60909 l=8,289])
9
Received packet ([UDPPacket: 111.232.5.8.11819 -> 192.168.1.2.44363 l=8,49])
10
Received packet ([UDPPacket: 192.168.1.2.44363 -> 109.248.119.97.43775 l=8,67])
tlen 525
tlen 525
tlen 525
tlen 525

But still I can see three problems/questions here :

1. Why there is no data in ArrayList packetList still

2. Why I am not seeing any ups and downs and spikes in graph as its moving.Value of packet length(tlen) is also indicating the same.

3. I think I am not able to see my wifi interface in interface selection drop-down menu which is Broadcom 4313GN 802.1 b/g/n 1x1 Wi-Fi Adapter{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} so unable to capture traffic from same

Please refer screen-shots at end of page. Thin straight red line in first screen-shot is showing network traffic after selection of interface in second screen-shot.

[Claude Moore]

Hi Ankit,

of course I cannot do a full debug of your code. My advice is pretty the same: before going with GUI, test all functionalities with simple console program.
Moreover, I would instantiate a specific class CustomPacketListener (which extends Thread) directly in main program, and expose some methods to add
NICs to listen to from a caller.

Pseudo code:

class CustomPacketListener extends Thread implements MyListenerInterface {
   ...

}


public static void main(String args[]) {

    CustomerPacketListener packetListener = new CustomerPacketListener();
    ...
    packetListener.start();

    ...

    public void run() {
                   // cycle over all registered PacketCapture and update, in turn, your graph.

    }


    MyFrameClass gui  = new MyFrameClass(packetListener);


}


class MyFrameClassGui {

....


    @Override  
    public void actionPerformed(final ActionEvent e) { 
         PacketCapture pc = new PacketCapture();  
                String adapter = e.getActionCommand().substring(0,e.getActionCommand().indexOf(" ")-1);  
                System.out.println(adapter);  
                //pc.open(adapter,65535, true,20);  
                pc.open(adapter, true);  
                packetListener.addPacketCapture(pc);
    }

and so on....