Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] Interpretation of hex numbers.

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:07:29 -0700
On Oct 16, 2011, at 12:45 PM, Lisi wrote:

> I'm still struggling a bit.  I have e.g. transaction ID: 0xc13e, associated 
> hex numbers in pane c1 3e.  They do not seem to me to give the same decimal 
> numbers (which I _think_ we are being asked for).  Depending on how much 
> notice one takes of the 0x,

The "0x" is taken from the C programming language; it indicates that the number in question is hexadecimal.  One must take note of it as an indication that what follows it is hexadecimal; neither the 0 nor the x are digits that directly contribute to the number's value.

It's a 4-digit hexadecimal number, whose value is hex c13e, or decimal 49470.

> I can easily now click on the pane and highlight the line in the header, and 
> vice versa, and I find the equation between the ASCII numbers and the text 
> intriguing.  But I am not clear where one goes from there.  And I still do 
> not know whether I should interpret it as c13e or c1 3e.

c13e; it's a single two-byte big-endian value, the two bytes of which are hex C1 and hex 1E.