To obtain a full packet capture with tcpdump you need to use '-s 0' to prevent the payload from being stipped and direct the ouput to a file like the following: [root@miallen3 root]# tcpdump -s 0 -w mycapture.pcap 'port 137 || 138 || 139 || 445' tcpdump: listening on eth0 38 packets received by filter 0 packets dropped by kernel [root@miallen3 root]# tcpdump -s 1514 -w mycapture.pcap 'port 137 || 138 || 139 || 445'