Network Sniffer Software

Diagnose and troubleshoot network problems with network sniffer software

Network sniffer software is one of the most popular network tools found inside any network engineer's toolkit.

Network sniffers allow developers and administrators to capture network packets as they flow in the network or the Internet, and diagnose and troubleshoot network problems.

Network software sniffers provide vital information about packets such as source/destination MAC and IP address, protocol information, such as UDP/TCP flags, TCP/IP ports, sequence/acknowledgment numbers, and the data payload.

Features of Network Sniffer Software

Website structure in Network Sniffer

When it comes to network problems, administrators usually follow standard tests to discover the source of the problem. These tests include verifying the IP address and DNS server, Nslookup and ICMP echo requests. These tests are usually enough for diagnosing most problems, but they are not suitable for solving difficult, non-standard situations with the network. This is where high-quality network protocol analyzer software comes into play.

HTTP header details in Network Sniffer GUI

The most important features of high-end network packet analyzer are:

1. Real-time network card bandwidth analysis
Network sniffer displays the network bandwidth in a human-friendly form of charts and diagrams allowing you to visually monitor the network bandwidth in real-time.

2. Transaction sequence diagrams and IP conversation tracking
High-quality network protocol analyzer and sniffer intelligently presents all captured data in an easy to understand manner, making it simple and quick to locate any IP conversation between hosts.

3. Automatically identify network issues
Most of the network problems arise from configuration errors. Modern packet sniffers are able to automatically identify and highlight such errors, as well as unusual activity in your network.

4. Advanced filtering
Network sniffers usually collect a huge amount of data and need to provide good filtering capabilities, such as filtering by a MAC address or source/destination IP, protocol and port numbers and application name.

HTTP Debugger is an example of http sniffer software for Windows. It can intercept the HTTP protocol traffic between a web browser or any app that uses the HTTP or HTTPS protocol and a web server. It is very easy to use, with a clean user interface.

Network Sniffer displaying Network Statistics

Top 7 uses of Network Sniffer Software

Each computer in the network that is connected to the Internet is vulnerable to security risks and network sniffing tools help network administrators to control the network 24/7.

Packet sniffers can monitor all incoming and outgoing traffic in the network, and verify that it matches to certain criteria established by a network administrator. For example, it may check that sensitive information, such as passwords or credit cards and send only via an encrypted channel.

1. Monitor the network traffic and identify problems that arise.
2. Detect unauthorized intrusion and protect the network from hackers.
3. Control employes use of the Internet during work-hours, log visited sites and received emails.
4. Debug HTTP traffic from applications for developers.
5. Parents can keep a record of their children's use of the Internet.
6. Learn how certain protocols works, such as HTTP, STMP, POP3, etc.
7. Generate reliable statistics on the use of the network.

Debug HTTP Protocol requests with Network Sniffer

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HTTP Debugger is a proxy-less HTTP analyzer for developers that provides the ability to capture and analyze HTTP headers, cookies, POST params, HTTP content and CORS headers from any browser or desktop application. Awesome UI and very easy to use. Not a proxy, no network issues!
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HTTP Debugger

HTTP Debugger - Professional HTTP Analyzer Debug HTTP API calls to a back-end and between back-ends. Very easy to use. Not a proxy, no network issues! Download Free Trial