This free tool is usually the de-facto first option for network and system engineers for capturing and analyzing network packets. 10) Steelcentral Packet Analyzer – PAIDĪs one of the world’s most used network sniffing and analysis tools, WireShark has a wealth of features that are continually being added to by a community of volunteers.9) Netresec Network Miner – FREE or PAID.6) Manage Engine Netflow Analyzer – PAID.3) Solarwinds Deep Packet Inspection – PAID.
![http sniffer windows http sniffer windows](https://loaditsoft.com/img/screenshots/free_http_sniffer-1.jpg)
The ranking below is in no particular order: In this article I have researched some popular (both free and commercial) IP network sniffing tools and present them below with a brief description of each one. There are more options as we’ll see below. Of course, this is one way of capturing network traffic.
#HTTP SNIFFER WINDOWS SOFTWARE#
The sniffing software is listening on the network interface card of the computer to collect all traffic which passes through the interface for analysis.
![http sniffer windows http sniffer windows](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8VsT3wf43u0/hqdefault.jpg)
The easiest way to collect network traffic with a sniffing tool is to connect your computer (which has the sniffer software installed) on a SPAN port of a switch which basically copies all traffic passing through the switch to that SPAN port. That’s why network traffic should be encrypted wherever possible.Īs a network and security engineer I have been using network sniffing tools for decades. Of course, hackers can also use network sniffing tools to collect personal data such as passwords over a network. Many network administrators use these tools to determine the efficiency of a network, to troubleshoot communication problems, to identify common network bottlenecks etc. A network sniffer, or packet sniffer, is a specialized software (or even a hardware device) that listens in over a network and records the IP packets of data that travel through it.