Best Packet Analyzers for Freelancers

Paessler PRTG is an all-inclusive monitoring solution with an intuitive, user-friendly interface powered by a cutting-edge monitoring engine. It optimizes connections and workloads, reduces operational costs, and prevents outages. It also saves time and controls service level agreements (SLAs). This solution includes specialized monitoring features such as flexible alerting, cluster failover, distributed monitoring, maps, dashboards, and in-depth reporting.

Telerik Fiddler HTTP (S) proxy can capture all HTTP(S), traffic between your computer & the Internet. You can inspect traffic, set breakpoints and play with requests & replies. Fiddler Everywhere is a web-debugging proxy that works on macOS, Windows and Linux. You can capture, inspect, monitor, and analyze all HTTP(S), traffic between your computer, the Internet, and mock requests. Fiddler Everywhere is compatible with any browser, app, or process. You can debug traffic from macOS or Windows systems, as well as iOS or Android mobile devices. Make sure that the appropriate cookies, headers, cache directives and headers are sent between the client's and server. Any framework is supported, including.NET and Java, Ruby, and others. You can mock or modify any website's requests and responses. It's quick and easy to modify the requests and responses on any website without having to change the code. Fiddler Everywhere allows you to log all HTTP/S traffic between the computer and the Internet.

Snort is the most popular Open Source Intrusion Prevention System, (IPS), in the world. Snort IPS uses a set of rules to help identify malicious network activity. It then uses those rules in order to find packets that match their criteria and generates alerts. To stop these packets, Snort can also be deployed inline. Snort can be used inline to stop these packets. Snort is available for both personal and business use. Once Snort rules have been downloaded and configured, they are divided into two sets: the "Community Ruleset", and the "Snort Subscriber Ruleset." Cisco Talos has approved the Snort Subscriber Ruleset. Subscribers to the Snort Subscription Ruleset will be notified in real time when the ruleset is released to Cisco customers.

Network Performance Monitor (NPM), by SolarWinds, provides advanced network troubleshooting using critical path hops-by-hop analysis for hybrid, on-premises, and cloud services. This modern network monitoring software is powerful and affordable. It allows IT organizations to quickly identify, diagnose, and fix network outages and problems, improving their network performance. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor features include a performance analysis dashboard, NetPath critical paths visualization, intelligent alerts, multi-vendor network monitoring and Network Insights for Cisco ASA.

Network Watcher allows you to monitor and diagnose network issues without having to log in to your virtual machine (VM). Set alerts to trigger packet capture and access real-time performance data at the packet level. You can dig deeper into an issue to make a better diagnosis. Use virtual network flow logging and network security group flow logging to gain a better understanding of your network traffic patterns. Flow logs provide data that you can use for compliance, auditing, and monitoring of your network security profile. Network Watcher allows you to diagnose the most common VPN gateway issues and connection problems. You can not only identify the problem but also use the detailed logs to further investigate.

Tcpdump, a powerful command line packet analyzer, allows users to view the contents of packets sent or received by a computer over a network. It runs on most Unix systems, including Linux and Solaris. It also works with FreeBSD NetBSD OpenBSD and MacOS. Tcpdump is able to read packets either from a network card or from an existing packet file. It also offers the option to write packets on standard output or to a file. Users can apply BPF filters to limit the amount of packets that are processed. This makes it easier to use on networks with high traffic. The tool is distributed with the BSD license and is therefore free software. Tcpdump can be installed as a native package on many operating systems, making it easier to install updates and maintain the system.

Arkime is a large-scale, open source, full packet capture, indexing and database system that augments existing security infrastructures by storing and indiceing network traffic using standard PCAP format. It provides full network visibility to help identify and resolve security and network issues quickly. Security teams have access to all the data they need to respond to incidents and investigate them, revealing the full scope of the attack. Arkime is designed to be deployed over multiple clustered systems and can scale up to hundreds of gigabits/second. It allows security analysts respond, reconstruct, examine, and confirm information regarding threats within your network. This enables appropriate responses quickly and accurately. Arkime is an open-source platform that offers users transparency, cost-effectiveness and flexibility. It also provides community support.

NetworkMiner, an open-source tool for network forensics, extracts artifacts like files, images, emails and passwords, from captured network traffic stored in PCAP files. It can also capture real-time network traffic by sniffing the network interface. The analyzed network traffic contains detailed information about each IP. This can be used to discover passive assets and get a better overview of communicating devices. NetworkMiner was designed to run primarily on Windows, but it can also be used with Linux. Since its 2007 release, it has become a favorite tool among incident response teams, law enforcement agencies and companies and organizations around the world. Audio extraction and playback from VoIP calls. Lookups for OSINT of file hashes and IP addresses. Support for command line scripting and a configurable file output directory.

Sniffnet, a network monitoring software, is designed to help users keep track of Internet traffic. Sniffnet offers comprehensive coverage, whether it's gathering statistics or inspecting network activities in depth. It focuses on user experience and ease of use, compared to other cumbersome analyzers. Sniffnet, which is completely free and open-source, is licensed under MIT or Apache 2.0, with its full source code being available on GitHub. It is built entirely in Rust and uses this modern programming language for efficient and reliable software that emphasizes performance and safety. The key features include selecting the network adapter for inspection, applying filters to observed data, viewing statistics and real-time charts, exporting comprehensive capture files as PCAP, identifying more than 6,000 upper layer services, protocols and trojans and worms.

EtherApe, a graphical Unix network monitor based on Etherman, displays network activity graphically. Hosts and links change in size depending on traffic volume, and protocols are color-coded. It supports a variety of devices, including FDDI and ISDN, as well as PPP, SLIP and WLAN. Users can filter displayed data and capture live data from the network, or read from a text file. Statistics can be exported to facilitate further analysis. The tool has three modes: IP, TCP, and link layer. This allows users to focus on a specific protocol stack level. It provides detailed information about each node and connection, including protocol breakdowns and traffic statistics. EtherApe, an open-source software, is released under the GNU General Public License. One node can be displayed in the center of the screen, and several nodes selected by the user can be arranged around it. In an alternative mode of display, nodes are arranged in "columns".

WinDump is a Windows version of tcpdump - the command line network analyser for UNIX. WinDump can be used with tcpdump to monitor, diagnose and save network traffic to disk according to complex rules. It runs under Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. WinDump uses the WinPcap library, drivers and software available for free download from the WinPcap site. WinDump supports wireless capture and troubleshooting for 802.11b/g through the Riverbed AirPcap Adapter. WinDump is a free program released under a BSD license. WinDump can use the interfaces that WinPcap exports. WinDump runs on all operating systems supported by WinPcap. WinDump is a porting of tcpdump. You can launch multiple sessions (on the same adapter or different adapters). Multiple applications can be used simultaneously without any negative effects, except for an increased CPU load.

Wireshark, the most widely-used network protocol analyzer in the world, is known as the "world's best and most trusted". It allows you to see the network at a micro-level and is used by many non-profit and commercial organizations, government agencies, educational institutions, and other organizations. Wireshark is a continuation of a project begun by Gerald Combs back in 1998. It relies on the contributions of networking experts from around the world.

The Observer Platform provides a comprehensive network performance monitoring (NPMD) solution that is ideal for maintaining high performance of all IT services. The Observer Platform is an integrated offering that provides visibility into critical KPIs via pre-defined workflows, starting at high-level dashboards and ending at service anomaly root cause. It is ideal for achieving business goals and solving challenges across the entire IT enterprise lifecycle, including deploying new technologies, managing existing resources, solving service anomalies, and optimizing IT asset use. The Observer Management Server UI (OMS UI) is a cyber security tool. It features simple navigation that allows you to authenticate security threats, manage user access and password data, upgrade web applications, and streamline management tools from a single location.

Capsa is a portable network performance analysis tool and diagnostics tool. It provides a powerful and comprehensive packet capture solution with an intuitive interface that allows both novice and veteran users to monitor and protect networks in a critical business environment. Capsa helps you keep track of potential threats that could cause major business disruptions. Capsa is a portable network analysis application for LANs as well as WLANs. It performs packet capture capability, 24x7 network monitoring and advanced protocol analysis. It also provides expert diagnosis and packet decoding. Capsa's high-level view of the entire network gives network administrators and engineers quick insight that allows them to quickly pinpoint and solve application problems. Capsa is an indispensable tool for network monitoring. It has the most user-friendly interface, and the best data packet capture and analysis engine.

Xplico can be found in the following distributions of digital forensics or penetration testing: Kali Linix (BackTrack, DEFT), Security Onion (Matriux), Security Onion (BackBox), CERT Forensics Tools Pentoo, CERT-Toolkit, DEFT, Security Onion and Security Onion). Multiple users can simultaneously access Xplico. Each user can manage one or several Cases. The UI is a Web User Interface. Its backend DB can either be SQLite or MySQL. Xplico can also be used as a Cloud Network Forensic Analysis tool. Xplico's goal is to extract from internet traffic the applications data. Xplico can extract each email (POP and SMTP protocols), each HTTP content, each VoIP call (SIP), FTP and TFTP) from a pcap. Xplico doesn't perform network protocol analysis. Xplico (an open-source Network Forensic Analysis Tool, NFAT) is a network protocol analyzer. Each data reassembled with Xplico is associated with an XML file which uniquely identifies the flows as well as the pcap containing that data.

The Intelligence Hub provides real-time trade analytics that correlate client trading behavior, plant performance, and venue counterparty execution. This enables proactive business management and operations. Corvil is an open-source data system that provides API access to all market, trading and analytics messages as well as the underlying packets. The Streaming Data API supports a growing number of Corvil Connectors, allowing streaming Corvil data directly from network packets into your choice big data solution. Corvil Center is a single access point to all analytics and reporting. All you need to do to view any of the petabytes worth of granular packet data collected by Corvil is a few clicks. Corvil Instrumentation provides superior price/performance packet analysis and capture Appliances. Software defined packet sniffers (Corvil sensor) extend the reach to virtual environments and cloud environments. The Corvil AppAgent allows for internal multi-hop software instrumentation.

Riverbed Packet Analyzer is a powerful tool that allows users to analyze and report on large trace files in real-time. It has a graphical user interface with dozens of pre-defined views. It allows users to quickly identify complex network and application issues, down to the bit-level. Users can instantly see results by dragging and dumping preconfigured analysis views on a group virtual interfaces or packet trace files. This reduces hours of work to seconds. The tool allows for the merging and capture of multiple trace files to pinpoint problems across multiple segments. It also allows you to zoom in on a network view at 100 microseconds to identify usage spikes or microbursts which can cause major issues.

Omnipeek®, combines visual packet intelligence with deep packet analysis to provide faster resolutions of network and security problems. Reliable network performance is essential for service providers and enterprises. Security attacks, network and application faults, configuration errors, and network failures can all impact operations, user experience, as well as the bottom line. Engineers need to be able monitor and troubleshoot issues quickly in order to keep their networks running at peak performance. Engineers need real-time analysis of every network segment --1/10/40/100 Gigabit and 802.11, voice and video over IP - and for all levels of network traffic. Omnipeek is a top-of-the-line suite of network analytics software that provides intuitive visualizations and effective forensics to speed up the resolution of network and application performance problems and security investigations. Omnipeek is built on years of LiveAction packet information and offers customizable workflows.