Ten Reasons Make Packet Sniffers an Essential Network Tool

No matter whether you are network administrators or IT managers, you should not be unfamiliar to the network analysis tool - packet sniffer, also known as a network analyzer, protocol analyzer or sniffer) which has been widely used by kinds of organizations, schools, enterprises, government institutions etc.

Maybe you are yet supirsed at why more and more enterprises, like IBM, Intel, Epson, Airbus, Ericsson etc, love to deploy packet sniffer to their company's network? OK, take a fresh coffee now, then look at the following problems, and ask yourself, as a network administrator or IT manager, if these issues are just what you have met?

Rushing from one network problem to another every day?
Have no way to judge if your network has been intruded?
Helpless collecting convincing information to submit your boss even if you have realized that your network system has been intruded.
No idea if current network usage is equal to actual need?
Know nothing of how many staffs are not killing their time by chatting with friends, browsing irrelevant webpage etc, but focusing on their job?

Yes, every question listed above has puzzled many network administrators, but no worry, packet sniffer can easily help you out with its strong functions, here are ten reasons make packet sniffers an essential network tools.

* Analyze network problems
* Detect network intrusion attempts
* Gain information for effecting a network intrusion
* Monitor network usage
* Gather and report network statistics
* Filter suspect content from network traffic
* Spy on other network users and collect sensitive information such as passwords (depending on any content encryption methods which may be in use)
* Reverse engineer proprietary protocols used over the network
* Debug client/server communications
* Debug network protocol implementations

Currently, there are dozens of packet sniffers in the market, some are very complex to use like wireshark, you must be versed in networking,; some are designed for common network administrators, such as Colasoft Network Analyzer, all-in-one & easy-to-use, which are more and more accepted and welcome.

Find Out the Top Network Administrator Tools

Packet Sniffers/Network Protocol Analyzer

With packet sniffers and network protocol analyzers, you can monitor network activity, analyze network performance, enhance network security, and troubleshoot network issues.

1, Colasoft Packet Sniffer - http://www.colasoft.com/ Colasoft Capsa performs real-time packet capturing, 24/7 network monitoring, advanced protocol analyzing, in-depth packet decoding, and automatic expert diagnosing. It allows you to get a clear view of the complex network, conduct packet level analysis, and troubleshoot network problems.
2, Ethereal – http://www.ethereal.com/
3, EtterCap – http://ettercap.sourceforge.net/
4, Snort – http://www.snort.org/
5, WinDump / TCPDump - http://www.tcpdump.org/wpcap.html/
6, DSniff – http://naughty.monkey.org/~dugsong/dsniff/

Scanning Tools
1, Nmap – http://www.nmap.org/
Nmap is a port scanner. A port scanner scans for open ports, such as 80 (http) or 25 (SMTP)

2, Sam Spade – www.samspade.org/
Sam Spade is a multi network query tool with many extra built in utilities, even a tool for spam. It includes utilities such as ping, whois, traceroute, and finger

3, NetScanTools Pro ($199) –http://www.netscantools.com/nstmain.html
NetScanTools Pro Edition is an integrated collection of internet information gathering utilities for Windows Vista/2008/2003/XP/2000. Use it to research IP addresses, hostnames, domain names, email addresses, URLs automatically** or with manual tools.

4, SuperScan – http://www.foundstone.com/
SuperScan has the primary purpose of scanning an IP range. It supports extremely fast Host Discovery lookups as well as TCP and UDP port scans thanks to its multi-threaded and asynchronous techniques.

UserManagement - http://www.tools4ever.com/
Complete user account management featuring advanced user creation, modification, removal, mass creation/removal and delegation of administrative tasks. The UserManagemeNT Suite consists of three modules, Professional, Import and Delegation. These modules can operate independently or seamlessly integrated with each other.

AdminMagic - http://www.tools4ever.com/
Full control: Using AdminMagic, you can take over and control users' desktops from your own workstation. Featuring complete mouse and keyboard emulation, you can execute programs, login/logoff, modify device drivers and reboot all from a central location. You can also take screenshots of remote desktops and store/print them for later use. Remote users will not be interrupted and can continue working as they always do.

Advanced System Optimizer - http://www.systweak.com/
Advanced System Optimizer is a system tweaking suite that includes around 30 tools to improve and tweak your PC's performance. It offers an attractive and easy to use interface that organizes all tasks into categories and provides graphical statistics whenever possible. The tools include junk file cleaner, memory optimizer, system information, system files backup, file encryption, safe uninstaller, duplicate file finder, taskbar manager and much more. Advanced System Optimizer also includes an Internet tracks eraser with cookie manager and secure deletion, and even a desktop sticky notes application. Overall, a great bundle that offers a wide range of system tools with extra benefits that are hardly ever found.