SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Wireshark comparison

"The bandwidth monitoring functionality is one of the most important features for our customers. When the customer notices that their bandwidth usage is too high for some reason, they will use the traffic analysis within SolarWinds NTA to identify which protocols (e.g. HTTPS) or applications are using up the bandwidth."

"The support is excellent."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its traffic analysis."

"For stability, I would give SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer a rating of ten out of ten."

"The dashboard alerts me when a critical device goes off the network."

"The most valuable feature is the alarm that is set up to trigger based on bandwidth utilization."

"The program is scalable enough for our usage."

"The bandwidth indicates the utilization of the devices; if any issue occurs, it triggers an alert for me."

"I find Wireshark a very useful tool. Its best feature is that it allows me to deeply understand what's going on at the packet level, as well as any adverse signatures that I can analyze. When I need to create an IPS rule, I need to check the traffic deeply to get more insights about the actual traffic, what's the name of certain flags, etc., and I'm able to do all that through Wireshark. The tool is also user-friendly."

"The most valuable feature is the traffic gate, which shows which IPs are getting more bandwidth or traffic."

"I can save the traffic and analysis when I want to. Also, it's especially helpful to follow the stream (TCP, UDP, etc.)."

"The feature to incorporate Voice over IP (VoIP) incidents into network traffic analysis is valuable. Capturing voice or SIP communication allows for examination of interactions between SIP clients and SIP servers. This helps the team investigate or analyze issues related to call center servers and operators."

"The ability to decrypt traffic and the abundance of filters available are both valuable features."

"The transmission and reception issues are valuable."

"The product is simple to implement."

"Wireshark is a good tool to start with network analyzing and packet capturing."

"It does not flow. It cannot do our metric performance monitoring. So it is very limited. They can do it but in a very limited fashion. It is only good for SNMP-based alerts."

"SolarWinds' technical support is ok, but it could be faster and more knowledgeable."

"The Atlas module that is used for building the network map is very bad."

"Currently, it shows only the top ten applications or ports in use, while the remaining data appears as 'remaining traffic,' causing confusion."

"The problem is that SolarWinds is trying to bolt in too much and that can leave bugs, which you have to then sort out, leaving the product unstable. SolarWinds needs to try and slow down and improve the stability of the product, as opposed to bringing out more and more features."

"It can be complex to set up and configure."

"NTA's documentation for the implementation phase needs some enhancement."

"Currently, it shows only the top ten applications or ports in use, while the remaining data appears as 'remaining traffic,' causing confusion."

"There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain."

"Wireshark gets stuck when it is a larger file."

"The solution’s user interface could be improved."

"I would like better control of bandwidth from the service provider."

"Wireshark's UI isn't easy to handle and doesn't have as nice a view as Omnipeek."

"The decryption of encrypted packets could be better."

"Wireshark could be improved by adding more monitoring features."

"Wireshark is restricted when any sort of encryption is involved, such as XSL encryption or DLX."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"We have licenses for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer. In terms of pricing, its license is not that expensive versus other tools such as HP."

"The pricing is really good."

"NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is reasonably priced."

"I don't have information on the licensing cost for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer because it's bundled with another SolarWinds solution. My organization has seven different models and pays for the license yearly. My organization also had to deploy additional pollers, but the cost wasn't very expensive, though I can't give the exact numbers."

"SolarWinds' pricing structure is the primary reason why some customers opt for another solution such as ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer. In NTA, you are charged per port, meaning that if you have a 24-port switch you will be charged for 24 individual nodes. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, on the other hand, charges per switch, such that if you add a switch, the entire switch will count as one single node."

"While the pricing is fair, it could be better."

"We pay yearly, and we are happy with its price."

"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."

"Wireshark is free software, so you can download it and use it for free with no licensing fees."

"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"

"It's a stand-alone tool. If there is a commercial license for it I am unaware of it."

"It's free."

"Wireshark is open-source and free of charge."

"Wireshark is open source and gives great value and functionality to the network investigation."

"I am using the free version of this solution."