Wireshark Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

Network Engineer at a retailer with 51-200 employees

Jul 13, 2012

"Best Packet Analyzer, report generator, and troubleshooter."

What is most valuable?

• This software analyzes network packets in detail and displays a detailed view of the network packets, highlighting any malware and suspicious software • Users (network administrators) can easily identify and troubleshoot any network problems that are visible in the packet data • It works with a large number of protocols • The network packet analysis report is saved in multiple formats including XML, PS, TXT & CSV. • Network packets can be captured from various media types • When combined with GeoIP, you have the edge to capture traffic on a country basis • Open source tool that can be customized to user preferences • Protocol based color coding enabled • User-friendly layout • Supported with GUI interface

What needs improvement?

• Wireshark does not allw you to make any changes relevant to the network. In other words, you can only observe the network.

What other advice do I have?

Wireshark is a dynamic software that has developed and adapted to the latest technology advancements and network challenges. It helps network administrators in conducting their packet analysis on a regular basis. Because of its detailed reports, Wireshark enables users to identify and troubleshoot network issues at a glance.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user2979

Network Engineer at a tech consulting company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Dec 6, 2012

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The must-have network analyzer.

Valuable Features:

This is the de-facto standard network protocol analysis tool. It's designed for network experts who need to do deep network packet analysis. Contains powerful filters and conversation views help to target relevant data. Open-source, multi-platform, and best of all, free.

Room for Improvement:

Good working knowledge of TCP/IP is needed to use this tool, including packet structure, headers, and ports. The volume of data on a typical TCP segment is so large that it can be challenging to capture and find the right data. Can't sniff wireless networks without additional hardware, e.g. wireless dongle.

Other Advice:

Somewhere out there, product managers are cursing Wireshark for providing such a great tool for free, when tools like this used to cost tens-of-thousands of dollars.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

sandeepSenior Manager of Network at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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Aug 7, 2013

Aaron well said and nicely summarized, Wireshark is a very user-friendly, simple to use but powerful tool that will keep you completely aware of what is going on under-the-hood of a network. Yes, the data gathered is too vast and challenging to capture but still it can be filtered. Above all, Wireshark is free. Novice could use Wireshark to study the nuts and bolts of a network and Expert could use it to troubleshoot or restructure the network.

Rightly, The must-have network analyzer for all from Novice to Expert ................

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it_user1143

Network Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jul 16, 2012

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Wireshark is an outstanding tool that resolves network, security, and performance issues

Valuable Features:

Free and open source packet analyzer, which is extremely powerful and customizable.Captures real time data from a variety of network interfaces and types, and also displays data from previously captured files.Over 850 protocols are supported, including common protocols like IP and DHCP and also advanced protocols, like AppleTalk and IPX.The tool is compatible with all major operating system platforms including Windows, MAC, and Linux.GUI layout is user friendly and straightforward, which provides protocol-based color coding and comprehensive graphical representation of raw data.

Room for Improvement:

Built-in help system is not robust.Advance knowledge is required for protocol analysis.

Other Advice:

Wireshark is incredibly powerful, user-friendly, and a free tool, which is capable of live capture and offline analysis of traffic on any size network.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user148368

Senior Manager of Engineering at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sep 21, 2014

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A good open source & free packet analyzer. Versatile tool that helps enigneers analyze & troubleshooot networks issues.

What is most valuable?

The packet details pane.

How has it helped my organization?

Use daily for packet analysis.

What needs improvement?

Bigger memory footprint.

For how long have I used the solution?

7 years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I blame the PC OS.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

How are customer service and technical support?

Open source so feedback to forum.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Nope.

How was the initial setup?

Yes.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Free.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user1158

Developer at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jul 17, 2012

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Best open source network packet analyzer in the market

Valuable Features:

- The best network analyzer tool out there in the market. - Being open source makes it highly sought after for both network admins and developers alike. - Supported on all major platforms like Windows, Linux and Macintosh. - You can easily analyze each and every packet captured from the network based on protocol types like TCP, IP, UDP, etc. - Captured packet list can be very easily exported to files. - Can be customized to suit your needs. - Very user friendly layout. - Supports filter creation for narrowing down packet selection.

Room for Improvement:

- Packet filter used in wireshark is quite cryptic and the syntax is quite different from the other command line packet analyzers, like tcpdump. - Requires admin privileges for running the packet capture utility. - You cannot change anything on the packet i.e. you can not modify anything in the packet, packet header, etc. You can only read them. - Requires basic knowledge of Networking to decipher the packet capture. -Cannot be used to diagnose any kind of network intrusions and hacking exploits.

Other Advice:

Having used Wireshark for more than 3 years, I'm glad to find this useful application. The GUI is very good and helps you decipher the packet header, packet content, etc. very easily. Although, adding packet filters requires a basic knowledge of network concepts. Supports exporting captured packets to a text file for offline viewing.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user1068

Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jul 1, 2012

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Wireshark is the best free network monitoring software.

Valuable Features:

Wireshark is an open-source network protocol used to monitor and analyze packets in a network.Wireshark analyzes networks, captures traffic and decrypts information passed through the communication channels into a form that is readable and can thus be used to learn how network protocols work.Wireshark also captures traffic that can help in troubleshooting network problems and it is free.

Room for Improvement:

Wireshark is also used for hacking which is a security breach. This can happen in wireless networks because they are not secure and most protocols of which are also not secure.Hackers use Wireshark to capture login details or information sent over networks. It is a free open source software that can be freely downloaded from the internet. Wireshark can be used on windows systems, Unix systems as well as Mac OS X systems and can also capture raw USB traffic.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user2652Project Manager at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees

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Jan 19, 2014

Can we also use Wireshark over the internet to capture traffic? Is it available for linux versions?

it_user1128

Infrastructure Expert at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Jul 14, 2012

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Great Packet Sniffer

Valuable Features:

Wireshark is an open source development product so it doesn't cost anything and anyone can use it. It is easy to install and there is community support for different OS platforms. Wireshark is a great tool to help network engineers identify network problems like broadcasting, injection, poisoning, etc. You can see your network traffic protocol base on a GUI screen. It’s a real time monitoring tool for your network and is therefore very helpful for a network engineer when trying to identify a PC on a network that is causing a problem. You are able to capture network traffic and export it into different formats, and the same opposite import facility is also there.

Room for Improvement:

It’s helpful only if you have the basic knowledge of networking. You are required to have TCP/IP protocol suite knowledge and many other protocols as well.

Other Advice:

Wireshark is a complete protocol base network monitoring tool. It’s a real-time debugging protocol over your network. It also has import and export facilities to debug the traffic of your network.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.