Microsoft Network Monitor does the basics well, and its functionality makes it easy to zero in on the traffic you are looking for. As more and more applications tunnel their data over HTTPS, this functionality becomes more even more important.Įvery systems administrator and network engineer should have a packet capture and protocol analysis tool in their kit. Cannot see inside SSL encrypted packets: While it makes plenty of sense, at a technical level, why the application cannot peer into the encrypted portions of SSL encrypted packets (it would need to proxy the conversation), it would be very useful if it could.Packet filtering is complex: Using packet filtering is complex and the examples do not show all of the possibilities expect to spend some time learning the ins-and-outs of filtering if you want to do anything complex.Conversations: Traffic is grouped into “conversations” by the local process that the traffic is going to/coming from, then by the IP address of the other party, and by protocol.Can see into VPN traffic: If the machine is on a VPN, the external portion of the VPN traffic can be monitored or the contents inside the tunnel.
Many times, packet capture and analysis will reveal the root cause of problems that application and operation system logs do not provide. Having insight to network traffic provides a precise view into application and operation system behavior, allowing for accurate and rapid problem solving. Many developers, customer support personnel, and QA workers will find it useful as well to analyze application behavior. Network engineers and system administrators will find this tool invaluable. For a closer look, check out the TechRepublic Spotlight Photo Gallery.
The Microsoft Network Monitor is a free tool for Windows PCs that allows you to see each and every networking packet that arrives at or is sent from the PC.