Since the application is part of an open-source project and there are several developers constantly updating and making their own changes to the coding, this review will refer strictly to the 1.6.1 version of the program. That being said, let us take a closer look at the reasons why Wireshark is such a must-have tool for any network administrator. In order to make full use of the features and be able to locate the exact package of data you are looking for, you will need to learn a thing or two about how to use the filters properly. In essence, the application will allow you to scan all the incoming and outgoing traffic on a network for a wide array of protocols. Wireshark is an open-source project and it is the follow-up of the famous Ethereal technology. Allows you to save to disk captured network traces partially or entirely.' The Wireshark Network Protocol Analyzer'Īs the name suggests, Wireshark is a software utility designed for network analysis and management. Built-in display filters allow you to refine the displayed data and selectively highlight and color packet summary information. Options to save/print output as PostScript or plain text. You can browse the captured network data through the GUI or the TTY-mode.

Reads live data from Ethernet, FDDI, Token-Ring, PPP, IEEE 802.11, Classical IP over ATM and loopback interfaces.

Capable of reading capture files from tcpdump (libpcap), NAI’s Sniffer, Sniffer Pro, NetXray, Sunn snoop, Atm snoop, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, AIX’s Iptrace, Microsoft Network Monitor, Novell LANalyzer, RADCOM’s WLAN/LAN analyze3r, HP-UX nettl, Cisco Secure IDS iplog and many others. Allows you to capture data from a live network connection or read from a capture file. The program was developed by networking experts and its open source license supports talented programmers from the network community to add new features and improvements. Wireshark comprises powerful features and it’s the perfect application for network troubleshooting, protocol development and education. Wireshark (formerly known as Ethereal) is a free network analysis utility for Windows and Unix operating systems.

Wireshark 4.0.7 free downloads