Perhaps the best feature offered by SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is the Top Talkers feature. If anything significant happens an alert is raised for the user to take action. This means that the user doesn’t need to remain vigilant 24/7. These alerts are customisable and allow users to use threshold-based alerts based on their unique requirements. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer also has a very handy alerts system which notifies you when significant network events occur. It supports a variety of protocols such as J-Flow, sFLow, NetStream and NBAR2 giving you a balanced perspective of your network activity. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (FREE TRIAL)įirst up on our list we have SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer which is our top pick on account of its usability and ability to conduct real-time and historic bandwidth usage monitoring.

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (FREE TRIAL)ġ.Here is our list of some of the best packet sniffers and NetFlow analyzers available today: The term top talker is given to devices that consume excessive bandwidth which could indicate a performance issue or fault. Many administrators use NetFlow analyzers to find the top talkers on their network. This information reveals a lot about a packet’s purpose and the processes occurring behind the curtain.Ī packet sniffer also shows you the quality of the connection you’re experiencing. A packet sniffer will tell you the source port, destination port, destination IP address, and source IP address of a packet travelling across your network. What is a Packet Analyzer or Network Analyzer?Ī NetFlow analyzer or packet sniffer is a network monitoring tool that inspects all the data packets being transferred across your network. In this article we’re going to look at what packet sniffers are as well as the best products on the market. It also has the advantage of making sure that you don’t exceed your current usage limits and incur hefty fines from your ISP. Without a NetFlow analyzer you can’t see what is happening under the hood and then you’re unable to implement long term capacity planning.

You can see everything from which devices are experiencing faults to whether you’ll have enough bandwidth available to support your devices in future.Ĭonducting NetFlow analysis with a packet sniffer can help you to troubleshoot your network and identify the causes of poor performance. Having the tools to analyze this data can tell you a lot about your network’s performance. The average enterprise grade network is packed to the gills with information on service quality. Just below the surface of a live network lies a fountain of insights.

Wireshark ip sniffer