5 complete packet capture and analysis tools for small to large networks

Packet capture and analysis are extremely useful for examining network interactions and identifying inefficient transmissions and dangerous cyber threats.

Packet capture refers to intercepting and collecting data packets as they travel over a network connection. Data packets are logged and inspected to identify and manage network issues such as high latency and glitches. Information obtained from packet analysis is used to help network administrators troubleshoot and fix network failures in a short time.

Packet analysis is used for some of the following tasks:

• Security risk detection
• Troubleshooting DNS issues
• Identifying and resolving network connectivity issues
• Network failure detection
• Packet leak detection and remediation
• Malware detection and prevention

It is possible to capture the entire data packet or specific segments of the packet. A complete data packet consists of two parts: payload and header. The payload segment contains the actual contents of the packet, and the header segment contains information such as the packet’s source and destination addresses.

We have compiled a list of several applications for performing full packet capture and analysis.

Let’s get started.

Cola Soft Capsa

Capsa is a real-time, portable network analyzer, monitoring, and diagnostic tool for both wired and wireless networks. Data packet inspection can be scheduled to run at specified times, such as periodically or monthly. Regular scans ensure that you don’t miss any performance issues that arise. If you forget something, you’ll receive email and voice alerts whenever there’s a networking session you need to attend.

Capsa helps users stay up-to-date on vulnerabilities and threats that can cause service interruptions. With this tool, all important VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) metrics such as call codec type and event distribution are properly tracked. This is a great tool for individuals who want to learn how to get into packet inspection and detect network issues to improve network security.

Features:

• Free built-in utilities to create and play packets, scan and ping IP addresses.
• Diagnose network issues and automatically recommend solutions.
• It supports VoIP and TCP flow analysis and can be used to diagnose network issues such as slow response times and customer relationship management (CRM) transactions.
• It can detect DDoS attacks, ARP attacks, TCP port scans, and also allows users to identify technical issues within the network.
• This tool supports over 1,800 protocols, so you can easily examine the protocols in your network and understand what’s going on.
• Collects all data packets and displays complete packet sequence information in hexadecimal and ASCII format. (detailed packet decoding)
• Network traffic and throughput information can be displayed in graph format.

Colasoft also offers other tools such as the Network Performance Analysis System (nChronos) and the Unified Performance Management Solution (Colasoft UPM). We offer a 30-day free trial to check out the features before purchasing.

TCPDump

TCPDump is a powerful open-source command-line packet analyzer tool that captures protocols such as TCP, UDP, and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). This tool is preinstalled on all Unix-like operating systems. TCPDump is released under the BSD license. tcpdump allows you to easily inspect the headers of TCP/IP packets. Information is printed for each data transmission, and the script runs until terminated with the Ctrl+C option.

Setting up Tcpdump is very easy, and once you learn the tool’s usage, flags, and arguments, you can use it to troubleshoot connectivity issues and protect your network. The recorded data packets are saved to a file for further analysis with tcpdump. The file is saved in the PCAP extension format and can be easily inspected with tcpdump or Wireshark, which read PCAP (short for packet capture) format files.

Features:

• Captured data packets can be filtered by source, destination, and protocol.
• Free and open source

Here are articles about how to use tcpdump to capture and analyze network traffic.

Pesler PRTG

One of the most popular network monitoring and traffic analysis tools is Paessler PRTG Network Monitor. This tool provides important information about your network’s infrastructure and its performance.

Compatible with Windows. It includes various monitoring options such as bandwidth monitoring and traffic analysis. A free version of Paessler PRTG is available. Use a combination of packet sniffers, WMI, and SNMP to report network performance metrics.

Features:

• Flexible Alerts – PRTG has over 10 design technologies including SMS, push notifications, email, HTTP request triggers, and more.
• Multiple User Interfaces – Built on AJAX with strong security requirements and high performance with Single Page Application (SPA) technology.
• Cluster Failover Solution – Configures a slightly higher level monitoring solution.
• Maps and Dashboards – Visualize your network with real-time maps featuring current, live information.
• Distributed monitoring – Portable interceptors allow you to monitor many networks in different locations or multiple networks within your organization.
• Detailed reports in the form of numbers, statistics and graphs

The tool supports a variety of alerting methods including SMS, email, and third-party connections to platforms such as Slack. PRTG is available in an unlimited version for 30 days. After the free period ends, it will revert to the free format.

wire shark

Wireshark is a free, open-source packet analyzer that allows you to inspect network data transmissions in real time. This tool allows network administrators to examine the network at a microscopic level to pinpoint the source of traffic problems and mistakes. This is a great tool that requires a solid understanding of networking concepts.

Features:

• In fact, it works on any operating system, including Windows, Linux distributions, and Mac OS X.
• Create reports based on current statistical data.
• Filtering the output can be done using various options such as timers and filters.
• Visualize network packets using IO graphs and charts.
• You can also record USB traffic.
• It can be used for a wide range of purposes, including fingerprinting malicious traffic and configuring packet filtering.
• You can apply color-coding rules to identify types of traffic.
• A deep dive into VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol).

Lost data packets, network latency issues, application dependencies, inefficient window sizes, and more are common troubleshooting challenges that Wireshark can help with. This tool allows you to monitor network traffic and provides a mechanism for searching and identifying the cause of problems.

Unicast (connectionless) traffic that is not sent to a network’s MAC address interface can also be monitored with the Wireshark tool.

See this article about troubleshooting network latency using Wireshark.

Archime

Arkime works in conjunction with your existing security systems to collect and index network traffic and data transmissions in standard PCAP format.

All recorded data packets are saved and exported in regular PCAP format, allowing you to use your favorite PCAP ingestion tools such as Wireshark or tcpdump in the analysis process.

PCAP retention is determined by available sensor disk space, while API retention is determined by the size of your Elasticsearch cluster. You can change these parameters at any time.

Arkime is designed to work across multiple systems and scales to tens of gigabits of traffic per second. All PCAP format files stored on Arkime sensors can be installed and accessed only via the Arkime web interface or API. PCAP files can be encrypted at rest using Arkime.

Features:

• Provides an easy-to-use web interface to inspect, search, and extract PCAP files.
• free and open source
• Allows other PCAP capture tools to inspect saved PCAP files.

PCAP data and transaction data in JSON format can be obtained directly through the API. See Arkime’s complete API documentation here .

conclusion

Analyzing packet capture data typically requires a high degree of technical expertise, but these tools make it possible.

We hope this article is very helpful in learning a complete packet capture and analysis tool for small to large networks.

You may also be interested in learning about the best Wi-Fi analyzer software tools.