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Wireshark

Score9.5 out of 10

135 Reviews and Ratings

What is Wireshark?

Wireshark is a free and open source network troubleshooting tool.

Excellent Network Analysing, Monitoring and Troubleshooting application

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it mainly for interrogation, analysis, and monitoring of network packets. Additionally where there are issues we use it for troubleshooting and remediating these issues. It's easy to use with a practical and straightforward GUI, which is simple to get accustomed to. Additionally with it being open source costs are almost minimal and it still performs as efficiently, reliably, and admirably as paid-for commercial off-the-shelf software competitors.

Pros

  • Analysing Network Traffic
  • Troubleshooring Network Packets
  • Easy to deploy and make modifications to configuration
  • Cheap and cost effective to run, administer and manage

Cons

  • Sometimes difficult to read analysis
  • Lag and Latency may occur occasionally due to over dependency on resources
  • Although GUI is easy to use, it needs to be updated to match competitors
  • Filters are not easiest to use

Return on Investment

  • The return on investment is almost negligible as there were almost zero upfront costs. Reports and in-depth analysis/intelligence gathering are virtually free
  • We have saved a lot of money by deploying Wireshark but still have a reliable and efficient network analysing application
  • Excellent user interface makes it simplea nd easy to use

Usability

Alternatives Considered

TCPdump

Other Software Used

Atlassian Confluence, Checkmarx

Boosting Network Performance and Reliability with Wireshark!

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The scope of our use case spans across our entire organization, from troubleshooting specific issues to ensuring secure and efficient network communication. When issues arise, Wireshark helps us pinpoint bottlenecks, latency, and dropped packets. We diagnose connectivity problems, misconfigurations, and performance issues across our network. Wireshark aids our security team in: Detecting suspicious or malicious activity (e.g., unauthorized access, data exfiltration).Investigating security incidents by analyzing captured packets.

Pros

  • Packet Capture and Analysis
  • Visualizations and Graphs
  • Comprehensive Protocol Support

Cons

  • Optimize packet capture efficiency and minimizing resource utilization would benefit users.
  • Simplify the UI or providing guided wizards for common tasks would enhance usability.
  • Allow users to create custom dashboards and generate detailed reports would enhance flexibility.

Return on Investment

  • It significantly boosted network reliability
  • Wireshark cut troubleshooting time by 40%
  • Wireshark improved network performance

Nothing is better than Wireshark

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I work as a VoIP specialist in contact centers. It regularly happens that I have to study SIP calls to identify faults on gateways during Trunk installation. Wireshark is required.The most common cases are failures linked to firewalls or protocol parameters which are not respected. It also happens that we have to study packet losses between equipments

Pros

  • SIP flows
  • Network mapping
  • Packet losses

Cons

  • Graphical rewrite. It could be too much 90s
  • A server/client mode to remotely control parsers on servers
  • Saving/sharing works on cloud

Return on Investment

  • + Wireshark traces are a valid proof for end users during issues. "ping pong" war avoided. several days saved
  • + No need spend time on probes.
  • - Some users hides behind the app without thinking further on the problem

Must have tool to work in or with Networks!

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Receiving the TCAP messages has been never easy. This opensource tool easily capture TCAP during the calls for me on different INAP services. We also easily evaluate messages through Wireshark now. And we keep track of packet data information exchange between different networks very conveniently. Wireshark helps us now to easily debug the network data exchange issues and fix them quickly.

Pros

  • Possibility to analyze packets from various interfaces (LAN,Wifi,BT,USB).
  • Ability to integrate with GNS3 easily.
  • Its a free tool and available on all platforms.
  • Provide comprehension analysis on communication protocols.

Cons

  • Learning curve is a little steep.
  • Encrypted network traffic read is a a struggle.
  • User interface can be developed

Most Important Features

  • Packet Capture
  • Traffic Flow analysis
  • Filters in the tool to investigate
  • Ability to download and share the log files.

Return on Investment

  • Identifying bugs in the network has never been smooth and near-perfect.
  • Wireshark has made sure our equipment and software is working properly via analyzing network data.
  • Analysis of IP packets and Sip call flaws has saved us a lot of time and confident result.

Alternatives Considered

PRTG Network Monitor

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, (EOL) Cisco CloudCenter, Aspire AWS Cloud Services and Solutions

Great open-source tool with a powerful toolset

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have used Wireshark to investigate network issues and mostly find lost IPs on the network. The GUI is amazing as well as the command line's speed works wonders. I also used Wireshark to capture packets to analyse if there were too many DNS requests going through to the local DNS server.

While saying that, I only used it primarily to get a deep understanding of our network.

Pros

  • Great UI & Command Line Tools
  • Packet capture feature is very good
  • It is open source which is the best thing in a tool like Wireshark

Cons

  • A little bit of intrusion detection feature would help
  • Other than that, I don't think it lacks anything
  • Perfect little tool

Most Important Features

  • Open source as licensing fees adds up in a medium sized business
  • Lightweight tool that can be run on my laptop
  • Breadth of feature sets it provides

Return on Investment

  • I loved the tool
  • Never spend any money so cannot really talk about ROI
  • It did save me time which can be a positive ROI

Alternatives Considered

Nmap

Other Software Used

Cisco Meraki MX, Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Secure Access by Duo