Free network sniffer

Question

Free network sniffer

Greg Larsen

SSC-Insane

Points: 20961
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December 20, 2004 at 10:33 am

#102316

Does anyone know of a good, free, safe network sniffer I can install on a work station?
Gregory A. Larsen, MVP

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

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noeld SSC Guru Points: 96590 More actions · Answer 1

Have a look at http://www.ethereal.com/ but to really make it work will depend on what do you want to accomplish an how your network is setup

HTH

* Noel

Greg Larsen SSC-Insane Points: 20961 More actions · Answer 2

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I wonder about products that are still in beta. Who wants to provide an opinion as to whether they would install this product into their environment?

Gregory A. Larsen, MVP

Frank Kalis SSC Guru Points: 111183 More actions · Answer 3

This is of course only for the security of your network, hm?

Just in case you are familiar with VC++, there is or at least was a nice tool with its source code available here: http://www.codeproject.com/tools/Sniffer.asp

If not, you might find many useful informations here: http://www.insecure.org/tools.html

--
Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url]

Denny Figuerres Mr or Mrs. 500 Points: 550 More actions · Answer 4

"Have a look at http://www.ethereal.com/ but to really make it work will depend on what do you want to accomplish an how your network is setup"

very good tool, I have used it to build screen-scrape programs and debug some network software.

as for the "Beta" well.... Open Source projects often tend to call them "Beta" and 0.xx.xx for a *LONG* time.

IMHO Ethereal is very stable and does the job.

Rudyx - the Doctor SSC-Forever Points: 43695 More actions · Answer 5

I've used Ethereal on and off for about 4 years now. In each of the 3 locations I've worked at the in-house network staff has used this product exclusively for intra-site and some inter-site 'sniffing'. I've never seen it do harm to a up to date PC (although it's usually installed on a laptop for portability). Hope this helps.

RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."

K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114642 More actions · Answer 6

Jumping on the bandwagon here... Ethereal is far and away the best free one out there that I've seen. The latest version may be in beta, but Ethereal has been around a while in both the Windows and *nix environments. Nowadays when I need to break out a packet sniffer (like yesterday), it's the tool I use.

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

Greg Larsen SSC-Insane Points: 20961 More actions · Answer 7

Looks like a number of you see that the Ethereal product is stable, and safe to install. Thank you for your advice and information. Think I will download this product.

Gregory A. Larsen, MVP