MONITORING TOOLS

Network Monitoring Tools - Compared



Network Monitoring Tools - Compared

Introduction

Network monitoring tools are quite useful for providing a number of internet related services. One of them is quite common and related to blocking access to various sites, which are most commonly against the codes of conducts of an organization. These sites depend on the policies of the company. Other sites are quite harmful and detrimental for the young children , and this makes the tool quite useful to restrict access to adult websites.

There are various software, which are quite helpful and widely used by various organizations, as well as many standalone users. Most of software or tools are quite costly and can either be purchased online or using local stores. The two major tools, which are quite widely used are Wireshark and ipMonitor (Networkmonitoring.org, 2011).

Networking Tools Analysis

Wireshark

Wireshark is a type of open source software which has been launched in 1998 by the name of 'Ethereal'. Moreover, it has enormous capabilities to deal with the libpcap library which is present in the Linux? Unix iteration. Nowadays, it is available in almost all platforms including Windows. Wireshark is quite efficient tool for monitoring and keeping an eagle eye on all the network and communication protocols including VoIP as well as Wireless networking. It is quite useful for pinpointing and analyzing the network protocol and screening the various malware and other attackers. This adds the dimension of internet security which makes its function twofold. Moreover, it is quite efficient network sniffer and has the ability to trace even the most hazy footprint of various malicious and malware programs.

Using the software, one can easily look into the network and can even examine the traffic in and out of the system. However, it also enables users to identify various source as well as destination addresses along with connected ports. This function also helps in deciphering the payloads along with keeping an eye on the malware behavioural activities. Also, the data leakage can easily be traced thereby enabling users to use the tool as a sniffer. However, it is highly dependent on the network speed as well as hardware supports are quite major concern. Indeed this software provides us quite an insight about the traffic passing through the system.

Apart from that, Wireshark offers a great deal of compatibility with the exceptions of Nessus and Snort. Nevertheless, it is widely supported by most of the open source community of this very world. All in all, the monitoring tool is quite good and has affordable price and ample support scattered all the way on the internet. Also, users can easily export their reports to PostScript, XML, CSV and text formats (Wireshark, 2009, p. 61).

IpMonitor

IpMonitor claims that its new version 7.5 has the ability to detect the SLA compliance outrages along with providing an easy to use and flexible UI for the users. It has found quite useful for monitoring the networking device as well as server activities on the ...