So, NTAs can be said to operate at the Application Layer and not the Network Layer.Īnalyzing at the Application Layer gives the NTA tool a better overview of network activity. Packet headers are the main source of information for analysis, but traffic analyzers wait until a series of packets have been captured and stored. They can also consolidate that source material to discover unusual user behavior.Īlthough the network offers live source data, network traffic analysis tools rarely operate in real-time. At the other end of the scale, you will find complex systems that sample traffic from several points of the network simultaneously. That information then needs to be processed to gain meaningful insights into traffic patterns. What to look for in a network traffic analysis toolĪt the simpler end of the market, you will find packet sniffers that copy passing traffic into files. Open WIPS-NG A wireless network protection system that includes traffic analysis.Plixer Scrutinizer A traffic analyzer used for network security that samples traffic from multiple network locations simultaneously.Elastic Stack A suite of data capture and analysis tools featuring Elasticsearch and Kibana.

Noction Flow Analyzer This is a package of network monitoring tools that include a capacity planning analyzer that recalls stored traffic data.

ManageEngine OpManager Plus (FREE TRIAL) An expansion of the standard OpManager network performance monitor that includes traffic analysis.

It works with NetFlow, J-Flow, sFlow, NetStream, and IPFIX for packet capture.

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer EDITOR’S CHOICE The leading network traffic analyzer.

The diversity of traffic analysis purposes can be seen in the list of the best network traffic analysis tools: More recently, network traffic analysis has expanded to include deep packet inspection used by firewalls and traffic anomaly analysis used by intrusion detection systems. Historically, this strategy was intended to investigate the sources of all traffic and volumes of throughput for the sake of capacity analysis. Network traffic analysis involves examining packets passing along a network.

Network traffic software