Discussion on:

Five free network analyzers worth any IT admin's time

I have used several of these tool. Primarily I use wireshark to capute network drops and connections. I will try some of the other tools to see if they provide more information.

Thanks

I've been wanting to try a couple new tools for capturing and monitoring network traffic. I tried Wireshark quite a while back but at the time I didn't have much free time to get familiar with it so I think I'll start there with a fresh download of the latest version. I like trying to find new tools to add to my collection so I appreciate these type of articles.

"JDSU offers multi-technology analysis, a consistent user-interface across platforms" - only download I can find is an .exe

It comes as a zip package with the install file and two doc files (one .docx and the other .txt) that both have the same unlock code, supposedly. The code does not work; comes up as invalid. Did I miss something? If someone has gotten this code to work, I'd appreciate an answer, or do you have to just use it for 15 days?

Learning how to use the tools and how they work with the various network OSes.

Just checking to see if anyone found issue when downloading the AngryIP scanner software...Windows Defender flagged it as malware (Angryscan.a) and wanted to remove it...

Netscan and Iperf/Jperf

I use netscan all the time. Love it. It's free and portable.

Iperf/Jperf is great for testing speeds between 2 computers. You can setup your own speed testing server!

Those wonderful classes Network General used to hold...

I am partial to WireShark, as it's the most like the old Sniffer product.

The difference between the free products and the commercial products is that the latter have more problem analysis built in so a less technical person can fix a problem faster.

EMCO Ping Monitor has a freeware version for up to 5 devices. Professional version cost is not prohibitive though. Every other product I have tried showed false failures (pinging as few as 3 devices) or app just stopped pinging with no warning , This product is amazing!