SolarWinds Network Device Monitor vs Wireshark

Likelihood to Recommend

I believe that SolarWinds Network Device Monitor is well suited for any business that needs to monitor critical infrastructure to provide high availability. Small business with non critical equipment that can afford to be down for a few hours I would say that it would be less appropriate.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Real Estate Company, 51-200 employees

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Wireshark is well suited for scenarios in which the technical difficulties are being faced. A lot of times we are not aware of how computers actually talk with each other. With Wireshark, you can learn this topic in depth and help yourself and your colleagues in case anyone is facing any sort of networking related problems. Many people just use the computer system for basic tasks and often tend to get stuck on simple things like if the system is not able to retrieve the IP from the router. After you learn these concepts you can easily solve these problems. Wireshark is a bit of a technical software program and only intended for people who have a basic understanding/ background of computers. If not, this software might end up giving you a lot of information which will be really tough for you to understand. So I would recommend if you want to use this software and are interested in the concepts as mentioned before/ above, go through a quick course on computer networking concepts and you shall be good to start exploring Wireshark.

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Jaspreet Singh

Cyber Security Analyst

DeloitteManagement Consulting, 10,001+ employees

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Pros

Hardware health status
Power supply status of the Network Devices
Transmit/Discard errors
High Latency

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Real Estate Company, 51-200 employees

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Details on the granular level: This software dissects the packets to the maximum limit possible. It shows you everything passing by in the packet including all the headers. It is amazing to see, without fail, how computers are actually interacting.
Available on all the Operating Systems: This software can be downloaded and installed on any OS (Windows, Mac or Linux). It never limits you to one OS. This is an amazing and a very constructive feature of Wireshark.
Doesn't become a load on the systems processor: The software works flawlessly without actually making any load on the systems processor. It works smoothly and does not lag at any time.
Multiple dumps simultaneously: This software can listen on multiple NIC's at once and provide you the dump. You need not work on one NIC at once, plug in and listen on all of them at once.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Computer Software Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Cons

Vulnerability Management
Vulnerability Patching
Hardware firmware recommendation

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Real Estate Company, 51-200 employees

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It is beginner-friendly as far as installation, but it could use a tutorial.
Perhaps there is a way to do this already, but I haven't yet seen it. It would be nice if it could be integrated with a network package that could detect network anomalies, fire up an automated packet analysis, and send a report to an administrator.

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Mental Health Care Company, 201-500 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Wireshark 10.0

Based on 2 answers

I give Wireshark a 10 for usability because it is very usable. Just about anyone can capture packets within a few seconds of opening the program. The analysis is a science but as far as just using Wireshark; it's very easy.

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Kenneth Hess

Senior Systems Analyst

CymSTAR, LLCDefense & Space, 201-500 employees

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Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Wireshark 9.1

Based on 8 answers

I don't believe Wireshark has "true" support as the software is open source. However, there is an active & friendly community around Wireshark that are more than happy to help answer questions. From a comprehensive Wiki and FAQ section on the site to the Ask a Question forum and bug tracker section, there's plenty of support options to make sure your questions and issues are addressed.

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Drew Harrison

Programmer

Kingmaker SoftwareComputer Software, 1-10 employees

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Implementation Rating

No score

No answers yet

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Wireshark 10.0

Based on 3 answers

Simple and easy setup.

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Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Automotive Company, 10,001+ employees

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Alternatives Considered

I selected SolarWinds Network Device Monitor for 2 main reasons, functionality and support

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Real Estate Company, 51-200 employees

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Wireshark is MUCH more in-depth and easy to use. Even though the files can get large and be a bit overwhelming, there are plenty of how-to articles and forums that can help you find the desired syntax for what you are looking for. Netflow Traffic Analyzer seems like a bit of an afterthought and doesn't hold a candle to the value Wireshark delivers.

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Verified User

Administrator in Engineering

Computer Software Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

Return on Investment
Quick and informative alerts on new issues
Alerting is the main key for a quick remediation on unexpected issues.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Real Estate Company, 51-200 employees

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Wireshark is the most important tool for any network engineer like me to perform the daily work. One of the examples is to troubleshoot the network issues raised from customer complain, helps to narrow down the root cause the get the issue fixed.

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Paul Fan

Technical Specialist

TelstraTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

SolarWinds Network Device Monitor Editions & Modules

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Additional Pricing Details

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General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Wireshark Editions & Modules

Edition

Wireshark	Free

Additional Pricing Details

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