Progress Telerik Fiddler vs. Wireshark

I am a senior software engineer and I have actively made fiddler a requirement for all of our engineers to have on their laptops by default. I have recommended it to all web developers that I have worked with and contractors that I have worked with as it has saved my mental stability on numerous occasions when trying to show people details of various web requests when working on integrations between different systems This is an absolutely fantastic product that I have used in a technical capacity many, many times and I will always suggest it as a tool when someone is debugging specifically but also for initial development to see how the requests are formed and for sharing responses and requests details so that others can recreate the request that you have sent through right down to the smallest detail

Wireshark is great for enterprise networks with large amounts of data traversing the network that need a way to filter and inspect specific traffic by specific parameters (i.e. destination / source IP address, host, or type). There are use-cases for smaller environments, but the amount of time needed to learn how to effectively use the tool may not be beneficial for home / small office users.

Incentivized

• Capture Network Traffic - This really is the essential functionality of Wireshark as without consistent data capture there is nothing to analyze
• Filtering - We need to often filter for specific data that we are looking for.
• Live Capture as well as offline analysis - This gives us the flexibility to do what we need to do when we need to do it.

Incentivized

• The display could potentially become a bit more user-friendly over time, it's pretty easy to follow but for example, I always view the raw request/response information by default and this is not the default selection, being able to choose the default selection would be nice
• Clearer information and options to reduce 'noise' when viewing the requests, there are often a lot of background requests being sent on a computer, you can filter to roughly see what you want and filter out things that you don't want but there are different types of requests and I can't see how to filter between those - possibly a feature but could be made easier to use potentially
• Nothing else to put, this is a fantastic product so there isn't much else to suggest at this stage of using it and I have been using fiddler for years now in my role as a software engineer

• 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.

Incentivized

It's very simple and easy to use, although individuals not used to managing and administering networks would take some time to get familiar with it. Once they have mastered use of the application, it's easy to stay knowledgeable about it, iteration after iteration. It is well supported online through an open-source community network of professionals who are helpful in imparting knowledge and in providing assistance.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Simple and easy setup.

Incentivized

[Wireshark] is just the go-to application. It's the tool that is taught with in school and at trade conferences. We have not had a need to even look at other tools. It's free, it had a ton of functionality, and it just works without complaint.

Incentivized

• Overall this tool has sped up the process of integrating with new systems infinitely
• The cost of fiddler everywhere which is what we use specifically is nothing in comparison to the cost of dev time saved when debugging processes
• Being able to send information around so simply to other support teams to show them what responses we are getting along with the request detail have made communications much quicker and saves a lot of time going back and forth discussing what is being done and what the request is being sent

• If your systems are not working, then of course it is one of the biggest impact on the business
• Imagine you are not able to send an email because of a network issue. This will definitely become a huge hindrance in your business
• Wireshark helps you with these types of problems and lets your business run smoothly