Likelihood to Recommend 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
Read full review I don't know of any other tool that works as well as Wireshark for packet capture an inspection. It's extremely easy to get up and running, and even with little to no knowledge of how to use the tool, you can be looking at all the traffic coming off a network interface.
Read full review Pros Light-weight software - Does not require high end specifications; also runs smoothly on Legacy systems Filter function - Lets you filter you packets from thousands to tens so as to find your target much easily Simultaneous capturing on all the network adapters - You can capture packets from all the Network Interface Cards (NIC's) at once. Read full review Cons 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 Read full review A more user-friendly interface would be nice, but then again it is not really designed for those who are not quite comfortable with this type of software. Changes to functionality on updates - this can sometimes happen unexpectedly and can be an annoyance. More powerful data processing would be welcomed Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Implementation Rating Simple and easy setup.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Wireshark is a free tool that came highly recommended by one of our former network security consultants. Using the tool he was able to resolve all of our higher tier network tickets, so we observed first hand why we needed to add Wireshark into our toolset. We received in-depth instruction and training scenarios that demonstrated the effectiveness and power of the product, so we didn't spend any time reviewing competing products.
Read full review Return on Investment 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 Read full review Identifying bugs in the network has never been smooth and near-perfect. Wireshark has made sure our equipment and software is working properly via analyzing network data. Analysis of IP packets and Sip call flaws has saved us a lot of time and confident result. Read full review ScreenShots