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Wireshark

Score8.8 out of 10

158 Reviews and Ratings

What is Wireshark?

Wireshark is a free and open source network troubleshooting tool.

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Categories & Use Cases

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Who Buys & Uses Wireshark

Wireshark Reviews

What users are saying about Wireshark.
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Must have tool to work in or with Networks!

Incentivized
Kaveen EashwarageView profile
Manager - Special Projects in Research & Development at Central Finance Co PLC (1001-5000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Receiving the TCAP messages has been never easy. This opensource tool easily capture TCAP during the calls for me on different INAP services. We also easily evaluate messages through Wireshark now. And we keep track of packet data information exchange between different networks very conveniently. Wireshark helps us now to easily debug the network data exchange issues and fix them quickly.

Pros

  • Possibility to analyze packets from various interfaces (LAN,Wifi,BT,USB).
  • Ability to integrate with GNS3 easily.
  • Its a free tool and available on all platforms.
  • Provide comprehension analysis on communication protocols.

Cons

  • Learning curve is a little steep.
  • Encrypted network traffic read is a a struggle.
  • User interface can be developed

Most Important Features

  • Packet Capture
  • Traffic Flow analysis
  • Filters in the tool to investigate
  • Ability to download and share the log files.

Return on Investment

  • 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.

Alternatives Considered

PRTG Network Monitor

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, (EOL) Cisco CloudCenter, Aspire AWS Cloud Services and Solutions

Great open-source tool with a powerful toolset

Incentivized
Swapnil Madiwale
Technology Lead in Information Technology at V ARCHITECTURE PTY LTD (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have used Wireshark to investigate network issues and mostly find lost IPs on the network. The GUI is amazing as well as the command line's speed works wonders. I also used Wireshark to capture packets to analyse if there were too many DNS requests going through to the local DNS server.
While saying that, I only used it primarily to get a deep understanding of our network.

Pros

  • Great UI & Command Line Tools
  • Packet capture feature is very good
  • It is open source which is the best thing in a tool like Wireshark

Cons

  • A little bit of intrusion detection feature would help
  • Other than that, I don't think it lacks anything
  • Perfect little tool

Most Important Features

  • Open source as licensing fees adds up in a medium sized business
  • Lightweight tool that can be run on my laptop
  • Breadth of feature sets it provides

Return on Investment

  • I loved the tool
  • Never spend any money so cannot really talk about ROI
  • It did save me time which can be a positive ROI

Alternatives Considered

Nmap

Other Software Used

Cisco Meraki MX, Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Secure Access by Duo

Wireshark is a great and super affordable network troubleshooting tool

Incentivized
Vrej AnbarsounView profile
Sr. Systems Engineer in Information Technology at Irwin Naturals (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Wireshark in our organization to troubleshoot network-related issues, such as when setting up a new site-to-site VPN tunnel and for some reason the connection is not being established. Wireshark would be used to actually gather and examine the packets to see determine why the connection is not being established and to resolve the issue based on the actual captured traffic.

Pros

  • Captures network traffic
  • Categorizes network traffic based on many different categories
  • Offers numerous filtering options to reduce unnecessary clutter

Cons

  • Perhaps Wireshark could offer more regular updates/upgrades.

Most Important Features

  • Capturing network traffic completely
  • Categorizing the captured traffic
  • Offering captured data filtering options

Return on Investment

  • Wireshark has improved ROI by offering a no-cost option to network issue resolution, as opposed to hiring expensive outside consultants.

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365, FileZilla, Adobe Acrobat DC

WireShark

Incentivized
Jorge Ortega
IT in Information Technology at Lea County Electric (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have been using Wireshark for a few years, it allows us to take a deep view of out network and analyze what is being sent and received. We use it a lot when trying to trouble shoot connections that aren't acting how they are programmed to work. It also lets us troubleshoot our microwave network when our routers aren't working properly.

Pros

  • Inspection of protocols
  • Analysis of packets
  • Live data

Cons

  • More user friendly
  • A more detailed explanation of certain packets

Most Important Features

  • Live Data Capture
  • Multi platform
  • Deep inspection

Return on Investment

  • Has Saved us time
  • Makes troubleshooting easier
  • Easy to use

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Solaris, FileZilla and Kali Linux

Other Software Used

Mitel 6900 IP Series, Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Point, Splunk Enterprise, Kali Linux

Exactly what we need for our business

Incentivized
Matt Huiatt
Senior Information Technology Audit Manager in Information Technology at SS (1-10 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have a lot of clients and there are times when they run into certain network issues when trying to connect to certain apps. With Wireshark we're able to run a packet capture and get more info on what is going on during the communication process so we can pinpoint where the problem lies.

Pros

  • Packet Capture
  • Logging

Cons

  • N/A

Most Important Features

  • Packet Capture

Return on Investment

  • Helping resolve issues quickly