Packet sniffers (also known as Network Analyzers or Ethernet Sniffers) are software programs that can see the traffic passing over a network or part of a network. As data streams travel back and forth over the network, the program captures each packet and eventually decodes its content following the RFC or other specifications.
From : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_sniffer
Wireshark
Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer, and is the standard in many industries.
Wireshark has a rich feature set which includes the following:
Wireshark has a rich feature set which includes the following:
- Live capture and offline analysis are supported
- Standard three-pane packet browser
- Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD,
NetBSD, and many others
- Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode
TShark utility
- The most powerful display filters in the industry
- Rich VoIP analysis
- Read/write many different capture file formats:
tcpdump (libpcap),
Catapult DCT2000,
Cisco Secure IDS iplog,
Microsoft Network Monitor,
NAI Sniffer™ (compressed and uncompressed), Sniffer™ Pro, and NetXray™,
Network Instruments Observer,
Novell LANalyzer,
RADCOM WAN/LAN Analyzer,
Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor,
Tektronix K12xx,
Visual Networks Visual UpTime,
WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek,
and many others
- Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
- Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM,
Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platfrom)
- Decryption support for many protocols, including
IPsec,
ISAKMP,
Kerberos,
SSL/TLS,
WEP,
and WPA/WPA2
- Hundreds of protocols are supported, with more being added all
the time
- Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list, which eases
analysis
- Output can be exported to XML, PostScript™, CSV, or plain text
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Reference Links

Analyzers