Colasoft Blog

How to Display IP Addresses as Host Names

If you use nChronos to monitor traffic on a core switch you will see lots of internal IP addresses, and also the Internet IP addresses. You can find that most of the Internet IP addresses are shown as their domain name, such as www.colasoft.com, and www.google.com, etc. Wouldn’t it be great if nChronos shows host names of our local machines, because they are much easier to understand, rather than just IP addresses? This tips article will show you how to use Name Table to display IP and MAC addresses as host names.

Suppose that there is a user, Steve, whose laptop has this IP address, 192.168.8.25, and you want nChronos to show his IP address as the text – Steve’s Laptop. First you run nChronos Console, connect to the server, right-click on the server name, and clickSettings from the context menu. Then select Name Table on the Server Settingswindow.

Then click the Add… button on the right side, you see a new dialog box. On this dialog box, input the IP address, 192.168.8.25, and input Steve’s Laptop in the Alias textbox. You can even choose the font color for this name if you like. Then click OK.

There is a little trick that you can input the IP address and click Resolve Address to find the host name automatically. It uses NetBIOS protocol and it’s able to retrieve the host name from that system. Or you can click Resolve Name button to translate the host name into IP address.

The names you add will be saved on nChronos server, so you see them from every nChronos console. And besides IP addresses, you can still give names to MAC addresses, only that you cannot use name resolution function for MAC addresses.

You’ll find that you cannot click the Edit and Delete buttons sometimes. That’s because you have link window open, and the window uses the names for display. So it doesn’t allow any changes to the names if a link window is open. So you just close all link windows of that nChronos server, and you’ll find the buttons are clickable now.

by Waqas Ahmed on May 23, 2014

If you’re a network administrator, you already know how critical it is to have tools at your disposal to keep you apprised of the status of your network and its connected systems. Among the gazillion different apps for Windows, there are numerous different tools and utilities that can aid in network administration. Colasoft’s Capsa desktop application for Windows is one such highly feature-laden, comprehensive network analyzer that can help you in analyzing both your LAN and WLAN in real-time. The application carries a wide array of features including 24 hour network monitoring, advanced protocol analyses, in-depth packet decoding and capturing, and automatic diagnosis.

The software can be deployed in a number of scenarios and usage needs, for instance, troubleshooting various network related issues, analyzing your networks performance and pinpointing any bottlenecks, detecting malicious activities in the network, for example, presence of virus or worm, as well as debugging other similar problems.

Capsa is a freeware program but you need a free license key in order to activate it. To get your license, simply fill in the sign up form at Capsa’s website  and the developer will email the key to you.

Once you have received the key, enter it in the ‘Serial Number’ field during the setup wizard, enable ‘Activate Online’ and click Next.

Capsa basically comprises of two different windows. The one that pops up upon launch, looks fairly understandable. It carries two tabs at the top labeled Capture and Replay. Under Capture, you can select the network interface you require to monitor or analyze. As stated earlier, Capsa works well with all wired and wireless interfaces, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet. And toggling an interface displays its bandwidth stats in real time.

Capsa houses a number analyses profiles, and it’s up to the users which profile they want to deploy. For an in-depth analyses, you can choose Full Analyses, but if you need to analyze different network modules separately you can do that too by choosing the appropriate profile name. These analyses types include Traffic, HTTP, Email, DNS, FTP and IM. After selecting the analyses type, you can click ‘Start’ to initiate the capture process.

The main window of Capsa then shows up, providing a wide range of statistics and analysis results. The Ribbon-like UI of Capsa carries a menu bar at top, the main Ribbon, a node explorer to the left, status bar, and the main view at center. You can also stop and resume the capture process anytime. The application displays various different kinds of information and its up to the users how they approach with the analyses of the network.

The sub-tabs within the main view section of Capsa allow you to navigate between various sub sections, fourteen in total, such as statistics, logs, reports, graphs, data packets, diagnosis results and so on. There’s also a Node Explorer to the left which gives an overview of physical and IP addresses of the network, giving you a general understanding of your network.

Capsa also lets you save captured packets by exporting the results as a Capsa-compatible file and save it to your hard disk. You can then replay the same file later from the ‘Replay’ tab that I mentioned earlier. To do that, click Replay button when Capsa is relaunched, under Replay tab, click Add, select the packet file you saved and click Start to initiate replay.

Overall, Capsa is an extremely useful and feature-rich program if you need to monitor and analyze various aspects of the network. Besides its Free version that we reviewed, it also comes in Enterprise and Professional editions both of which offer additional features. It works on all versions of Windows.

Download Capsa

From： addictivetips.com

By Shobhan Mandal

Colasoft Capsa Packet Analyzeris a free network analyzer software which can be used toanalyze and monitor WLAN andLAN networks. What it actually provides is network monitoring,in depth packet decoding, andadvanced protocol analysis of the network you are connected to. The best part is you do not have to install this software on a server to view the details; installing in any client machine of the network will provide you with all the necessary details.

Well the software has a number of functionalities, like:

• Troubleshooting Network Problems.
• Know about the performance of the network thus finding any bottlenecks.
• Can be used to detect virus,worms, or network attacks.
• It can also be used to teach and learn various things about network.

Here we will talk about the free version of Colasoft Capsa which has limited capabilities, like you can monitor the network continuously for 4 hours only using a profile and you can use only 1 analysis at a time.

How to use Colasoft Capsa Free Network Analyzer:

When you are downloading Colasoft Capsa, you will be asked to register with your email address. On this email address, you will be sent activation key, which will be valid for 4 months, after which you have to renew. The installation process will take a minute or two. After the installation is over you will get the home screen which looks like the first screenshot of this review.

At first, you have to select the connection from the adapter which you would like to monitor. When selected, it immediately shows a graph for the speed of the network.

The profile section allows you to select what type of analysis you would like to do. The software offers:

• Full Analysis
• HTTP Analysis
• Email Analysis
• DNS Analysis
• FTP Analysis
• IM Analysis
• Traffic Monitor

Full Analysis

Clicking on Full Analysis gives you various information regarding broadcast addresses, multicast addresses, local subnet, the IP addresses of the computer connected, etc. The center screen has various tabs like Protocol- tells about different protocols like IP, ARP, IPv6 and the amount of data and packets being transferred.

Physical Endpoint, IP Endpoint which tells about the MAC address and the IP address of the connected systems. Other tabs include TCP, IP, and UDP conversations. Somefunctionalities may not work in the free version.

HTTP Analysis

The HTTP analysis gives you the various results regarding HTTP protocol. At any normal instance it will give the IP address of the computers with which your computer has a HTP connection. Through the IP, TCP, and UDP conversation you can know the amount of data and packets being shared among the computers.

The other analysis gives out more information regarding data and packet movements in the network you are connected to.

Talking to one of my friends who is a ethical hacker and wants to remain anonymous, said that the software is great. According to him:

• This is really a great software and very powerful.
• It helps the network administrator to get various details about the network in real time.
• It can be used for educational purposes as the software tells how packet movement works actually in the network.

Downsides of the software

In the free version, the user cannot use more than one analysis simultaneously. If he wants to have a different analysis he must close the ongoing analysis. The free version has most of the good features restricted not allowing users to know the software’s working properly.

Also check out other network packet sniffer software.

Conclusion

It is a cool software to monitor the data traffic of your network. If you setup a private network you can watch out for any wrongdoings that might happen be happening in the network. It is very much useful for those who want to know more about computer networking.

Get Colasoft Capsa Packet Analyzer here.

Gizmo’s Freeware , a non-commercial community website staffed entirely by volunteers, published an article about Colasoft Capsa on Mar.6 2014 which reviewed Colaosft Capsa as the friendliest network traffic monitor ever.

Here’s the review written by Rob.Schifreen.

If you’ve ever wanted to be able to view a log of all the data that passes through your PC’s network connection (either wired or wifi), you may know that this is possible with a network protocol analyzer utility.  Such programs let you find out who your PC’s been talking to, and what was said.  You can view the content of every packet of data that travels to/from your PC and all of the remote computers and websites that you connect to.

By far the best-known of the network protocol analyzer software products is Wireshark.  It’s powerful, free, and does the job.  However, it also has a very steep learning curve and is far from intuitive to use.

Which is why I was so impressed to learn about a product recently called Capsa, which does a similar job but is way more friendly and much easier to understand.Capsa is from Colasoft, and you’ll find it at http://www.colasoft.com/capsa-free/.  Considering the full Enterprise version costs around $1000, the free no-commercial-use version, which offers pretty much all the features you’ll need, is a bargain.

It’s a 20 MB download, malware-free according to VirusTotal, and should work on all recent versions of Windows. So next time you need to know what’s eating up all the network bandwidth on a computer, or precisely what information a certain application is sending out about your PC, you can track it down with Capsa.

See more at Gizmo’s.

Capsa Network Analyzer Free Edition 7.7 Video Review

Today we use the Internet on a regular basis and in order to have a better experience while browsing we need a stable network.Capsa Network Analyzer Free Edition will provide it to you, because it constantly monitors your network, analyzes it and helps you prevent troubleshooting. The only limitation of the program is that you can start one project at a time. If you want more you have to buy the Enterprise version, which costs USD 995 for a one year license and maintenance. If you want to increase the time limit with one more year you have to buy it for additional USD 245. But if you don’t need the app for commercial usage you can use it for free without limitations.

Features

Several working modes
Analyzes networks
Monitors traffic
Shows statistics
Capsa Network Analyzer Free Edition lets you use several modes that are specialized for different tasks. With them you can make a full analysis of your network or you can choose to start theTraffic Monitor. Also, you can make a profile that is aimed at HTTP Analysis, Email Analysis, DNS Analysis, FTP Analysis and IM Analysis.

Interface

The interface of Capsa Network Analyzer Free Edition seems simple at first, but when you start any of the modes you see that it actually has a lot of sides to it. When you double-click on any of the profiles the app offers a lot of setup options that are used for the analysis. If you want to start the monitoring or the analysis you can click on the Start button and you will see that the app has a lot of instruments, which leads to a bit of a complicated interface. But after you spend some time with it you will see that all the monitoring and analysis utilities are easily used and you don’t have to be a specialist in order to use them.

Basic Operations

When you start the Full Analysis option of Capsa Network Analyzer Free Edition it opens a window for you that is comprised of different panes which show the most important functions of the program. With them you can monitor the traffic in bytes, the protocols, the IP conversations and perform many more analyses and monitoring functions. There are a lot of other instruments that you will find useful after you get used to them.

Conclusion

Capsa Network Analyzer Free Edition is a nice application not only because it is free, but also because with it you will be able to monitor all the aspects of your network. It offers a nice visualization for a vast number of utilities, so even though they are a lot you will still be able to use them without any problems.

Pros
Many utilities
Nice visualizations
Completely free version
Cons
None really

Editor review by softplanet.com

Learn more from Colasoft official website.

Reviewed by Michael Black on 13 Feb 2014 (version tested: 7.7.2)

Overview

Anyone working in the IT Industry could benefit from using Capsa Professional, this software is capable of tracking network activity to a very extensive degree. The list of available features goes on and on, with the main feature being detailed packet monitoring, and a tremendous amount of information regarding traffic on your network. Capsa also offers some really helpful guides for new users who aren’t familiar with this type of interface. Using this software can help you track down the root cause of a slow or unstable network, and also assist in fixing the problem.

Installation

You can download and install the 15 day trial of Capsa Professional for free, and it is only compatible with Windows. The trial is also limited in features, but you’ll still get the look and feel of the full program. No bundled software included, just a regular installation and you’re on your way.

Interface

Capsa Professional offers a large, scale-able interface, and is all around pretty easy to navigate once you become acquainted with the software. Most of the tools will open up in a new window, which ensures that your main screen never gets cluttered with different tabs. However, with this much information, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be overwhelming at first — unless you’re a seasoned network professional. In general, Colasoft did a great job organizing the extensive list of features, which is not an easy task.

Interface is a major issue with most suite-style network monitoring software, and it’s very refreshing to see something as well put together as Capsa.

Pros

Along with the aforementioned packet monitoring capabilities, intelligently organized UI, and the fact that it can narrow down network issues to help find the root cause of a problem, there’s plenty more. Capsa Professional can be used to scan all MAC addresses on your network, as well as grab their IPs, names, and information about the manufacturer. You can also monitor a specific network adapter, or multiple, such as your ethernet port, wfii adapter, or both.

The tutorials are fantastic as well, as mentioned above, and there are even specific guides such as “How to monitor Employee Website Visits”.

Cons

The program is stable, offers everything you’ll need in network monitoring, and there’s really nothing I can say that needs work at this point. Obviously the heavy price tag is a bit daunting, but considering this software is really only necessary in a large work environment, it’s nothing to complain about.

Alternatives

Also, Capsa even offers a free version, much more suited towards troubleshooting home network issues.

Conclusion

Troubleshooting network issues can be a major pain for any IT Technician, and I’ve personally been in that situation numerous times. Using Colasoft Capsa Professional will greatly reduce the time you spend trying to find the cause of these problems, and will help you get the issues resolved much quicker.

Requirements: P4 2.8G CPU, 2G RAM, Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher

From: download3k.com