How to View and Analyze Historical Network Traffic
As a network forensic analysis application, nChronos allows users to view historical data just by a drag. Below is a screenshot of the Time Window, you can drag the trend charts back and forth to view the network traffic of any interested time period.
You can click the Set Time Window button to set which time period to show:
When you select a time slice on the Time Window, the analysis views will only show data related to that time slice, and this is very convenient to analyze a traffic spike. Just select the spike to view and analyze the top talkers in that spike. Furthermore, you can double-click a record item to drill down it:
Reviewed by Michael Black on (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
When a program has a “free” edition, very often, it is just a demo without a time limit, offering only enough functionality to get you to buy the “real” version. Capsa 7 Free is not such a program; it’s a full-featured network traffic monitoring and reporting tool. The features you get for free, without a time limit or unceasing nags, are exceptional.
This high level overview is just the start of Capsa Free; you can drill down very deep to learn more about your network.
Capsa Free provides an ongoing look at everything that passes through a selected network adapter. (This is one of the few limitations of the Free version vs. the Professional and Enterprise versions; you can analyze only one adapter at a time. For most home or small business users, this will not be an issue.) It breaks the data down by protocol and IP address, the latter of which is very interesting from a home user perspective–a days’ casual surfing, captured and analyzed by Capsa, revealed I contacted computers in over a hundred different nations. You can also set it to store packets, with a variety of options for how many to store and how long to keep them. Later, you can rummage through them with Capsa, if you know what you’re looking for (or just want to peek under the hood and understand more about what happens between when you type an address in your browser and when you see a picture of a cat appear on your screen.)
For network administrators in small businesses, Capsa 7 Free is a potent tool with many analysis and testing abilities. With it, you can see what’s happening on your network, whether you want to monitor usage or determine if a connectivity problem really is on your end, You can hand-code packets and then send them to an adapter, in order to see what happens. The ability to set alarms if particular traffic patterns occur can help you see an attack coming and head it off, and there are tutorials on-line to help you do just that.
Capsa Free is a tool for professionals and enthusiasts. A casual home user will not find much use in Capsa Free, though, being free, it doesn’t hurt to check it out. Using it requires either a good knowledge of internet protocols and low level functionality, or a strong desire to learn such things. If most or all of your traffic routes through a single network adapter, you may never see a need to upgrade to the Professional edition, which starts at $549.00.
to set which time period to show:
