analysis tools

Doing Microsoft packet analysis? - Microsoft releases Network Monitor 3.3

If you do packet capture or analysis in a Microsoft environment, then you are probably already familiar with Microsoft Network Monitor. If not, please read my real-world use of it for PROTOCOL analysis vs protocol analysis (with a small p). Microsoft has updated Network Monitor to v3.3. The announcement of its release can be found on the Technet blog. Some of the new features listed are:

· Ability to capture WWAN (mobile broadband) and Tunnel traffic on Windows 7.

· Full Hyper-V support on Windows Server 2008

· Right-click-add-to-alias: Right-click a frame in the Frame Summary window with an IPv4, IPv6 or MAC address to add that address as a new alias. This is one of those little things that simplifies your work-flow.

· Right-click-go-to-definition: Have you ever wondered where and how the protocols fields you see in the Frame Details are defined in our in-built parsers? Wonder no more. Introducing right-click-go-to-definition: right-click a field in the Frame Details window and select Go To Data Field Definition or Go To Data Type Definition to see where the field is defined in the NPL parsers.

· Autoscroll: Another one of those little, but priceless things … auto-scroll. See the most recent traffic as it comes in. In a live capture, click the AutoScroll button on the main toolbar to have the Frame Summary window automatically scroll down to display the most recent frames as they come in. Click Autoscroll again to freeze the view in its present location.

Several other new features are described in the Technet blog. If you capture packets on a Microsoft network, then you should get this upgraded version to add to your toolbox.

Thanks for reading and let’s continue to be good network citizens.

Need help? Ask questions - help someone - read my blog & win one of 3 XBox 360’s

Looking for some help on some troublesome IT isssues? Post your question on IT Knowledge Exchange. Maybe take some time to read through some of the questions on ITKE. Provide an answer or even improve answers already given or give some discussion feedback. By doing these things with other IT peers, you could just win one of three XBox 360’s to be given away in April.

While you are her on ITKE, why not take some time, read through a few of my blog postings, maybe there is something there that would be of value to you or someone else you know. Send your fellow IT peers to ITKE. Make this the best free online support community and a one-stop shop for getting the support you need for those IT issues we each face every day.

Some of my blogs that will hopefully be of interest to you include:

What did I just do with my contacts list? - Social Engineering/Networking & contact list scraping

Network speed & capacity are NOT the same

Financial crisis due to poor risk understanding & management - IT security next?

Nifty tools for tracking down that “interesting” network traffic

PROTOCOL analysis vs protocol analysis (with a small p)

Good luck with the contest! Stay tuned for more and thanks for reading. Let’s continue to be good network citizens together.