Going into more depth, sFlow is a packet sampling protocol specially designed to handle high-speed or high-performance networks. SFlow can be retrofitted to snap into any network monitoring device. The sFlow exporter will take stock of all the packets going through a device and pluck out one of every n packets, where n equals the sample rate chosen in the settings.
It will supplement those samples with other randomly chosen packets. SFlow takes the bytes from these samplings, transforms them into sFlow datagrams, and sends them off to the sFlow collector. If we think of network traffic as traffic on a highway, NetFlow is a wide-lens camera capturing all the lanes, whereas sFlow takes pictures of isolated vehicles as they pass.
Only NetFlow will give you a clear and all-inclusive view of your data. The best NetFlow software leverages real-time and archived data to describe your network performance and keep track of all your computers, their configurations, and their performance metrics. For this reason, you may want to consider a paid tool with access to tech support, as opposed to open-source software.
If I could only recommend one tool, it would be this one. NTA then processes and breaks down the data, to be put into interactive graphs to offer a comprehensive view of your traffic history.
My favorite thing about this tool is its ability to give you the information you want right out of the box. NTA breaks down traffic usage into useful categories like top 5 conversations, top 5 applications, and top 10 sources by utilization. You can also sort according to source or destination and examine traffic patterns over different lengths of time, past and present.
You can try NTA free and fully functional for 30 days. ETS gives you the best tools available to meet all your network needs in one convenient package. It gives you access to more than 60 tools in the categories most relevant to IT administrators: NetFlow monitoring, network monitoring, auto discovery, diagnostics, configuration management, log management, IP address monitoring, SNMP, and security.
Real-Time NetFlow Analyzer is a free NetFlow collector focused on showing the current state of your network usage, which is vital, since a problem you can see is a problem you can solve. You can use this information to troubleshoot with amazing accuracy and eliminate network lag.
The intuitive interface shows incoming and outgoing traffic for your NetFlow exporter and breaks it down in different ways. This tool goes beyond identification and isolates traffic according to specific metrics like VoIP conversations, endpoints, protocol, and more. You can see this information visually represented as a graph, and everything updates in real time, so it takes only seconds to determine if you are having a performance issue.
A no-muss, no-fuss user interface gets down to business and shows you everything you want to know about your network. Installation is also easy—all you need is a standard Windows setup wizard. Still, identification is only part of the equation. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer provides key visibility into traffic usage and network bandwidth hogs. It analyzes and filters traffic according to many of the same metrics as SolarWinds NTA, plus volume and speed, and it comes equipped with tools specifically for managing NetFlow in complex networks.
Interactive graphs are available via the default dashboard embedded in the web-based user interface, including the standard pie charts, as well as heat maps to show the status of nearly everything on your network. When it comes to reporting, NetFlow Analyzer includes a feature to compare network performance reports, either for multiple devices or for individual ones, over time.
Although this may sound overwhelming, the more granular the information you have to work with, the better. These metrics help you identify peak traffic hours and see which devices cause the most problems for your network, which makes troubleshooting much easier.
The tool also has specific displays devoted to uncovering security issues. The Essential version has fewer features but maybe a good choice for smaller businesses or IT departments. I include Paessler PRTG Network Monitor on a lot of my lists because of the comprehensive nature of its network monitoring capabilities.
PRTG has several use cases, including NetFlow monitoring, and it supports all the major flow protocols and more. You can only monitor a single site using the web application.
If you want to monitor multiple sites or devices, you have to use the enterprise app on Windows. It automatically finds devices on your network and alerts you to new changes, so you can account for potential issues as soon as they arise.
PRTG is popular for its user-friendly interface. The system is simple to set up and the navigation tree is easy to manage. The device tree shows you all the devices on your network and the sensors being used to monitor each of them.
In addition to your standard applications, your device tree can include routers, access points, disk usage, IoT, firewalls, workstations, servers, and more. Digging into the device tree will show you relevant indicators and metrics at every level. Its licensing is based on sensors, which means you have to consider how many sensors your network is going to need and how much those sensors will cost you as your enterprise begins to grow.
This might limit you in terms of scalability. Similarly, it uses a proprietary database instead of the more common SQL database, which can cause compatibility issues depending on how your system is set up. The free version of PRTG Network Monitor gives you unlimited sensors for a month, but for every month thereafter you only get Essentially, using a SaaS system is like using the cloud.
This tool gathers details about the different types of data passing through your system and brings them together in one unified view. All of those plans are available for a day free trial. This freeware network analyzer from Colasoft allows you to identify and monitor specific protocols — it supports over network protocols — and create customizable reports.
It includes email monitoring and a TCP timing sequence chart, all combined into you own customized dashboard. You will need NDIS 3 or higher compatible Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, or Gigabit with promiscuous mode driver- this mode lets it passively capture all packets on an Ethernet wire. Angry IP Scanner is a lightweight, open-source network scanner that is fast and easy to use. It operates by simply pinging each IP address and can resolve host-name, determine MAC address, scan ports, provide NetBIOS information, determine logged-in user on Windows systems, web server detection, and more.
Its capabilities can be expanded with Java plugins. A very useful, portable network scanner. It is a powerful piece of software, with a full range of analysis and collection capabilities. They include real-time bandwidth monitoring and threshold alarms for set bandwidth usage, usage summaries, application and protocol monitoring, and much more. The free version includes days of unlimited monitoring, and after that it allows for monitoring of only two interfaces. At a minimum, for a flow rate of 0 to flows per second, the recommended requirements are a 2.
The requirements go up as you increase the flow rate you wish to capture. Despite a name that brings images of someone sitting on the beach, avoiding work of any sort, and completely out of touch with the world, this application is, in fact, a popular and useful network monitor developed by MikroTik. It automatically scans all devices and draws a map of the network.
It monitors servers running on devices and alerts you in case of a problem. Other features include auto-discovery and mapping of new devices, the ability for you to draw your own maps, provides you access to tools to remotely manage your devices, and more. This full-featured traffic analysis tool provides you with the ability to comprehensively capture and analyze your network traffic and to find and stop errors quickly and efficiently. With Scrutinizer, you can filter and drill down in nearly any way you can imagine, including time frame, host, application, protocol, and much more.
The free version allows you to monitor an unlimited amount of interfaces and store up to 24 hours of data. Wireshark is a powerful network analyzer with features that rival other free or paid services. Although it may not have as many of the visual bells-and-whistles like those of other applications on this list, that does not mean it is lacking in any features or capabilities.
The executable binary installation file limits data capture to packets. It is completely free for universities, education users, and non-profit and research organizations. This comprehensive list of 10 free NetFlow analyzers and collectors should give you the ability to quickly begin monitoring and troubleshooting your network , from a small office LAN to a large, multi-site enterprise WAN. If your looking for an open-source variation, see our list of some here.
Each application gives you the ability to monitor and analyze traffic on your network, key to finding small errors before they turn into big ones, pinpoint bandwidth anomalies that can be indicative of security threats, visualize your network and its traffic flow, and much, much more.
What you can do with the data these Network Analyzers give you is limitless. All are sophisticated, having a considerable learning curve; so online training and good support are essential. It features bandwidth monitoring , traffic analysis , performance analysis , alerts , customizable reports , policy optimization , and more. The NetFlow Traffic Analyzer gathers flow data exported by the flow-enabled devices tracked by the SolarWinds network monitoring software.
As a flow analyzer, NTA identifies the users, applications, and protocols consuming the most bandwidth. You can sort by ports, source, destination, and protocols, and view traffic patterns over minutes, days, or months. NTA and NPM are enterprise-grade packages, so even the free trial will consume considerable resources on your system. You can also start a day free trial. Noction Flow Analyzer offers three main strategies to network managers. These are to monitor and control bandwidth utilization , to implement capacity planning , and to detect and prevent network performance problems.
The system has a striking front-end. You are free to choose between the Light, Dark, or Auto theme options. Here, below, you can see the Data Explorer screen, which provides detailed network traffic stats in both graphs and report forms. All data queries can be subsequently saved as widgets and placed on dashboards.
Multiple dashboards can be set up in NFA. These are the collections of graphs that are typically grouped by a specific purpose, e. The network monitoring system lets you see live traffic data with the facility to examine traffic at each node or look at ends-to-end traffic between two given points. You can set up alerts on any of the metrics that the Flow Analyzer collects. These are thresholds that will activate alerts when they are crossed.
These alerts can be sent to technicians via email or Slack, so staff does not need to watch the network monitor unless a problem is developing.
The system creates a Web server so the screens for the system are accessed through any standard Web browser. Despite hosting the service yourself, you do not buy the software outright. Instead, you pay a subscription, with a rate per month or per year. There is one add-on service, which is to collect Border Gateway Protocol internet routing data from the network gateway. You can try the Noction system on a day free trial. The ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer provides real-time visibility into network bandwidth and traffic patterns.
The tool visualizes traffic by applications, conversations, protocols, etc. Alerts can be set based on traffic thresholds. There are a variety of useful predefined reports, ranging from troubleshooting oriented to capacity planning and billing. Custom search reports can be created. The web-based user interface has a default dashboard with several real-time pie charts, including a heat map showing the status of monitored interfaces, top applications, top protocols, top conversations, recent alarms, top QoS, and more.
Hovering over a graphic usually provides an explanatory pop-up, and clicking on any graphic drills down to more details on the selected element. There are specific displays for detecting security issues. Dashboards are customizable. Alerts show up as pop-ups on the user interface. Multi-site traffic can be analyzed; there is a smartphone app for mobile monitoring and alerting.
The tool leverages advanced features of Cisco devices, including support for adjusting the traffic shaping and QoS policies on your network. The free version allows unlimited monitoring for 30 days but then reverts to monitoring only two interfaces.
ManageEngine has various related products to expand beyond NetFlow traffic-oriented data analysis into a full network management suite. Download the day free trial. Site24x7 Network Traffic Monitoring is a cloud-based traffic analyzer that forms part of several system management packages.
Site24x7 offers infrastructure monitoring, website management, and an application performance monitor, and a system for managed service providers. This tool provides live network traffic monitoring and also stores data for capacity planning and trend analysis. As a cloud service, the dashboard is accessed through any standard web browser. All of the processing for the service is performed on the Site24x7 servers but there also needs to be an agent installed on site.
The monitor communicates with network switches through a number of protocols. The system extracts traffic statistics and it can also sample packet headers.
The information taken from traffic enables the traffic monitor to identify traffic per application, per source and destination, and per user account. The system can communicate with the network devices supplied by more than vendors. As well as spotting traffic hogs, the analyzer shows time-series graphs and can identify peak hours.
This information allows network managers to squeeze extra value out of existing resources by moving non-urgent tasks such as batch administration processes to less busy periods of the day. The information shown by the network monitoring system is able to plot traffic loads link by link and also end to end across the network. It is able to spot bottlenecks and assist in traffic-shaping measures, such as queuing and prioritization.
The monitor imposes performance thresholds that are set at levels that allow time to fix problems. If a threshold gets tripped, the service generates an alert. This is shown on the system console and can also be sent out to key personnel as an email, SMS, or voice-calls.
An All-in-One package from Site24x7 offers all of the services included with all of its other bundles and that includes the traffic monitoring system. All of the plans and editions of Site24x7 are available for day free trials. The free version provides unlimited sensors for a month, and thereafter is limited to sensors; a sensor is an individual data stream, so each device will typically require several sensors.
Devices include firewalls, routers, access points, servers, workstations, virtual servers, storage, etc. The device tree is supplemented by table views of sensors, logs, and alarms, as well as various charts and graphs for bandwidth, etc. Tables can be sorted and filtered. Drilling down through the tree view reveals indicators and metrics at every level. Settings, like scan interval , are inherited and can be overridden at lower levels in the device tree.
Alerts can similarly be set at every level , so you can arrange to be notified about events and threshold transitions of a particular critical device, or rolled up from an overall aspect of your network.
The devices-and-sensors abstraction shapes the dashboards and reports too. Custom dashboards can be created, including interactive maps. There is a range of predefined reports, and facilities for designing custom reports; reports can also be scheduled.
Traffic analysis facilities include built-in NetFlow support. Installation is straightforward. There is a setup wizard, as well as a video providing step-by-step guidance. Additional sensors including NetFlow collectors can be added manually; a video provides instructions.
The core server is Windows only.
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