Some tools claim to be free and some are free AND useful. Talking with relation to the so many free network traffic analysis tools available online. The main objective of a traffic monitoring and analysis tool is to be able to see the history of threats, threshold violations, bandwidth utilization and extrapolate it to the future for taking better informed capacity planning decisions. All this analysis is carried out with the data (from NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, jfLow and more) available (stored) with the tool. One should be able to compare traffic through a particular device various time periods to see the effectiveness of the policies that have been recently changed / set.
At the end of the day, "relative results" matter. To be able to show that one has made certain changes and how it has affected the network for good, hopefully! All this is possible only if a large amount of data is available for analysis. There are free tools which offer to store data for up to one wHOLE day. All a user will find the next day is a hole in the previous day data. A clean data base and a blank look on one's face. For analysis, data size is very critical. And it doesn't take a genius to say that one day data does not contribute to any analyzable data. Time and data are somethings that cannot be got back once lost (data can be, if you have fail-over, but, hey! how many free tools have that!).
Even when you are going for a free tool, you have a choice to make. To make the choice between something that is going to cost your time and data or the one that is useful-AND-free, which can store the data forever, carry out the necessary analysis.
NetFlow Analyzer free edition lets you monitor two most critical interfaces in your network and the data can be stored forever - that is absolutely free AND useful. An useful solution which gives better analysis with the data that can be stored forever. You can see the history of security threats, the trend of bandwidth requirement growth over a period of time, answers questions such as "who are the top talkers?, is the bandwidth used for the business critical applications ?" and much more.
So you want a "free" tool or a free AND useful tool?
Cheers
Joe
The user in any enterprise tends to think that he might be the only one streaming a video and therefore its not going to affect the enterprise’s business critical applications or other user’s bandwidth usage. They think they are just a drop in the ocean. But its the drops that make the ocean. So, when everyone starts streaming Obama’s inauguration in Hulu, the business critical applications take a hit at your workplace. Global cause for a local chaos!
And it is you, the network administrator, are affected in the chaos that follows the network slowdown if not a collapse. How do you handle a situation like this pro actively. How can you find “what, who and when” in your network and ensure priority to your business critical application?
Cisco NetFlow/sFlow technology will give all the information you required for this. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer empowers you to gain an in-depth visibility of your network traffic. It allows you to identify what application / site is being used / accessed, who is using it and when was it used.
It gives a real time visibility and helps you to troubleshoot an issue before it becomes a reason for chaos. NetFlow Analyzer provides you simple way to retrieve the information by a “search report“. You can easily find out the public ip of Hulu and search it in NetFlow Analyzer where you will get all the information,moreover NetFlow Analyzer can store the aggregated data forever. It helps you analyze the traffic in your network in a long run and help you make informed capacity planning decisions.
Now you got the solution, do try NetFlow Analyzer 30 day trail version.
Kiran Darisi
NetFlow Analyzer Team
Corp