While packet sniffers have legitimate uses in monitoring and troubleshooting a network, they have also been widely used by hackers to gain unauthorized access to a network and steal information. In this way, the network administrator can easily analyze the information packets in order to detect errors in the network. Both IP and MAC sniffing are based on the use of the network card to sniff data packets that correspond to a specific IP or MAC address. IP sniffing and MAC sniffing are some of the most common ways to analyze and examine the traffic flowing through a network. Once these vulnerabilities are identified, it is easier to fill in the loopholes, which prevents the possibility of hacking attempts. They also help the good guys like your network manager by testing a network's vulnerabilities. Vulnerability Detection - A worrying fact about parcel sniffers is their ability to act as a spy tool. Facilitates efficient identification of faulty devices on the network and enables quick corrective action to be taken. In the event of a network failure, the information captured by the packet sniffer can be used to identify the faulty packets and locate the node that did not respond to the request (s). This is possible because a packet sniffer can analyze the conversation between two or more nodes on a network. Identifying Problems - As mentioned earlier, packet sniffers can identify network problems.

This also makes it possible to identify bottlenecks in the network and to identify and improve performance through infrastructure upgrades. Monitoring Network Usage - Packet sniffers can do a great job of monitoring network usage at all times, helping network managers determine if a particular network is normal or congested. So let's take a closer look at exactly how packet sniffers are used to troubleshoot and fix network problems. It's easy to see why packet sniffers are an essential tool in a network administrator's toolkit.