#What is wireshark software series

Medium (Depending on sampling conditions) The following table shows the fundamental functionality differences. Netflow also provides a means to monitor a network, but it uses an entirely different method than SNMP. SNMP is recommended for every day monitoring situations, such as bandwidth utilization, CPU loads, or interface status, and many other parameters.Īlthough SNMP is also an excellent tool for capacity planning, it doesn’t help much when identifying traffic patterns and their applications. It is used to manage and keep track of network devices and their performance. SNMP “Simple Network Management Protocol” is a standard that helps different devices on the network share information. Traditionally, network admins relied entirely on SNMP to monitor traffic and bandwidth. Although the RFC 3954 does not determine any Netflow UDP port number, common values used by Cisco are ports 2055, 9555 or 9995, 9025, or 9026. The destination UDP port and IP of the collector must be specified on the Netflow Exporter. The Netflow records are usually sent using a UDP and received by a collector. It converts them into beautiful graphs and reports to reflect what is happening on the network. It is usually an application that can analyze all records and look for specific information, such as bandwidth usage, intrusion detection, etc. It can save them locally or through external storage. It gathers and stores all records sent from an exporter, then sends them to the analyzer. It sends these records to one or more collectors. The Exporter keeps track of the traffic packets going in and out and creates records. Their ultimate job is to organize the flow data together into a readable format so that the network admin can analyze (using applications) and make some sense out of the data.

Three fundamental elements usually referred to as Netflow Collector, Exporter, and the Analyzer, play an essential role in Netflow. Netflow ComponentsĪs mentioned earlier, Netflow is a Protocol that Collects Flow Data from the network traffic and forwards it to a collector.The Netflow collector, which consolidates all data, receives the record from the exporter (as shown in the picture below). The device sends these records to a Netflow collector, which analyzes the data and reports statistics (top talkers, top protocols, etc.). With this information, Netflow allows devices to create a record for each traffic flow. The Field Type in the data frame of a NetFlow packet contains information such as (but not limited to): To be able to obtain traffic information, the NetFlow V9 data communication frames carry a vast arrange of information. The following is a NetFlow V9 export packet example: Still, IPFIX is very similar to Netflow v9 process and structure.

There is a NetFlow v10, referred to as IPFIX which is not considered Netflow but a variance. The latest version of this protocol is Netflow Version 9. Now, other networking vendors have added their version of Netflow, such as j-Flow by Juniper, sFlow by HP, NetStream by Huawei, and RFlow by Ericsson.

#What is wireshark software series

Cisco networking devices series 7000, 7200, and 7500 implemented Netflow for the first time. Netflow was initially developed by and for Cisco switching technologies around 1996, since the release of IOS 11.1. With Netflow, an admin can create billing reports based on bandwidth usage. An admin can also use it to learn how traffic patterns look like before adding a new device or application. They use it to ensure and improve security by knowing the baseline of where the traffic is and its inconsistencies. Network admins have many reasons for using Netflow. Netflow is a network protocol that collects information about all the traffic running through a Netflow-enabled device, records traffic data, and helps discover traffic patterns. Thankfully, Netflow makes all of that more comfortable. Information such as, who are the top talkers on the network, what protocols are they using, and the top destinations are key into a successful network monitoring. Getting to know your network traffic and its patterns can you save hours in troubleshooting, network capacity planning, or security analysis.