Suricata

There are lots of solutions aiming at solving problems surrounding network management, more specifically all the problems around hacks, intrusions, and other types of security breaches that may happen along the setup process and during the working time itself. For this Suricata was made, characterized as being free, highly configurable (and open source, too), well optimized, and generally comfortable to use if used properly, by professionals. 

Suricata itself is composed of several modules that work together, to log, threat manage,  regular policy violations analyze, and more. The software is fit for handling multi-gigabit traffic load, having a clean and effective code base to back the performance side off. Most of the processes done after the setup are done automatically, so protocol detection, logging, HTTP recognition, and others are done seamlessly and effectively. The interface is simple and informative, consisting of quite a few tabs that each have its own purpose, being imported from other places to complement the working process and fresh instances to add to the overall data overview quality.

Features:

• Included logging output, with JSON event and alert system output, with possible 3rd party tools integration
• NSM data, protocol information, and various other instruments record and log the precise data needed
• A signature language to properly monitor all the stuff needing attention, as well as anomalies in data traffic, malicious/strange behavior patterns, and more
• Lua scripting with many advanced toolsets to help extend the analyzing capabilities of the program and detect extra information
• Configuration utensils to help you optimize software's work to your hardware abilities/currently needed parameters

And, that's most of the stuff needing covering, though obviously not all the things that come with the great program it is of Suricata. Not to say it is absolutely perfect, especially due to the precision and knowledge required to set up the software's work to an optimized and running state and all the possible casuses that may come with it, but it surely deserves a sweet spot among this type of utility applications/software packages.

Suricata is a great open source software solution, mainly profiting its users of stability, amount of features needed for proper network job, advanced security options, and more