WinPcap
WinPcap is a known tool for link-layer network access in Windows environments
WinPcap is a popular tool that works in a Microsoft Windows environment, allowing applications to capture and pass network packets around the protocol stack. It has additional features such as kernel-level packet filtering, a network statistics engine and support for remote packet capture.
WinPcap consists of a driver that extends the operating system to support low-level network access and a library that is directly used for low-level access. This library also contains a Windows version of the well-known libpcap, the Unix API.
Thanks to its feature set, WinPcap is the packet capture and filtering engine on which many commercial as well as free network tools, including protocol analyzers, network monitors, network intrusion detection systems, traffic generators and network testing tools are based. The tool contains all the necessary documentation, as well as various manuals.
WinPcap allows users to capture and transmit network packets, facilitating the use of various network monitoring and testing tools.
- High efficiency: WinPcap implements all the optimization capabilities described in the literature (for example, kernel filtering and buffering, partial copy of the package, etc.). The utility greatly exceeds the speed of such programs;
- popularity: WinPcap is used as a network interface for many purposes: protocol analyzer, network monitoring, network activity detector, sniffer, etc;
- Tested and fine-tuned: the high popularity of the program helped significantly in testing the program. The utility has almost no errors and bugs;
- convenient and simple: WinPcap is distributed as a small executable file that can be run on any operating system. Run the executable file and the program will start performing its functions;
- Multiplatform: supports all Windows operating systems;
- Documentation: the program includes a detailed user manual with many hyperlinks. Also, the tutorial is included in the documentation, which will guide you through all the settings of the utility step by step.
PROS
Offers low-level network monitoring capabilities.
It's open-source and widely supported within the community.
CONS
Performance issues on high-speed networks.
Limited compatibility with newer operating systems.
