How to capture network traffic with Microsoft Network Monitor
When investigating network related problems, you can use Microsoft Network Monitor tool to capture, view and analyze network traffic. It is a powerful protocol analyzer. This post is based on the latest release : Network Monitor 3.3.
- Download the tool from here , install it on the machine that you want to run the capture—it should be a partner in the network conversation. Double-click to run the tool;
- In the left-upper side panel, click on “Create: New capture tab…”. A new capture tab opens;
- In the right-hand “Select Networks” view, select the network adaptor that you want to capture on; This can be a multiple choice.
- Now click the “start” icon on the tool bar, or press F5 to start capture. You can see the “Frame Summary” view being populated with new frames.
- When the interested data is collected, stop tracing by clicking the “Stop” icon in the tool bar , or click F7.
- Go to File->SaveAs to save the captured frames. Besides the file path, you can also define what to be saved by using the the “Frame selection” list .
Tips:
- How to view and analyze the network monitor trace is not covered by this post. You can find “Related Resources” in the network monitor download page .
- A good practice is to capture with no filters, and save “All captured frames” to avoid missing anything useful in the trace, unless you know clearly that you are interested in a specific part of the trace only.
- If VPN is involved in the interested traffic, make sure “WAN Miniport” is included in step 3 above;
You can also check out some other useful network sniffers like Fiddler and WireShark.