Usually, when client and server applications are on the same computer, there is no network traffic. Thus, you cannot use Network Monitor to understand what is happening between the applications.
When you are troubleshooting HTTP or other text-based protocols, if you have two computers, and the client is getting back unexpected results, run Network Monitor on the server to see if the server is sending the correct data.
You may need to trace on both the client and server if a firewall or intranet is causing network problems. In this scenario, you can compare traces more efficiently if you use the Net Time command to synchronize the system time on the computers.
If you have three computers that communicate in a three-tier architecture, you can run Network Monitor on the middle tier because all traffic crosses that computer.
To save a Capture or Display filter as the default, you must write over the existing file. The default Display filter file is named Default.df, and the default Capture filter file is named Default.cf. These files are usually located in the WinNT/System32/Netmon/Captures/ folder.
Alternatively, you can save and load various filter files as needed from within Network Monitor. To do this, click Load on the Capture Filter or Display Filter dialog box.
There are two versions of Network Monitor. The full version is shipped with Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS). A "lite" version is included with Windows NT Server and Windows 2000 Server and contains a subset of the features that are available in the full version.
Yes, the overhead of NetMon is minimal, and other applications should not be impacted by Network Monitor.
It depends on what kind of traffic you need to capture. Both versions of Network Monitor can capture traffic that is sent to or from the host computer (the computer that is running NetMon), including broadcasts and traffic over a dial-up network connection. The full version of Network Monitor also allows you to capture and display any frames from the network segment on which the computer that is running NetMon resides, regardless of whether they are addressed to the host computer.
Promiscuous mode is a state in which a network adapter card copies all the frames that pass over the network to a local buffer, regardless of the destination address. This mode enables Network Monitor to capture and display all network traffic.
To use Network Monitor, your computer must have a network card that supports promiscuous mode. If you are using Network Monitor Agent on a remote computer, the local workstation does not need a network adapter card that supports promiscuous mode, but the remote computer does.
The two primary components of Network Monitor are the Network Monitor Agent and the user interface. The Network Monitor Agent monitors the network and passes traffic up to the "program" (the user interface). The Network Monitor Agent can run on any compatible computer while the program is running on a separate computer.
computer can only see network traffic that passes across its network segment. Thus, it can be helpful to have a Network Monitor Agent that is running on a network where the problem is occurring, while the Network Monitor user interface runs from (for example) the local area network (LAN) Administrator's computer on a different network segment. The LAN Administrator can then manage the capture and view the captured data from his or her computer, even though the LAN Administrator is not on the segment where the problem is occurring.
Network Monitor is a "sniffer," namely, it detects problems on the network. Because you can analyze traffic at the frame level, all non-encrypted data is visible in a trace. For example, when you use Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) with Basic Authentication, the password is passed as clear text and can be read in a Network Monitor trace.
A TCP connection can be ended in one of two ways. A "graceful" close uses the TCP FIN flag to show that the sender has no more data to send. The TCP RST flag is used for an ended ("abortive") session disconnection.
Before any data can be trmitted through the TCP protocol, a reliable connection must be established. A "three-way handshake" is the process that TCP uses to establish this connection.
This process cannot be thoroughly described within the context of this article. Briefly, three frames identify a three-way handshake. In the first frame, Computer1 sends a frame to Computer2 with the TCP SYN flag set. In the second frame, Computer2 sends a frame back to Computer1 with both the SYN and ACK flags set. In the third frame, Computer1 sends a frame to Computer2 with the ACK flag set. Any two computers exchange these three packets every time they set up a TCP connection.
Network Monitor includes protocol parsers that look at and interpret key items within the raw data to interpret some of the most common protocols. As new standards and implementations evolve, there will be certain protocols for which NetMon does not contain parsers. Individuals can write parsers for these protocols, or other companies may write some of these parsers (which can be found on the Internet). Some additional parsers are included in the Microsoft Resource kits.
Before you run the Capture, you can set up a Capture filter to determine which frames are stored in the buffer. After the data is stored, you can set up a Display filter to further focus attention on a particular set of frames.