PRTG now with Packet Sniffer- freeware version available

The Paessler Router Traffic Grapher now includes a Packet Sniffer. With the help of the Packet Sniffer, PRTG can inspect all network data packets passing the local machine's network card. You can choose to only monitor the traffic on the machine that is running PRTG, or make sure that all the traffic you want to analyze passes it (e.g. by connecting it to the "monitoring" port of a switch). Using the Packet Sniffer is recommended if differentiation of traffic by service/protocol is desired.

PRTG is an easy-to-use tool for monitoring bandwidth usage on networks. It lets you log the amount of data flowing through routers, monitor CPU utilization, check disk space usage and much, much more - and it only takes minutes to setup! PRTG is usually used for checking leased lines, routers and firewalls, but there are many other possibilities. For example, you can also use it to monitor managed switches, printers, or any other SNMP enabled network components.

PRTG works by reading the traffic data from your router and displaying the results in three graphs. This way, you can easily see how much bandwidth has been used over the last 8-96 hours (kbit/sec), and transferred data counts for the last 14 days or for the last 12 months. Naturally, PRTG needs to be left running all the time if you want to get the correct results.

All you need to do now is decide which version of PRTG to go for! The Free Edition is available for commercial and personal use and doesn't cost anything at all, whereas the Pro Edition is necessary if you want to monitor more devices/ports or run PRTG as an NT service. Read more about the different editions here.

We've received a lot of positive feedback from satisfied users of PRTG. Here's what some of them have said:

  • "We want to congratulate your company on creating a fantastic and affordable product.  We used to use another but more expensive product but yours is the most 'bang' for the dollar. Keep up the great work!", Christopher Oak, www.everplanet.com
  • "Did I thank you for the great service? I'm running networks on several locations, and PRTG is by far the best monitor application I've tried after trying a lot of demo/freeware versions. And with such good support, I see no reason why I shouldn't keep deploying PRTG to my customers.", Lasse Ruud, www.ruudware.no