14 DAY TRIAL // This week Microsoft has made available for download a fresh version of Network Monitor, one designed to play nice with Windows 7, even the pre-release builds. Network Monitor 3.3 Beta is now available for download from Microsoft Connect, bringing to the table new features that were integrated into the solution as a direct result of the feedback generated by end users. Network monitor, also Netmon, is referred to by Microsoft as the most innovative tool when it comes down to performing network traffic analysis.
Among the changes introduced with Nemon 3.3 Beta is the ability for users to launch experts via the UI. The network traffic analysis tool allows users to not only perform data tracing, but also run additional tools, namely experts, in order to further analyze the information available. In this context, the software giant promised that the Network Monitor 3.3 Beta launch would be accompanied by the release of additional experts including Top Users and Simple Search, the latter of which is now available.
Netmon 3.3 Beta is designed to integrate seamlessly with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, including Service Pack 3, Windows Vista RTM/SP1, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 (also IA64 builds). But, at the same time, Network Monitor 3.3 Beta also installs and runs on top of x86 and x64 copies of Windows 7.
Paul E. Long from the Network Monitor team revealed the new additions and features to “NM3.3 Beta:
- Ability to capture on WWAN and Tunnel interfaces on Win7 - Critical fixes to NM3.3 to operate correctly with Hyper-V - Right-click add to alias. Right-click a frame in the Frame Summary window with an IPv4, IPv6, or MAC address to add that address as a new alias. - Right click go to definition: Right-click a field in the Frame Details windows and select Go To Data Field Definition or Go To Data Type Definition to see where the field is defined in the NPL parsers. - Auto-scroll. See the most recent traffic as it comes in. In a live capture, click the Autoscroll button on the main toolbar to have the Frame Summary window automatically scroll down to display the most recent frames as they come in. Click Autoscroll again to freeze the view in its present location. - Experts available online: Experts are stand-alone applications that analyze Network Monitor capture data. Various experts are available online. - Frame Comments: Attach comments to frames in a saved capture file. Select the Frame Comments tab in the lower-right window to add, view, edit, or delete comments. - API Extensions: API methods have been added to enable access to conversation information, properties, field display strings, and comments. - Ability to open ETL files and correlate information by Network Tracing scenario.”