Network Monitor 3 in public beta

I've been a heavy user of Microsoft's network monitor. Delivered as part of Windows Server and SMS (the latter a fuller version), it's a nice tool for capturing and analysing network traffic. It's not been updated for years - allowing WireShark (Ethereal as it used to be known) to take a lead in terms of functionality.

But MS has been hard at work with Netmon 3, which is now in public beta. Network Monitor 3 is a total re-write of capture engine, parser engine, and user interface. It runs on Windows XP and Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Longhorn; and is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

One of the coolest new features is display while capturing - you can see the packets as they are captured. Neat!

To get this, go to http://connect.Microsoft.com, logon using your MS Passport ID. Then click on Available Connections and select Network Monitor 3.0. The download is just 3mb!

Thanks to Nick Portlock for pointing out this cool beta.

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