What is NTA? Network Traffic Analysis is a safety tool that through network communications locates all the safety threats and any malicious behaviors withinside the network.

NTA uses an aggregate of behavioral modeling, tool learning, and rule-based absolutely detection to create a baseline reflecting what the organization’s everyday network behavior seems like. They then continuously have a look at float facts and/or network telemetry, and alert your safety institution to a cap potential hazard even as bizarre sports activities or site visitors’ patterns are detected withinside the network.

NTA can detect malicious conduct to a particular IP address. Then they can carry out a forensic evaluation to discern out what different gadgets are probably affected. These result in a quicker reaction time and greater expeditious prevention of unfolding and/or decision of the issue.

Below is a top tool list summarized for you stating the Top 15 Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Tools with their key features and other needed information.

1. Corelight

Corelight is one of the best network traffic analysis tools that features an effective and faster investigation, thereby easily detecting any anomalous activity. They offer real-time statistics that companies use to understand, detect, and save the system from cyber-attacks. Their software is constructed on Zeek which provides an effective and widely-used open supply tracking framework.

Key Features:

• Corelight’s new records’ fusion abilities permit less complicated integration of Corelight Sensors into present protection infrastructure.

• Corelight Sensors support the Zeek Input Framework, thereby allowing users to combine data from several sources and tools into Zeek logs.

• Detecting anomalous activity traveling across systems via lateral movement.

• Identifying illegal credentials for credential access.

• Defense evasion: Characteristics of evasive file strategies such as deletion, hidden files and directories, side-loaded files and programs, indirect file execution, and port knocking.

Cost:

Physical appliances start at $19,000 per year, while VM or cloud deployments are paid per Gbps.

2. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is the second-ranked product in the Network Traffic Analysis tools category. SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer has an average rating of 8 out of 10 on PeerSpot. This tool has been developed in contrast to the Cisco Stealthwatch. The SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is a communications service provider in the leading industry studying this solution, accounting for 30% of all views.

Key Features:

• Monitoring of bandwidth

• Notification of application traffic

• Analyzing network traffic

• Support for VMware vSphere distributed switches

• Advanced application recognition

Cost:

Pricing begins at $1,072.

3. Awake Security Platform

Awake Security Platform is ranked fourth in top Network Detection and Response (NDR) tools and third in top Network Traffic Analysis tools. Awake Security Platform receives an average rating of 8 out of 10 from its users. The midsize corporate market is the most interested in Awake Security Platform, accounting for 56% of people exploring this product. Professionals from a computer software firm are the leading industry studying this solution and accounting for 29 percent of all views.

Key Features:

• Without forcing data decryption, the platform analyses encrypted traffic to detect essential context such as the kind of traffic (file transfer, interactive shell, etc.), the apps conversing, and the existence of remote access.

• Extracted activity data is sent into the Awake Nucleus, which employs a variety of detection algorithms to identify harmful intent.

• With extendable AI-driven models that first zero in on suspicious behavior and then gather supporting evidence to support a conviction, the Adversarial ModelingTM language allows the discovery of even the most sophisticated attacker tactics, methods, and procedures (TTP).

Cost:

Pricing for Awake Security begins at $1.00 per year. There is no free version available. Awake Security provides a free trial period.

4. Ettercap

Ettercap is similar to Wireshark in a few ways. It is free and open-source, and it works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. However, unlike Wireshark, Ettercap can not only analyze but also alter traffic. Ettercap is more sophisticated and it's frequently used for testing, but it also offers advanced network traffic capabilities. It may detect rogue users and either record their activity or ban them from accessing the network. Disadvantages? The user might take some time to learn how to use all of its features. It's also a command-line-only application.

Key Features:

• An SSH1 connection's User and Pass, as well as its data, can be sniffed. Ettercap is the first program that can sniff an SSH connection in FULL DETAIL. -DUPLEX.

• SSL-secured data can be sniffed. A bogus certificate is supplied to the client, and the session is decrypted.

• One can inject characters to the server (emulating commands) or the client (emulating answers) while keeping the connection open.

• It is a tool used to sniff live connections.

• Ettercap is capable of doing on-the-fly content screening and provides network and hosts analysis capabilities.

Cost:

Ettercap is a free program.

5. Wireshark

Wireshark may be used to analyze any form of communication or interface. When it comes to traffic analysis, it's a genuine powerhouse. It can display all traffic in real-time, but if one knows what he is searching for, he can accordingly set filters. It also provides offline analysis from previously stored files and has a few options for producing interesting traffic statistics. Wireshark is compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS. Disadvantages? It's a bit confusing to operate, so one will have to devote some time to understand it. It's also a terrific tool for ad hoc analysis. This tool is not suitable for company-wide deployment.

Key Features:

• Offline analysis and live capture

• In-depth VoIP analysis.

• Many different capture file types may be read and written.

• Captures and decompresses the compressed files (gzip) on the fly.

• An in-depth examination of hundreds of protocols.

• A typical three-pane packet browser.

Cost:

Wireshark is "free software," which means you can get it without paying a license charge.

6. Paessler Network Analysis Tool

PRTG Network Monitor is an award-winning and all-inclusive monitoring solution included in the list. It manages everything that happens in an IT infrastructure. The tool comes with an easy-to-use and intuitive interface, as well as their incredible customer service. PRTG grows to any size network, making life much easier for their clients with increasing networks who can simply continue with PRTG. Furthermore, it saves money by preventing important interruptions while improving overall network quality.

Key Features:

• Permissions/Access Controls

• Activity Dashboard Alerts/Notifications / Escalation Alerts/Notifications

• API Capacity Administration

• Configuration Administration

• Management of Connectivity

• Data Management Data Import/Export

Cost:

The pricing rage starting at €1349.00 (one-time)

7. Nagios

Nagios is widely regarded as the best option for monitoring servers in several ways. Nagios makes server monitoring simple by allowing one to monitor their servers with or without agents. The Nagios Exchange community has left no stone unturned, with over 3500 distinct add-ons available to monitor the servers.

Key Features:

• Increased availability of servers, services, processes, and applications.

• Rapid identification of network and server outages, as well as protocol failures.

• Failed servers, services, processes, and batch operations are detected quickly.

Cost:

Nagios XI is priced at $1995.0 for a one-time license. There are two plans available with Nagios XI: The Standard Edition costs $1995.00. Enterprise Edition is priced at $3495.00.

8. Auvik

Auvik's cloud-based network management software ensures that IT networks throughout the world function smoothly. Auvik boosts an IT team's productivity and capacity while safeguarding the business from network risk by automating and simplifying network administration. The company is one of the fastest-growing North American technology firms. Lately, it has won the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and the Deloitte Fast 500, as well as recognized as the top-ranked Canadian company in the FT Americas' Fastest Growing Companies 2020.

Key Features:

• Improves network visibility and IT asset management by automating network visibility and asset management.

• Streamline network performance monitoring and troubleshooting.

• Configuration backup and recovery should be automated.

• Analyzes network traffic intelligently.

• Users will have no trouble navigating the network.

Cost:

Auvik's solutions range in price from $30.00 to $40.00 a month for the average small business.

9. Icinga

Icinga GmbH is a German open-source infrastructure monitoring manufacturer. Its clientele includes major firms, several government entities, and numerous mid-sized businesses from all over the world and across all industries.

Key Features:

• Collects data and assesses system performance for quick troubleshooting and future-proof capacity planning.

• The Icinga 6-in-1 Stack is an enterprise-ready solution that readily integrates into existing infrastructures and is unrivaled in terms of setup, automation, and scaling.

• Icinga stands out for its adaptability, making it ideal for big and diverse contexts.

Cost:

The platform provides different packages according to the client’s needs. There is also a free trial for those who want to try it for the first time.

10. Observium Community

Observium is a low-maintenance auto-discovering network monitoring platform that supports a broad variety of device types, platforms, and operating systems such as Cisco, Windows, Linux, HP, Juniper, Dell, FreeBSD, Brocade, Netscaler, NetApp, and many others. Observium focuses on giving a beautiful, powerful, yet easy and intuitive interface to improve the user experience.

Key Features:

• Threshold Alerting.

• Extensive Device Support.

• Billing.

• External Integration.

• Traffic Accounting.

• Auto-Discovery.

• Capacity & Disaster Recovery Planning

Cost:

The Observium price model begins at $300.00 per user, per year. There is a free version available. Observium provides a free trial period.

11. ManageEngine OpManager Plus

ManageEngine OpManager Plus is a comprehensive IT infrastructure monitoring solution. It has a wide range of monitoring functions, such as network device health monitoring and traffic flow analysis.

Key Features:

• Monitoring of WAN RTT.

• Monitoring of VoIP calls.

• Plug-in for Application Monitoring

• Add-on for NetFlow.

• Network Change, Configuration, and Compliance Management is an NCM add-on.

• Switch Port Mapping and IP Address Management

• Support for Failover (as an add-on in the Standard/Professional Edition)

Cost:

The professional edition is $345 for 10 devices. The enterprise edition is $11,545 for 250 devices and the standard edition is $245 for 10 devices.

12. The Elastic Stack

The Elastic Stack, as the name implies, provides a flexible solution for businesses to purchase software without being constrained by all-inclusive monitoring and analytic tools. Furthermore, the Elastic Stack allows customers to choose the best-of-breed solution for each network analytic function. This program works to record packets, analyze them, and show the findings. As a result, one can also deploy each component individually and utilize it with tools from other manufacturers.

Key Features:

• Scalability and resilience are essential.

• High availability and clustering Monitoring.

• Automatic node recovery- Monitoring of the entire stack.

• Monitoring across several stacks.

• Management- Recover from a picture.

• Warning- Alerting that is highly accessible and scalable.

• Stack Security- Configuration security.

• Deployment- Clients. Download and install.

• Restful API.

Cost:

The platform provides different packages according to the client’s needs. There is also a free trial for those who want to try it for the first time.

13. NetFort LANGuardian

NetFort is a deep packet inspection program that monitors, analyses, and reports on a variety of infrastructure operations such as users, applications, and networks. This is a program for passive network traffic analysis that does not affect network performance. LANGuardian inspects the content of traffic packets and headers and gives thorough and trustworthy information on the condition of applications and network traffic.

Key Features:

• LANGuardian provides total network visibility

• Comprehensive Search

• Alerting Engine

• Report Mechanism

• Track Users

• Real-Time and Historical

• Bandwidth Troubleshooting

• File Activity Monitoring.

Cost:

Users can refer to the official website for the quotation.

14. Cisco Stealthwatch

Cisco Stealthwatch has preconfigured alarms for several sorts of security concerns that may arise in the network. They immediately get notifications when PCs or servers are utilized for botnets or Bitcoin mining.

Key Features:

• Automates network policies for both wired and wireless networks.

• Reduces the complexity of branch and WAN network operations.

• Malware and cyber threats are addressed.

• Ensure network uptime and performance.

Cost:

The platform offers several bundles based on the demands of the client. For those who wish to experience it for the first time, there is also a free trial.

15. ExtraHop Reveal(x)

ExtraHop Reveal(x) is one of the top Network Detection and Response (NDR) tools and is also included in the list of the top Network Traffic Analysis tools. ExtraHop Reveal(x) has a rating of 10 out of 10 from its users. Professionals from a computer software firm are most likely to be exploring this solution, accounting for 24% of all views.

Key Features:

• Threat Intelligence

• Records + Packet

• Detections

• Security Overview

Cost:

ExtraHop Reveal(x) is available in seven different price editions, ranging from $1.69 to $24.33.

Things to Consider When Selecting Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Tools

Network behavior matters a lot when it comes to detecting any threat to a system. Not all tools that monitor network traffic are similar in nature. Usually, they are of two types- flow-based tools and deep packet inspection (DPI) tools. Each of them differs on the basis of storing historical data, intrusion detection systems, and the kind of software agents involved.

Conclusion

As organizations embody virtual technology, the community's overall performance is essential for success. Cisco’s 2022 Global Networking Trends Report exhibits that one in three IT leaders apprehend the want to install the brand new networking monitors to reinforce their overall performance. Network visitor's evaluation gear could be a vital part of a users’ toolkit in 2022. This might aid to maximize the returns out of the funding in agency connectivity and linked IT infrastructure.

FAQs

What are Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Tools?

Network Traffic Analysis tools are traffic monitors that assist to find key insights which include community performance, security, and bandwidth utilization. Various community site visitors’ evaluation gear is to be had for each employer's use and budget.

According to Grand View Research, the worldwide marketplace length for this generation section turned into valued at $2.forty nine billion in 2020, to boom at a compound annual increase rate (CAGR) of 9.7% via way of means of 2028. When comparing community visitors' evaluation gear on any organization, one must make sure that they’re geared up with the subsequent features.

When do you need to recall the use of NTA tools?

Common use instances for NTA include:

• Collecting a real-time and historic document of what’s taking place in the network

• Detecting malware inclusive of ransomware activity

• Detecting the usage of inclined protocols and ciphers

• Improving inner visibility and casting off blind spots

However, understanding the way to reveal community site visitors isn't enough. It’s crucial to additionally keep in mind the information reasserts in the community tracking tool.

What are the steps to Monitor Network Traffic?

Some of the most effective ways to analyze network traffic are as follows:

• Identify the data sources

• Determine the best way to collect from data sources

• Detect any collection restrictions

• Start a small and diverse data collection

• Detects the Data Collection Destination

• Enable continuous monitoring

• View and search collected data

• Set up alerts

What are the various categories of the network?

A computer network can be categorized on the basis of its size. A computer network is mainly of four types:

• LAN(Local Area Network)

• PAN(Personal Area Network)

• MAN(Metropolitan Area Network)

• WAN(Wide Area Network)

What are the different categories of network traffic?

Traffic category is an automatic technique that categorizes laptop community visitors in keeping with numerous parameters (for example, primarily based totally on port range or protocol) into some of the visitors' classes. Each ensuing visitor's magnificence may be handled differently with a purpose to differentiate the carrier implied for the statistics generator or consumer.

Operators regularly distinguish 3 wide varieties of community traffic:

• Sensitive

• Best-Effort

• Undesired