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Making packet editing effective

In this week's blog roundup, networking analysts explore effective packet editing, cite some significant trends in networking and discuss the evolution of BYOD policies.

Eamon McCarthy Earls
By
Published: 02 Dec 2015

Packet editing took center stage in a recent LoveMyTool post by networking blogger Tony Fortunato. In previous articles, Fortunato had proposed that every IT networking analyst should invest in a packet-editing tool. And in his most recent video, he highlighted the WireEdit packet-editing system. Fortunato also cited Jasper's TraceWrangler as a supporting system.

According to Fortunato, the WireEdit program is available for download, and he recommended converting trace files to PCAP to make them easier to assess. The tool enables easy packet editing, he wrote, adding that it sports an edit-replace option for large groups of packets. To demonstrate the system, Fortunato ran packet editing on 14,000 packets out of a large trace file, anonymizing each packet that might later be viewed by outside parties or customers.

See what else Fortunato had to say about packet editing.

Many things to be thankful for in the networking world

In a recent blog post, Andrew Lerner, an analyst with Gartner Inc., based in Stamford, Conn., wrote about the many aspects of modern networking for which he is grateful, as the United States celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday. Highest among the items on the list were packet sniffers, such as those sold by Ethereal, Netmon and Wireshark. Lerner also gave thanks to network packet brokers for jobs that require enterprise-class diagnostics.

Additionally, Lerner said he's grateful for a number of other developments, including application delivery controllers, SD-WAN, NetFlow and IPFIX, data center switching fabrics, cloud-managed infrastructure, and Border Gateway Protocol looking glass for visibility across networks. Finally, he gave credit to an old networking standby -- Ping, without which network monitoring would never be the same.

Read more of Lerner's thoughts about the networking technologies for which he's most thankful.

Determining BYOD policies that work for enterprises

Joel Stradling, an analyst with Current Analysis in Sterling, Va., summarized new findings about enterprise device policies in a blog post. With two-thirds of businesses now relying on employee-owned mobile devices, companies have to reassess their BYOD policies and strategies. Among challenges are those related to remote workers, where insufficient bandwidth can hobble voice over IP or video services, Stradling wrote.

Only a few industries with additional compliance concerns, such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals and financial services, are not actively pursuing more BYOD policies. Stradling noted that even though IT is losing some of its power decreeing which tools can be used in the workspace, it's still important for administrators to secure the perimeter -- regardless of where the user is located -- and determining which cloud-based apps should be accessed.

Check out Stradling's opinions about BYOD policies.

Next Steps

Taking a look at the Wireshark packet analyzer

Understanding BYOD policies

Protecting sensitive data from packet sniffers

Dig Deeper on Network management and monitoring