Sniffer from Network General is considered the first easy-to-use network diagnostics tool, and our Product Leadership survey respondents gave it a nod with the bronze award in our network performance management category. Sniffer has grown since its first distribution in 1991 to become a sophisticated, enterprise-class family of tools and appliances capable of analyzing VoIP, wireless, and applications traffic.

With 78% rating it good or excellent, survey respondents were most happy with the Sniffer family's ability to identify network problems. They also rated it high for logging, monitoring and reporting and ease of installation and configuration. One called it a "good overall, critical network tool," and another stated it is "good for QOS management and application performance management."

Weaker areas for the Sniffer family, according to our respondents, were ease of integration with other management products and vendor service and support. One user remarked that the "service contract is expensive," and another informed us, "Due to cost/support issues, [we are] moving to open source alternatives."