What is a Sniffer

SSniffer... A sniffer is a program that monitors and analyzes network traffic, detecting bottlenecks and problems. Using this information, a network manager can keep traffic flowing efficiently. It's also something that very sad lonely gits do when no one is looking on the equipment in a gym.

A sniffer can also be used legitimately or illegitimately to capture data being transmitted on a network. A network router reads every packet of data passed to it, determining whether it is intended for a destination within the router's own network or whether it should be passed further along the Internet. A router with a sniffer, however, may be able to read the data in the packet as well as the source and destination addresses. Sniffers are often used on academic networks to prevent traffic bottlenecks caused by file-sharing applications such as Napster or Gnutella.

The term "sniffer" is occasionally used for a program that analyzes data other than network traffic. For example, a database could be analyzed for certain kinds of duplication.

A number of companies offer products that include "Sniffer" as part of their name.