Packet Sniffing

          Packet sniffing is capturing packets of data which are transported across a computer network. The software that is able to do this is called a packet sniffer. It is the equivalent of tapping into a telephone line. Other than just hacking packet sniffing has legitimate uses. Packet sniffing can help trouble shoot with problem networks. There is some good and some bad to packet sniffing. Packet sniffing can also be refereed to as monitoring or network analyzing. Malicious packet sniffing would be hacking into someones information. This is how people steal credit cards over the internet. They are able to grab the packet before it gets jumbled up and they get the information. Now it is important that all websites have scramblers which will encrypt the data.

          The main point of packet sniffing is that it is to trouble shoot. Although it is used other ways the main purpose for packet sniffing is not a malicious way. Packet sniffing programs have the ability to give out information that is in the packets and they can also give out analysis on the packet. This is important because if we are using packet sniffing for trouble shooting we need an analysis that we can read and comprehend. After looking over many packet sniffing programs I find it to be rather confusing to read the data given from the programs.    
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