G2

Ansh B.

Associate Security Engineer

Capital Markets

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/12/2026

"Wireshark: The Most Powerful Free Tool You'll Ever Have to Learn the Hard Way."

5/5

What do you like best about Wireshark?

Honestly, what I like best about Wireshark is how Visibility it gives you into what's actually happening on a network. Like, you can see every single packet flying around in real time it just feels powerful. I remember the first time I used it during a networking lab, I was genuinely surprised at how much data is constantly moving even when you think nothing's going on.

The display filters are also something I really appreciate. Once you get the hang of them, you can cut through thousands of packets and zero in on exactly what you need wheather it's just HTTP traffic, a specific IP, or a particular protocol. It saves so much time compared to just scrolling blindly.

And the fact that it's free and open source but still this capable? That's rare. A lot of tools with this level of depth cost a lot of money, so it's great that students and professionals alike can just use it without any barrier. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Wireshark?

Honestly. the learning curve is probably my biggest gripe with Wireshark. When you first open it, you're just hit with this wall of packets scrolling by super fast, and if you don't already have some networking background, it can feel really overwhelming. There's no real "beginner mode" or guided setup it just throws you in the deep end.

The interface also feels a bit dated to me. It's functional, sure, but it dosen't feel the most intuitive, especially when you're trying to navigate through deeper settings or setup more complex capture filters. Sometimes I find myself Googling things that I feel should be easier to find within the tool itself.

Another thing is performance when you're capturing on a busy network, the amount of data it pulls in can get massive really quickly, and it starts to slow down or become hard to manage. Filtering helps, but sometimes you don't always know what you're looking for until after capture, which means you end up with these huge files that are a pain to work through.

It's still a grat tool overall, but for someone just geeting started, the experience can feel more frustrating than it needs to be. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Wireshark solving and how is that benefiting you?

At it's core, Wireshark solves the problem of network invisibility meaning, without a tool like this you really have no idea what's actually happening on your network at the packet level. You might know your connection is low or something feels off, but you can't pinpoint why. Wireshark basically gives you a microscope for your network traffic.

For me personally, the biggest benefit has been in troubleshooting. Whether it's figuring out why a particular application isn't connecting properly, or spotting unusual traffic that shouldn't be there, Wireshark lets you actually diagnose the problem instead of just guessing. That's huge, especially when you're working on anything network related and need real answers fast.

It's also been really valuable from a learning perspective. When I was studing networking concepts like TCP handshakes, DNS resolution, or HTTP request reading about them in a textbook is one thing, but actually seeing them happen live in Wireshark makes everything click so much faster. IT bridges that gap between theory and reality really well.

From a security standpoint too, it helps identify things like suspicious connections, unencrypted data being sent, or potential signs of something malicious on the network. That kind of awareness is genuinely useful whether you're a student, a developer, or someone managing a network professionally.

So overall, it's solving the problem of not kowing and that benefits me every time I need to understand, fix, or secure anything network related. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.