NetworkActiv PIAFCTM

Sure enough, staying connected to a network is easy, but the other end of it has a lot of management involved. Data needs to be carefully analyzed so that no potentially malicious content can get in. As such, NetworkActiv PIAFCTM comes with the right tools for both data packed based and file capturing.

Once installed, the application can be launched without the need to restart your computer. A main menu shows up on launch, letting you select the area of interest, and you can choose from packet mode, file, graphical packets, and statistical mode. You can have the program remember your choice to directly dive into the mode you work with.

One of the main regions is the packet mode. Here the application can start to monitor all data going through your network adapter. Gathered info is found in an organized table with headers for type, size, source and destination MAC, from and to IP, from and to port, date and time, as well as content related info. Selection of an entry unveils more data in the detailed window.

Selecting an entry also unveils some management options in the context menu. You can choose to look up source or destination MAC vendor, reverse resolve source or destination IP addresses, trigger several TCP specific options, or remove the packet from the list. Data gathered is also visible in text, decimal, and HEX view, with the possibility to export as TXT for later analysis.

As far as the file mode goes, all work is narrowed down to analysing data from existing sets of files. The network interface is a mandatory requirement here, as well as the source folder of the constructed file. You can choose advanced settings before starting the session.

The graphical packets mode can seem like a fun mode to analyze traffic, but it’s hardly understandable. It shows either packet driver or raw socket inf, but without any guidelines it’s hard to tell what’s going on.

The statistical mode can shed more light. This can be proper for long-term analysis of data, as it keeps the log, including bytes, in an organized table, with options to save. Last but not least, the application comes with a built-in base encoder/decoder to convert data to readable forms.

Taking everything into consideration, we can state that NetworkActiv PIAFCTM is a practical network monitoring tool overall. It provides multiple modes to analyze data either in real-time or based on sets of files, being worth your while overall.