HTTPNetworkSniffer v1.45

HTTPNetworkSniffer, developed by Nir Sofer, "is a packet sniffer tool that captures all HTTP requests/responses sent between the Web browser and the Web server and displays them in a simple table. For every HTTP request, the following information is displayed: Host Name, HTTP method (GET, POST, HEAD), URL Path, User Agent, Response Code, Response String, Content Type, Referer, Content Encoding, Transfer Encoding, Server Name, Content Length, Cookie String, and more..." The program can capture HTTP traffic, but not HTTPS encrypted traffic. The program allows you to export the captured data to a text, HTML, XML, or CSV file.

There are 3 files within the zip file for the software: HTTPNetworkSniffer.chm, HTTPNetworkSniffer.exe, and readme.txt. For the 64-bit version of the program, the total size of the 3 files is only 212,631 bytes.

C:\Program Files\NirSoft\httpnetworksniffer-x64>dir
 Volume in drive C is OS
 Volume Serial Number is 4445-F6ED

 Directory of C:\Program Files\NirSoft\httpnetworksniffer-x64

12/14/2014  07:49 PM    <DIR>          .
12/14/2014  07:49 PM    <DIR>          ..
10/03/2014  02:05 PM            33,838 HTTPNetworkSniffer.chm
10/03/2014  02:05 PM           168,544 HTTPNetworkSniffer.exe
10/03/2014  02:05 PM            10,249 readme.txt
               3 File(s)        212,631 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  867,425,267,712 bytes free

No installation process is needed, you simply download a zip file and extract its contents to the directory of your choosing.

The first time you run the program and configure it, a HTTPNetworkSniffer.cfg file is created. On the system on which I placed the software, that file was 784 bytes.

When you run the program, it will automatically start listening for HTTP traffic. You will see a red square near the top of the window that will allow you to stop the capture of data.

HTTPNetworkSniffer

For the traffic it has observed, the following columns are displayed.

Host Name
Method
Path
UserAgent
Response Code
Response String
Content Type
Referer
Content Encoding
Transfer Encoding
Server (the software running o the web server, e.g. "Apache/1.3.29", "Microsoft-IIS/7.5", etc.)
Content Length
Connection (e.g., "close" or "keep-alive")
Cache Control
Location
Server Time
Expiration Time
Last Modified Time
Cookie
Client Address (e.g., the IP address of the system on which HTTPNetworkSniffer is running)
Server Address
Request Time
Response Time
URL

HTTPNetworkSniffer capturing data

You can click on any entry in the list it displays for further information on that entry.

HTTPNetworkSniffer - Properties

You can click on File and Save Selected Items to save highligted items to a file. If you want to highlight all entries, hit Ctrl-A. You can use the standard methods for highlighting rows of data in Windows. E.g., you can highlight one item by clicking on it then moving the mouse to the lowest item in the list you wish to highlight and then clicking the mouse again while holding down the shift key. Or, if you don't want to highlight a continuous block of items, you can click on the first and then select others by holding down the Ctrl key to highlight them.

The formats from which you can choose for the output file are as follows:

Text (*.txt)
Tab Delimited Text File (*.txt)
Tabular Text File (*.txt)
Comma Delimited Text File (*.csv)
HTML File - Horizonal (*.htm; *.html)
HTML File - Vertical (*.htm; *.html)
XML File - (*.xml)

You can also click on View and select HTML Report - All Items or HTML Report - Selected Items to see an HTML report of the data captured (example report).

The NirSoft developer, Nir Sofer, also provides other free system, network, and programmer tools, as well as other free software he has developed, on his website. Most of the tools are portable and don't have to be installed on a system. Another related tool is DNSQuerySniffer.

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Created: Sunday December 14, 2014