//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

                    netsniff-ng - the packet sniffing beast

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
                                      .      .
                                     /(      )\
                                   .' {______} '.
                                    \ ^,    ,^ /
 netsniff-ng is a free, performant   |'O\  /O'|   _.<0101011>--
 Linux network analyzer and          > `'  '` <  /
 networking toolkit.                 ) ,.==., (  |
                                    (|/--~~--\|)-'
 Release: 2012-06-29               /
                                  (      ___
 Web: http://netsniff-ng.org       \__.=|___E

The gain of performance is reached by zero-copy mechanisms, so that on packet
reception and transmission the kernel does not need to copy packets from kernel
space to user space and vice versa.

For this purpose, the netsniff-ng toolkit [1] is libpcap independent, but
nevertheless supports the pcap file format for capturing, replaying and
performing offline-analysis of pcap dumps. Furthermore, we are focussing on
building a robust and clean analyzer and utilities that complete netsniff-ng as
a support for network development, debugging or network reconnaissance. (Note:
libpcap starting from 1.0.0 now also supports zero-copy, but for capturing only)

The netsniff-ng toolkit currently consists of the following utilities:

  * netsniff-ng: a zero-copy analyzer, pcap capturing and replaying tool
  * trafgen: a high performance zero-copy network packet generator
  * ifpps: a top-like kernel networking and system statistics tool
  * curvetun: a lightweight curve25519-based multiuser IP tunnel
  * ashunt: an autonomous system trace route and ISP testing utility
  * flowtop: a top-like netfilter connection tracking tool
  * bpfc: a tiny Berkeley Packet Filter compiler supporting Linux extensions

Have a look at the Documentation/ folder for further information.

The netsniff-ng toolkit is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General 
Public License. For any questions or feedback about netsniff-ng you are welcome
to leave us a message to <[email protected]> or to our mailing list
at <[email protected]> (Note: you have to register first). This
project is purely non-commercial and will always stay that way! The current
project status can be considered as "working". In general, all tools have been
tested by us to a great extend including their command-line options. In fact,
many of our tools are used in production systems. However, we give no guarantee
that our tools are free of bugs! If you spot some issues, contact us as
described in REPORTING-BUGS.

Also, have a look at our FAQ [2] for answering your questions. Furthermore,
we have a development blog [3] where we sometimes drop some interesting things
or news for the outside world! A public repository of the old stable releases
can be found here [4].

Happy packet hacking!

[1] http://netsniff-ng.org/
[2] http://netsniff-ng.org/faq.html
[3] http://dev.netsniff-ng.org/
[4] http://pub.netsniff-ng.org/