Best network monitoring software?

Thanks for the suggestions.

I use wireshark quite a lot and after getting your head round it, you really can produce some nice reports with it..

however i use Observer (from network data) for the main reports. but this is expensive. but is basicaly wireshark on steriods with a lot more added on. You can get things like top talkers with a single click of the mouse. create reports with graphs either manualy or have them sceduled.

however that Other traffic you talk about it a fact of life... the only way to sort it out is to use some thing like wire shark and do a capture. filter out the other traffic and look through it. and then add your own rules to see traffic that you know about with in the "other".. we use a patch link sever that by default is not seen by wire shark or observer. Adding in my own rule it now shows up as patch link traffic. Do this a few times and soon other traffic becomes very small and you can see what you want..

All networks are different. And most network monitor solutions will only see the major protocals and applications, you always start of with a fair bit of other data. but like i say you just need to spend a day or so shifting through it once and making up your own rules.

Observer full suite like i use costs about £15,000!! so its not cheap. but jsut goes to show no matter how much you pay you will need to set up any soft wear to suit your network..