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thefumbler

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Packet Analyzer Software Recommendations Needed

What would the experts recommend for a good packet analyzer /sniffer these days?  I have a good network background but am not interested in wading through very low level network traffic to figure out everything by myself, and want to find a software package that has some decent analysis of the packets.  I support a variety of different networks, so it can't be hardware centric (switch or router).  The product should probably be Windows-based for my laptop, it doesn't have to be freeware or shareware but it needs to be under $1,000.   Please consider price with the features when analyzing.  Links appreciated.  
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pseudocyber: Flukes' product OPV-PE/PRO is $4,000+, that's outside of the budget unfortunately, same for Sniffer.  I tested Ethereal briefly and it is good at capturing packets but I would like a little more help in figuring out the protocol information in the packet which is a bit complex for me.  
 
Am I really asking for a cadillac with a ford pinto budget?  Maybe I should be using Etherreal and going to the bookstore and spending $100 on a reference.

Pardon my ignorance, what's the WFC!!! acronym?
Wicked F Cool.
http://www.tamos.com
CommView ( LAN, WAN, WIFI sniffer )

Pavel Sokolov
http://www.cezeo.com
I realize that that the protocol breakdowns in percentages or graphs are very helpful and Ethereal for free doesn't have that unless I missed it.  
Iris Network Traffic Analyzer at $1275 looks promising.  I downloaded the demo version and the graphing and the ability to reconstruct a web page is very cool and helpful when documenting abuses to HR.  However it may be due to the demo version but the host addresses (limit 10) don't save properly and a few other oddities.  I am requesting an unrestricted version for testing.  
Tamos' Commview at $249, also looks promising from the screen shots but I haven't tested yet.  The interface doesn't look as polished as Iris which is probably the reason for the price.
In the other post at https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20923466/Sniffer-recommendation.html, the free http://www.packetyzer.com may also be an option  I will look into, but the program needs to run under windows so tcpdump is not an option.
The non-demo version of the Iris Network Traffic Analyzer solves the problems I was seeing in the demo version and its reasonable cost with the extra feature of the http packet rebuilding to show a visited web page it looks like the direction I will be going.  

Thanks