White Paper
ProfiShark Performance Results: Wireshark Heroes Series
This white paper reports controlled tests comparing ProfiShark 1G with software-based Wireshark capture, tshark, a laptop Ethernet adapter, a USB Ethernet adapter, a standard TAP, and a Cisco SPAN port. Traffic generators produced varying loads and frame sizes to determine when packets were lost. Wireshark and WinPcap dropped substantial traffic at moderate utilization, particularly with small frames, while their displayed drop counters were not always accurate. Command-line capture performed better than the graphical interface but still experienced loss. USB Ethernet adapters were also unsuitable for dependable analysis, and neither a TAP nor SPAN port can compensate for an underpowered capture system. ProfiShark’s dedicated hardware consistently captured traffic at full line rate across
