NetAlly EtherScope nXG vs Wireshark comparison

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98% willing to recommend

NetAlly EtherScope nXG

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 11, 2024

Wireshark and NetAlly EtherScope nXG are leading network analysis tools. Wireshark excels in its detailed insights while NetAlly EtherScope nXG stands out for its advanced functionalities, making it the superior product in overall value.

Features: Wireshark offers detailed packet inspection and decoding, excellent for in-depth troubleshooting, and packet-level analytics. NetAlly EtherScope nXG provides automated network discovery, performance diagnostics, and integrated Wi-Fi analysis.

Room for Improvement: Wireshark could benefit from an easier learning curve, improved real-time monitoring, and better user interface. NetAlly EtherScope nXG needs more frequent firmware updates, better documentation, and enhanced customer support integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Wireshark, being open-source, is simple to deploy with limited direct support. NetAlly EtherScope nXG offers structured deployment and enterprise-grade customer support, with users favoring its quicker setup times and reliable service.

Pricing and ROI: Wireshark has negligible setup costs due to its open-source nature, providing significant ROI through cost savings. NetAlly EtherScope nXG, despite a higher initial investment, delivers high ROI through its comprehensive feature set and efficiency gains, often deemed worth the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed NetAlly EtherScope nXG vs. Wireshark Report (Updated: July 2025).

NetAlly EtherScope nXG vs. Wireshark

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

NetAlly EtherScope nXG

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

3rd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Diagnostics (3rd)

Wireshark

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

4th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of NetAlly EtherScope nXG is 11.1%, down from 14.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wireshark is 13.3%, up from 11.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

Chase McGee

Cyber Range Engineer 2 at Tech Data Limited

Reduces troubleshooting from hours to minutes, and increases our security by finding rogue devices

My favorite features, ones that I have used continuously almost every single day, are the Link-Live Cloud Service and the AirMapper Site Survey. The latter is absolutely essential to almost every business I go to. I move around the building and mark where I've been and then, when I get back to my desk, the information is on the dashboard, showing me exactly where devices are. I can see, "Okay, here are printers that shouldn't be there," and I can relocate them better. Or I can check whether the WiFi signal is strong at a given spot and whether I need another access point. The AirMapper Site Survey app is one of the biggest highlights of this product. When somebody asks me, "Why should I use this device?" it's the first thing I show them, and they usually love it. Its ability to gather WiFi site survey data is absolutely amazing. You can collect so many different things including using its spectrum analyzer. You can also use the directional antenna and other features to detect the WiFi signal, its strength and where things are at. If devices are having an issue, you can figure out the cause. Maybe it is behind a wall that is not allowing WiFi signals and you can determine, "Hey, I need another access point here to get my users the internet coverage they need." The AirMapper Site Survey Heat Maps were one of the first things that I used the device for. I wanted to see the WiFi signals, where everything was at, and what was the most used. That was able to help me determine that I needed a new access point inside our center for demos. We were getting a lot of drops there and I figured out that the coverage was not good. We had to get a replacement access point. Overall, the EtherScope nXG is easy to use for less skilled staff but it has deep diagnostics for experts. I had no experience when I first received this device. I had no training and, in less than a week, I was fully proficient with it. When I really wanted to do a deep dive and figure out everything about it through the Link-Live Cloud Service, I had so much data. It made my life a lot easier.

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Vijay Duggal

Network Specialist at Squarepoint Capital

Provides detailed traffic analysis and helps troubleshoot issues

There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. While the solution supports sampling as fine as one millisecond, it requires a copy at that interval. My Python script allows me to achieve a granularity of up to ten microseconds, but I can't go beyond that. When dealing with provisioning on both issues, it would be beneficial if I could go down to the microsecond level, if not the nanosecond. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"One of the key measurements that we use out of the device is the channel utilization measurement, how much traffic is on the air in a given channel. That's the most valuable feature for us. The ability to make a very fast measurement of how much traffic is on the air is a key value. Otherwise we'd have to do a packet capture and do some analysis. It speeds up our testing."

"My impression of the ease of use is that it definitely is easy to use both the handheld device and the app walking around."

"Being able to do a Wi-Fi walk-around survey with a handheld tool is one of the most valuable features of NetAlly EtherScope nXG."

"It clearly depicts the information we're looking for on a 10Gig testing, and we can also verify 100Gig links with it between our routing sites."

"EtherScope has made our networking staff more productive. We have remote locations and can use the tools to collaborate. I have other people looking at it at the same time that I am looking at it. With the uploading ability, I can have more eyes on the project at the same time, instead of just one set of eyes."

"The solution’s AirMapper Site Survey app is extremely easy to use. We give it to the technicians and send them out to go do that function. We hand it to the technician who goes onsite, then they take a photo of the overall area of a floor plan and are able to go do that site survey without almost any instruction from any engineer. So, it is very usable for beginner-type techs."

"The most valuable features are LANBERT, Discovery, and AirMapper. AirMapper is the best. Both Discovery and AirMapper are very easy to use because you can view all the problems on a single screen. If you quickly need more details about your network, then AirMapper is the best."

"The things that I find most valuable are the Wi-Fi app and the Discovery app. Those two things help a lot when I'm doing the initial discovery of a space. I also use the AutoTest feature quite a lot, especially if I'm troubleshooting."

More NetAlly EtherScope nXG pros

"Being able to dissect email data and figure out what is inside email messages was the most valuable feature. Such a feature is pretty helpful for an ongoing forensic investigation or when there is a potential insider threat that you are trying to investigate. It allows you to see the network activity of the users you are investigating. It also gives you more visibility into your network. It was very easy to set up. There is a lot of information out there on Google and YouTube about how to use it. There is also community support. If you have any trouble, it is pretty easy to find an answer online. You will have to do some digging only if you have a very specific use case."

"Wireshark's best feature is that it's adaptive, which means it's the go-to tool for network-related developers."

"I use the filters very often, to determine what type of traffic I am looking for. The use of filter allows traffic to be segmented so that a value can be looked at individually apart from the other traffic."

"The most valuable feature of Wireshark is the ability to choose a destination of flow that has not been working as expected."

"Wireshark has a lot of features. It's a powerful tool if you're familiar with it. You can see everything on the network with it."

"If you're dealing with troubleshooting network, voice issues, or network operations, having a tool like Wireshark to dive into packet details is important. The initial setup is straightforward. Anyone starting out or looking to deploy it on your personal PC or machine can do it easily."

"It is a stable product. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."

"You can use Wireshark to see the traffic packet format, the IP layers, the fields, and the enabled flags."

More Wireshark pros

Cons

"When it works, I love the AirMapper Site Survey app. Currently, my device has a hardware bug that the manufacturer and I are working on actively, to get it fixed or replaced. The 5 gigahertz radio on my device is flaky at best... It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the product itself, as much as it is some kind of unique hardware problem."

"The battery life should be improved."

"The one thing that it doesn't do well, when it's doing airtime utilization measurements, is that it will classify things as non-802.11, and that isn't correct. What it could do better is make sure that it classifies all traffic that's in the air correctly."

"One point of contention might be that when we were starting it up for the first time, there was a little bit of confusion about registration and getting the proper support plans applied. So, that could be more streamlined, but that's not uncommon in the industry."

"NetAlly doesn't have a spectrum analyzer. I have to use other tools to view the spectrum, and this is a problem."

"NetAlly EtherScope nXG's reporting and table qualification could be improved."

"There are some inconsistencies in how it uploads the test results to the cloud, but it might just need a minor improvement on the software side. When you don't have an internet connection on the EtherScope when you do the testing, it saves the results into memory. When it has an internet connection, it uploads those results, but it doesn't work all the time. Sometimes, you need to manually push it."

"AirMapper is very quick and easy once everything is on there, but I would like to see an improvement on how you get things on there. Currently, rather than being able to build up buildings or a site of things, every map is an individual piece. We should be able to set up an AirMapper survey easily and more effectively. At the moment, we just have separate floor plans. It'd be great to be able to build a building and tell where different floors are so that if it hears an AP on the floor below, it doesn't put two APs, one on that floor and one on the other floor, and it knows that there are two floors here. One is on top of the other, and it won't put the AP at both places. It would put it on one of the floors where it would be strongest. This would be one of the biggest improvements."

More NetAlly EtherScope nXG cons

"With Wireshark, you cannot download and utilize the packet in automation."

"It is difficult to scale this solution."

"You need some basic knowledge to work with Wireshark. Maybe it could be more user-friendly just for new users. Just for the new generation."

"Wireshark gets stuck when it is a larger file."

"I would like to see Wireshark improve the ease of application of the command. The command is very powerful, but not easy to apply."

"A room for improvement in Wireshark is its ease of use for beginners. It could be better. Another room for improvement in the tool is for it to provide more details about the traffic load. At the moment, Wireshark is adequate for me, so there isn't anything I'd like added to it in its next version."

"It is not an easy program. You will need to study to use it to its full capabilities (follow a course)."

"It needs the ability to follow multiple interfaces for specific traffic from different network zones/virtual networks. It would help to understand how any packet is going through the network."

More Wireshark cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a pricey device, but I see value in it from a business perspective."

"We paid for the additional maintenance on it (for an extra year) to get that extra coverage. This was the first time that we had this solution in-house, and it was pretty pricey. So, we wanted to make sure that anything went wrong, then we could get it repaired."

"It is worth it. The cost benefit of Link-Live is massive because it is included with the cost of the device and the licensing. A lot of people miss that part of it. It is not just the device that you get but it is the ability to look at all of that data later on. You're not having to do all of that on the device. You can just be there, use the device, and then look at the data from the comfort of your office or home afterward."

"The stuff is expensive. I really do wish the price would come down. I don't really call support. I haven't had a problem. But it's really expensive and every year I have to pay them a ton of money. I don't want to make up reasons to justify that cost, but I'm not using the support."

"The pricing is very expensive, but this tool is the best."

"As a business owner, it was a high price. However, it was well worth it. We have gotten our money out of it and continue to get our money out of it. For the price and usability, it is definitely worth it. The Wi-Fi survey capabilities alone justifies the price. Having all the other tools in it really adds to that."

"The pricing can be a little bit high for a handheld tool, mostly because, potentially, people do not understand what's in the package. However, NetAlly offers great bundled deals. We got a significantly good deal by ordering a package of these devices that had a whole test kit together. So, while it's very high, the value is certainly there, and the vendor does offer value-added features to offset that cost."

"I don't consider the pricing to be a problem. It's not a cheap device, but it's a very capable device for the money. It's a good value."

More NetAlly EtherScope nXG pricing and cost advice

"I've never personally had to pay for it, making it a highly valuable internet resource that's accessible for use. While they offer some paid versions, our firm has utilized the free version for the past three years."

"It is an open-source solution."

"It is free."

"I am using the free version of this solution."

"Wireshark is an open-source product, so it's free to use."

"It's a stand-alone tool. If there is a commercial license for it I am unaware of it."

"Wireshark is free of charge, and there's no license involved."

"We are using a freeware version of this solution, so there are no licence costs involved."

More Wireshark pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Healthcare Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Government

University

10%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetAlly EtherScope nXG?

In terms of pricing, EtherScope isn't cheap. It's a significant investment, and not a budget option.

What needs improvement with NetAlly EtherScope nXG?

The main area for improvement that stands out is the lack of a microburst dashboard, which some other vendors offer. However, NetAlly has carved out its niche by focusing on comprehensive network a...

What is your primary use case for NetAlly EtherScope nXG?

We mainly use NetAlly EtherScope nXG for troubleshooting. Linksprinter helps us solve problems and understand how things work. For example, SpamTitan is automatic, but beginners might not understan...

What do you like most about Wireshark?

The GUI is easy to use.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Wireshark?

Wireshark is priced at a medium range, not too high, not too low. The pricing could be more flexible, and they might make it more expensive. That said, compared to other products, it is competitive.

What needs improvement with Wireshark?

The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due to numerous factors.

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Product Reports

Download NetAlly EtherScope nXG product report

NetAlly EtherScope nXG

August 2025

Download Wireshark product report

July 2025

Also Known As

EtherScope nXG, EtherScope, netAlly EtherScope, OptiView XG

No data available

Overview

Multi-technology, all-in-one handheld network tester that enables engineers and technicians to get more done faster, from deployment to maintenance and documentation of their ever-changing Wi-Fi and Ethernet access networks.

The Etherscope nXG is the the industry’s first handheld analyzer for Wi-Fi 6/6E surveying (with AirMapper™ Site Survey), troubleshooting, and analysis.

NetAlly

Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol analyzer.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Comversion, ADP, Talbots