If you’ve already made the move from Windows 2000 Server to Windows XP Pro, you may have noticed a number of new applications to use on your desktop. Of the applications, that was noticeably missing (at least my skewed point of view) is Network Monitor (NetMon). — Since I still have Windows 2000 Server available to me, I got creative and ended up with a working version of Network Monitor running on Windows XP Pro.

If you’ve already made the move from Windows 2000 Server to Windows XP Pro, you may have noticed a number of new applications to use on your desktop. New apps? Great thing! Of course you can’t add stuff without taking away old stuff – at least from Microsoft‘s point of view. Of all of the missing applications, the most noticeable hole (at least my skewed point of view) is Network Monitor (NetMon). This has been a useful utility for me, ever since I saw it’s freeware Unix grandfather of PacketMan. What the point of NetMon is, I’m not altogether certain, but as I spend most of my coding skills in the arena of Internet applications, I’ve found this to be a great tool. What NetMon is to me is a “sniffer” between my computer and the computers I’m trading information with. And in Windows XP Pro and Home it’s completely gone – what’s a Geek to do?

Thankfully, I found another utility of the same type up on TechNet called Network Monitor Capture Utility (NetCap) that comes on the Windows XP CD. This lil application does the same thing as the old Network Monitor, but it doesn’t have a UI for it; it saves it’s data to a file. Of course to successfully READ that file, you need Network Monitor. Since I still have Windows 2000 Server available to me, I got creative and ended up with a working version of Network Monitor running on Windows XP Pro; if you still have a version of Windows 2000 Server, you can do this as well. This is what I’ve done:

• Install the Support Tools from the Windows XP CD-ROM (KB Article Q306794)

• Run NetCap at least one time, so it can install the Listener driver (KB Article Q310875)

• Copy the NetMon directory from your Win2000 Server: \WinNT\System32\NetMon

• Put this directory it on your WinXP Pro machine, off your \Windows\System32 directory

• Copy the NMSUPP.DLL file from your Win2000 Server, found in the System32 directory

• Put this DLL into the \NetMon directory – it does not have to be in the System32 directory (and it’s a good idea to isolate it)

• Create a shortcut for NetMon.exe and run it – it should work

• At this point, I removed the Support Tools that I installed in the first step; the NetCap driver sticks around because it’s protected

One thing about this: please don’t ask me to send you the NetMon directory or the DLL – I will not redistribute software that I didn’t write and frankly, it would make you a whiny, leeching, pain in the ass, if you’re begging for software: go get your own! I just thought I would share this little tip to other fellow Geeks for the “common good” (particularly against the marketing buffoon that made the application disappear in the first place). Also, please insert any obviously required disclaimers about you doing this at your own risk and randyrants.com isn’t responsible for any mishaps of any kind, etc., etc., etc. – it’s just common sense to me, but some people seem to think it’s required… good luck with it!