nChronos vs SentryWire
nChronos
colasoft.comSentryWire
sentrywire.comSide by side
| Figure | nChronos | SentryWire |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Network Packet Capture Software | 7.4 (#12) | 6.9 (#20) |
| Company | Colasoft says it has developed network performance monitoring and diagnostics software and hardware solutions since 2001. | SentryWire operates as a division of Alliance Technology Group. |
| Deployment | The product uses a client/server architecture, with server-side capture, analysis and storage and a console for viewing and analyzing server data. | Offerings include virtual machines, hardware appliances, portable systems, and cluster nodes; virtual machines capture from 1 Mbps to 500 Mbps. |
| Integrations | nChronos can replay packet files in formats including libpcap used by Wireshark, Ethereal and Tcpdump, plus several vendor packet formats. | SentryWire names Splunk, Elastic, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, IBM, and Dell among its integrations and says it works with 25+ others. |
| Intended users | The maker says nChronos is designed to monitor network traffic in medium and large corporates. | The platform is designed for enterprise, federal, and ICS/OT networks, including critical infrastructure environments. |
| Support | The maker provides an online support form and says a Colasoft representative responds to quote requests within one business day. | The site lists support contact details at [email protected] and (410) 712-0270. |
Plans
In their own words
nChronos
nChronos is Colasoft’s application-focused network performance analysis system for medium and large corporate networks. Its client/server design places continuous packet capture, analysis, storage and data mining on a server, while a console displays and analyzes the collected data. The server can receive traffic through a network mirror port or link tap and retain packets for later investigation of network or application problems. Real-time statistics and user-defined alerts show network events as they occur. System or custom reports can be scheduled for hourly, daily, weekly or monthly email delivery. Users can define application and transaction monitoring, with profiles for HTTP, FTP, email and DNS. Packet files can be replayed from Colasoft, libpcap and several vendor formats, including files associated with Wireshark, Ethereal and Tcpdump. Linux server systems and Windows consoles are listed, with browser-based server configuration. Standard specifications allow four logical links, eight capture interfaces and two concurrent server connections.
SentryWire
SentryWire is a packet-capture appliance and network security monitoring platform for retaining and examining network traffic. It captures from 1 Mbps to above 1 Tbps and supports retention measured in weeks, months, or years. Distributed storage and compute enable searches across historical packet data, while forensic replay helps investigate traffic. Integrated Suricata IDS provides real-time detection and retrospective review. Analysis includes IDS search-back, BPF-syntax filtering, file-artifact extraction, JA3 hashing, GeoIP and ASN enrichment, Kibana dashboards, and display filters. Integrations named by the maker include Splunk, Elastic, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, IBM, and Dell, with 25+ others supported. Deployment options include virtual machines, hardware appliances, portable systems, and cluster nodes; virtual machines capture up to 500 Mbps. SentryWire supports live capture, offline trace analysis, and PCAP files, and can retrieve packets from Splunk SOAR or Cortex XSOAR playbooks. Pricing is provided through sales contact.