Tool to monitor HTTP, TCP, etc. Web Service traffi

Question

What's the best tool that you use to monitor Web Service, SOAP, WCF, etc. traffic that's coming and going on the wire? I have seen some tools that made with Java but they seem to be a little crappy. What I want is a tool that sits in the middle as a proxy and does port redirection (which should have configurable listen/redirect ports). Are there any tools work on Windows to do this?

Answer 1

I tried Fiddler with its reverse proxy ability which is mentioned by @marxidad and it seems to be working fine, since Fiddler is a familiar UI for me and has the ability to show request/responses in various formats (i.e. Raw, XML, Hex), I accept it as an answer to this question. One thing though. I use WCF and I got the following exception with reverse proxy thing:

The message with To 'http://localhost:8000/path/to/service' cannot be processed at the receiver, due to an AddressFilter mismatch at the EndpointDispatcher. Check that the sender and receiver's EndpointAddresses agree

I have figured out (thanks Google, erm.. I mean Live Search :p) that this is because my endpoint addresses on server and client differs by port number. If you get the same exception consult to the following MSDN forum message:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2302537&SiteID=1

which recommends to use clientVia Endpoint Behavior explained in following MSDN article:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163412.aspx

Answer 2

I've been using Charles for the last couple of years. Very pleased with it.

Answer 3

Wireshark (or Tshark) is probably the defacto standard traffic inspection tool. It is unobtrusive and works without fiddling with port redirecting and proxying. It is very generic, though, as does not (AFAIK) provide any tooling specifically to monitor web service traffic - it's all tcp/ip and http.

You have probably already looked at tcpmon but I don't know of any other tool that does the sit-in-between thing.

Answer 4

I find WebScarab very powerful

Answer 5

For Windows HTTP, you can't beat Fiddler. You can use it as a reverse proxy for port-forwarding on a web server. It doesn't necessarily need IE, either. It can use other clients.