Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

DX Spectrum vs OneTouch AT Network Assistant vs Wireshark comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of DX Spectrum is 4.8%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OneTouch AT Network Assistant is 4.9%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wireshark is 12.3%, down from 13.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Troubleshooting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Wireshark12.3%
DX Spectrum4.8%
OneTouch AT Network Assistant4.9%
Other78.0%
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

ON
Solution Architect at SA Consulting
Provides proactive network monitoring and effective fault detection for large-scale environments
I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. One of the common customer complaints is about the alarm notifications. Currently, they appear as pop-up messages, but I would prefer having alarm messages shown as a scrolling bar at the taskbar for easier visibility.
JamesStout - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Director at JVS Consulting
It's a simple entry-level tool that's easy to set up, but it has some limitations on speed and IP targets
OneTouch is an entry-level testing tool that's coming to the end of its life, I believe, so it has limitations. For example, it can only test up to 1 gig of network speed. It would be helpful if they increased that to 10 gigs. It is also limited in the number of IP targets you can test. If you want to test how many hops or different sites, you should be able to hit a test button and say, "Right then, test these 20 IP addresses to see if I can reach them." It only does up to 10. Most of NetAlly's other devices, like the G2, can do unlimited addresses.
DonniUgalde - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior I.T. Systems Engineer at Pro Techs MSP
Provides visibility into the network, and the GUI is easy to use
I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated. It would have been easy to hit a drop-down and select a filter. If I only wanted to look at DCP, UDP, or IP, it would be easy to filter it out. Advanced network knowledge is required to get a lot out of the tool. However, it's very easy to install and deploy. It would be nice if there were some handheld Android devices with a Wireshark-specialized application that would allow us to mirror a Cisco port. Then, we can just plug into the port and click the green start button, and it will start ingesting the packet capture. Then, we won’t be using a laptop. The only downside is that we must have a laptop and connect a network cable. Some new laptops don't have network ports, so we have to get another adapter. Having an all-in-one device, like NetAlly or Fluke, and some of their network devices would be cool.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Spectrum is very useful for us, because the product lets us monitor and control all the various components of our infrastructure that support our business from an IT perspective."
"Some of the most valuable features are it's highly scalable, the carrier is great, and if something has SNMP, it can monitor it. It's a great network fault management solution."
"The presentation layer is pretty simple and straightforward."
"The quick notification of issues, quick alerting because timeliness is always valuable, it's very important for us."
"Spectrum does such a great job of discovering our network that we have a high confidence in what our inventory is."
"I have found the cross analysis feature to be the most valuable."
"​It covers a lot of different types of hardware. It can do a lot and saves us time.​"
"The monitoring just comes to us: "Oh, there's something wrong with that machine." It tells us. There are some 50,000 machines or so, all doing different things. And if they go down we hear about it."
"OneTouch is easy to set up. You just plug it in, enter your details, and off you go. It only takes a few minutes as long as you've got Link-Live access or network access."
"You can use Wireshark to see the traffic packet format, the IP layers, the fields, and the enabled flags."
"It has good basic features."
"The best part about Wireshark, in my opinion, is its ability to analyze packet capture files."
"Wireshark's best feature is that it's adaptive, which means it's the go-to tool for network-related developers."
"The drill-down available for packet analysis is great. It gives a network security engineer insight into what is going on at the packet level and enables better troubleshooting."
"The ability to decrypt traffic and the abundance of filters available are both valuable features."
"The initial setup is simple."
"I find Wireshark a very useful tool. Its best feature is that it allows me to deeply understand what's going on at the packet level, as well as any adverse signatures that I can analyze. When I need to create an IPS rule, I need to check the traffic deeply to get more insights about the actual traffic, what's the name of certain flags, etc., and I'm able to do all that through Wireshark. The tool is also user-friendly."
 

Cons

"Our consultant was four months on-site doing Spectrum setup and working through issues."
"If nobody else has said the documentation needs improvement, let's go there. I understand, you can either write about it or you can do it. And most of us would rather they do it, but now that they've done it, those of us that didn't do it, we need to go and find: "Where did they write about this to tell us how to do it?" That's always lacking."
"​I would like to see them eliminate the Java console. The user interface for this is a Java applet that runs on your desktop, and it is very problematic for us."
"The interface is not nice and needs to be improved."
"The GIS map feature needs to be enhanced and synced with topology views of containers and global collections."
"Support from Broadcom could be better. Sometimes we wait a very long time for a solution to level three problems."
"The CA Technologies sales team destroyed their relationship with our business units."
"DX Spectrum should have an automatic ticketing mechanism with ServiceNow."
"It is also limited in the number of IP targets you can test. If you want to test how many hops or different sites, you should be able to hit a test button and say, "Right then, test these 20 IP addresses to see if I can reach them." It only does up to 10. Most of NetAlly's other devices, like the G2, can do unlimited addresses."
"Sometimes I need to use tcpdump when I need to check the packets on CLI."
"I would like better control of bandwidth from the service provider."
"The Wireshark search function shows green for a correct search and red for an incorrect search. If there were a way to provide a description about what a search - and the similar ones which are available - can do, while a person is typing it, it would make the product easier to use and simultaneously decrease the learning curve."
"The solution’s user interface could be improved."
"You need good network connectivity to download during the setup, otherwise, it might take a while."
"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."
"In the future, it would be nice to see color coding. It is just black and white."
"I wish the filters were a little bit more prepopulated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is good enough to expect an ideal solution. It's expensive."
"Since the acquisition by Broadcom, we have not had such a good experience with licensing and pricing. Since they were bought by Broadcom, every sales contract is getting complicated. It's very complicated, and it's much more expensive than before. It's not a good pricing strategy from Broadcom."
"The price is very high."
"Spectrum is expensive."
"In general, the license cost will be about 30% of the total TCO for this tool (hardware/support team, OS costs, and OS management)."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"Currently, a perpetual license but some services are moving to a subscription"
"The solution's pricing could be better."
Information not available
"It is an open-source solution."
"We're using the free version of Wireshark."
"Wireshark is free software, so you can download it and use it for free with no licensing fees."
"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"
"Wireshark is open source and gives great value and functionality to the network investigation."
"We are using a freeware version of this solution, so there are no licence costs involved."
"I am using the free version of this solution."
"Wireshark is free software, so you don't have to pay any licensing fee. Individual people can use it and then donate to Wireshark."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Network Troubleshooting solutions are best for your needs.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
No data available
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise89
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DX Spectrum?
The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DX Spectrum?
The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds. The high price has ...
What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?
I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. O...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 ...
What needs improvement with Wireshark?
The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due...
 

Also Known As

CA Spectrum
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi
Disney, Carnival Cruise Line, Solarity Credit Union, Del Monte Foods, Lung Bioengineering,  Peterbilt Motors Company,Port Angeles School District, Philips Healthcare, Denver University
Comversion, ADP, Talbots
Find out what your peers are saying about Auvik, NetAlly, Wireshark and others in Network Troubleshooting. Updated: January 2026.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.