1. Network Monitoring and Maintenance: Network analyzers continuously monitor network performance to detect any unusual activity, such as sudden traffic spikes, which may indicate a problem. This helps maintain the network’s stability and reliability.
2. Network Troubleshooting: When network problems occur, such as slow data transfers or packet loss, network analyzers can help identify the cause of the problem. They can analyze data packets, monitor network traffic, and interpret network protocols to find where and why a network is failing.
3. Network Security: Network analyzers can detect potential security threats by monitoring data packets for suspicious activity. For instance, a large number of data requests from a single source might indicate a denial of service (DoS) attack.
4. Network Planning and Optimization: By providing insights into network traffic patterns and usage, network analyzers can help in planning network expansion or in optimizing existing resources. This can also help identify the need for upgrades or the addition of new hardware.
5. Compliance and Audit: In industries where data compliance is critical, network analyzers can provide a log of network activity, thereby ensuring regulatory compliance. They can also serve as a tool for conducting IT audits.
6. Bandwidth Monitoring: Network analyzers can monitor the bandwidth usage over a network. This is especially important in ensuring that sufficient bandwidth is available for critical services and in identifying any services or users that may be using excessive bandwidth.
7. Quality of Service (QoS) Assessment: For networks that prioritize certain types of traffic (like voice over IP or video streaming), network analyzers can ensure that these services receive the network resources they need to perform optimally.

How does Network analyzers works
Network analyzers work by monitoring, capturing, and analyzing network traffic in real-time, continuously monitoring network traffic and analyzing it on the fly, or they can operate in a more passive mode, storing captured data for analysis at a later time. The choice between real-time or passive operation depends on the specific needs and capabilities of the network.
Here’s a general overview of how they operate:

• Capture: Network analyzers first capture data that is being transmitted over a network. This data is divided into “packets”, which are the basic units of data transmission over a network. Network analyzers can be configured to capture all packets or only specific types of packets based on certain criteria, such as source, destination, protocol type, etc.
• Decode and Analyze: Once the packets have been captured, they are decoded and analyzed. Decoding involves interpreting the packet data according to various network protocols (like TCP/IP, HTTP, etc.). The analysis can involve a wide range of tasks, such as checking the packet for errors, analyzing packet content for specific information, or identifying trends in network traffic.
• Report: The results of the analysis are then reported in a format that network administrators can use. This can involve generating charts or graphs of network traffic, creating logs of network activity, or raising alerts for unusual or suspicious activity. The type and format of these reports can usually be customized to suit the needs of the network administrator.
• Action: Based on the results of the analysis, network administrators can take appropriate action. This could involve addressing network problems, optimizing network performance, enhancing network security, or planning network upgrades.

Furthermore, modern network analyzers are often integrated with other network management tools, allowing them to not just analyze network traffic, but also to control network devices, implement changes to network configuration, or even automatically respond to certain types of network events.