Wireshark vs Firebug vs Fiddler - pros and cons

Question

Recently  I came across an issue where a CGI application is not responding  Symptom is Firefox displaying      Transferring data from localhost      But the thing is I cannot see any traffic from Firebug s Net panel  and the browser just stays on the same stage forever   I am thinking about the ways to debug this application but I cannot see the source code or any of its compiled Java C   components  therefore I reckon a HTTP network level of diagnostics is a good start   I have little experience in Fiddler and Wireshark  just wondering will they get better feedback statistics in the HTTP network level  I ve heard Wireshark is advanced but could possibly introduce a large volume of traffic so system admins don t like it very much  At this time I think Firebug doesn t really show me enough information   I need to collect information so that I can then forward to client as proof

User · Answer

I use both Charles Proxy and Fiddler for my HTTP/HTTPS level debugging.

Pros of Charles Proxy:

Handles HTTPS better (you get a Charles Certificate which you'd put in 'Trusted Authorities' list)
Has more features like Load/Save Session (esp. useful when debugging multiple pages), Mirror a website (useful in caching assets and hence faster debugging), etc.
As mentioned by jburgess, handles AMF.
Displays JSON, XML and other kind of responses in a tree structure, making it easier to read. Displays images in image responses instead of binary data.

Cons of Charles Proxy:

Cost :-)

User · Answer

If you re developing an application that transfers data using AMF  fairly common in a particular set of GIS web APIs I use regularly   Fiddler does not currently provide an AMF decoder that will allow you to easily view the binary data in an easily-readable format  Charles provides this functionality

User · Answer

The benefit of WireShark is that it could possibly show you errors in levels below the HTTP protocol   Fiddler will show you errors in the HTTP protocol     If you think the problem is somewhere in the HTTP request issued by the browser  or you are just looking for more information in regards to what the server is responding with  or how long it is taking to respond  Fiddler should do     If you suspect something may be wrong in the TCP IP protocol used by your browser and the server  or in other layers below that   go with WireShark

User · Answer

To complement the list  also be aware of http   mitmproxy org

User · Answer

Fiddler is the winner every time when comparing to Charles    The  customize rules  feature of fiddler is unparalleled in any http debugger  The ability to write code to manipulate http requests and responses on-the-fly is invaluable to me and the work I do in web development    There are so many features to fiddler that charles just does not have  and likely won t ever have  Fiddler is light-years ahead

User · Answer

Wireshark  Firebug  Fiddler all do similar things - capture network traffic    Wireshark captures any kind of network packet  It can capture packet details below TCP IP  HTTP is at the top   It does have filters to reduce the noise it captures  Firebug tracks each request the browser page makes and captures the associated headers and the time taken for each stage of the request  DNS  receiving  sending          Fiddler works as an HTTP HTTPS proxy  It captures every HTTP request the computer makes and records everything associated with it  It does allow things like converting post variables to a table form and editing replaying requests   It doesn t  by default  capture localhost traffic in IE  see the FAQ for the workaround

User · Answer

None of the above  if you are on a Mac  Use Charles Proxy  It s the best network request information collecter that I have ever come across  You can view and edit all outgoing requests  and see the responses from those requests in several forms  depending on the type of the response  It costs 50 dollars for a license  but you can download the trial version and see what you think   If your on Windows  then I would just stay with Fiddler

[debugging] Wireshark vs Firebug vs Fiddler - pros and cons?

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