Glossary

Npcap

Npcap is a Windows packet capture and transmission driver used by tools such as Wireshark and Nmap. It provides a libpcap-compatible API on Windows so packet analysis software can capture raw network traffic from network adapters.

Technical Details

Category
Packet capture driver and library
Platform
Windows
API compatibility
libpcap / pcap API
Common tools
Wireshark, Nmap, tcpdump-compatible workflows
Typical use
Live packet capture before protocol analysis
Not related to
Euro NCAP vehicle safety ratings

Related Concepts

Packet Capture

Packet capture records network traffic from an interface so analysts can inspect Ethernet frames, IP packets, TCP segments, UDP datagrams, DNS messages, and other protocols.

Wireshark on Windows

Wireshark uses Npcap on Windows to capture live traffic. After capture, packet bytes can be inspected in Wireshark or copied as hex for field-level analysis in ByteLens.

Npcap vs WinPcap

Npcap is the modern successor commonly used in place of the older WinPcap driver, with better support for current Windows versions and active maintenance.

Npcap vs Euro NCAP

Npcap is network capture software. Euro NCAP is a vehicle safety assessment program, so it is unrelated to packet capture or protocol analysis.

Used In Protocols

WiresharkNmapPacket Capture

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See Npcap in action with real packet examples

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Related Resources

Ethernet Frame Parser - Decode Ethernet II Frames Online | ByteLensHex to Packet Parser - Free Online Network Protocol AnalyzerMAC Vendor Lookup - Find Manufacturer from MAC Address | ByteLensEthernet II Frame Format Explained - ByteLensEthernet II Basic Frame Example - ByteLensTCP Flags Explained - SYN, ACK, FIN, RST, PSH, URG