# tcpdump

6 Hacker News commenters recommended tcpdump and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend tcpdump for capturing and inspecting network traffic and debugging network problems on any device. No recurring caveats were raised.

## Why people recommend it

- Inspects network traffic on any device (2 comments): "This makes it really easy to monitor the traffic of any device" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47096849)) "great for debugging and traffic inspection" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46420709))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Babyshark](https://hackerapproved.com/p/babyshark.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "tcpdump", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tcpdump/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).