"port monitors log what ports have been accessed on your machine by what remote IP and what data has been sent (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc), and so forth.
CommView for example monitors when a port has been opened, who opened it, how much data is being sent over it on one page, and also tracks all the data packets on another page. It's useful for figuring out port mappings on firewalls or NAT software. Unfortunately it's a 30 day trial and pretty expensive to buy after the trial is over. "
Is it OS, firewall or router based software? What I mean is, I understand the explanation (thanks); but don't understand how it works if my fire wall's misconfigured, because Windows based software will never know what AH tried to acess, Zone alarm will stop the request before it gets there. Similarly, if my router's configured to block certain ports, how will Zone Alarm ever even know they were asked for?
I would have thought one needs to first open the router for that port range, then the fire wall, then the port monitor can look at what's happening.
Where have I missed the ball?