Debug web sites and online applications by analyzing and capturing web traffic over HTTP and HTTPS connections.
Fiddler is a free web proxy which supports HTTP and HTTPS traffic while providing a platform for debugging with an array of advanced features and data display.
With the application, you can record the traffic between your Windows PC and the wider Internet while browsing.
As a development tool, the Fiddler proxy may be used to test different types of web application by logging requests and recording the responses received from remote web servers.
Developed by Microsoft engineers
The main team behind this program formerly worked in Microsoft's browser division. The idea was to create a tool to test and diagnose issues by creating a debugging HTTP/HTTPS proxy server.
With Fiddler, web browsing activity is collected through WININET and requests and responses can be inspected in real-time. Incoming and outgoing traffic is all captured.
User interface and ease-of-usee
As an advanced application geared towards more advanced users like system administrators, web developers and network admins, the overall layout and terminology of Fiddler is not for your average user and thus some knowledge of web servers and web development in general is required.
In terms of displaying statistics, the program provides an abundance of information regarding Headers, Cookies, JSON responses, XML, HTML and others.
The statistics tab of displays a summary of all of the objects selected while a pie chart displays the types of data connections to a web site.
With Fiddler, you can also modify HTTP traffic and inspect elements of the connection. The possibility also exists to decode HTTPS requests.
Closing off
In conclusion, Fiddler is an excellent web proxy which can be an excellent choice for debugging web applications and for other uses like analyzing network traffic and potentially decrypting HTTPS traffic in a straightforward, albeit comprehensive way.
Features of Fiddler
- Access control: Customize access rules for local and remote traffic.
- Authentication inspection: Manage and inspect authentication tokens.
- Compression inspection: Inspect response size and real-time compression.
- Flexible scripting: Automate tasks with FiddlerScript and .NET.
- HTTPS decryption: Visually inspect and modify HTTPS traffic.
- Mobile device support: Debug web traffic from iOS, Android and Windows devices.
- Network performance: Monitor website performance with real-time charting.
- Performance optimization: Diagnose and optimize website performance.
- Protocol inspection: Analyze requests and responses for HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS.
- Security testing: Test website security with breakpoint and replay functions.
- Traffic capture: Record and inspect all incoming and outgoing traffic.
- WebSocket support: Debug and inspect WebSocket traffic.
- Web debugging: Troubleshoot AJAX, JSON and REST APIs.
- Web session manipulation: Simulate and modify web requests.
Compatibility and License
Fiddler is provided under a freeware license on Windows from network auditing software with no restrictions on usage. Download and installation of this PC software is free and 5.0.20242.10753 is the latest version last time we checked.
What version of Windows can Fiddler run on?
Fiddler can be used on a computer running Windows 11 or Windows 10. Previous versions of the OS shouldn't be a problem with Windows 8 and Windows 7 having been tested. It comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit downloads.
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