Fiddler 5.0.20253.3311 Classic / 6.4.0 Everywhere

Overview

Fiddler Web Debugger is a sophisticated security software solution to debug traffic coming to and from a web site.

The software has a debugging proxy that web requests are run through in order to catch the web requests and the responses so that the software can determine what is happening.

Their GeoEdge global proxy can be accessed from over 125 locations around the Earth. The software itself lets the user choose which server to access in order to directly test country and regional responses to determine if there are bottlenecks or specific regional issues arising. This FiddlerCore can be integrated into web applications using the .NET application to simplify the process.

FiddlerCap is a way to allow recording of web activity without giving a client access to the full live feed. This can ensure security is maintained while offering assistance with web debugging efforts for a site or web server network.

The FiddlerScript Editor provides a way to change the rules used with Fiddler. The software supports language classes and will highlight the syntax of different coding languages.

The software can work with different frameworks and coding languages like Ruby on Rails, .NET, Java and others to check that the server is sending out the correctly formed files like the right headers, caching instructions and cookies.

Performance testing is also good. The software can check how heavy the page is with code, consider how well caching is performing, and what compression, if any, is being used to reduce the bandwidth requirements.

Installation

The software required 3.9 MB of available space to complete the setup package. The installation completed without any difficulties.

There was no adware, toolbars, malware or spyware included with the setup program.

Fiddler Web Debugger requires Windows OS.

Interface

The interface for the Web Debugger initially looks quite complex but it actually just packs a lot into the space it is working with.

On the main screen, there is a menu system with a few options to access.

Below, the screen is split roughly into three main areas. These are Web sessions on the left side and a section on the right that can change relative to the options selected. At the top of the right section is a tabbed navigation which provides access to the auto responder, building scripts, filtering and more. When selecting these, they change the information and options shown on the screen.

The interface will be familiar with anyone who regularly uses a multi-tabbed text editor.

Pros

• Global proxy-based web debugger
• Network of global proxies to connect to
• Monitor net traffic to examine headers, cookies, code and more as it passes between users and the web server
• Check the weight to web pages for traffic bottlenecks
• View network traffic in real-only mode
• Text editor to edit rules for capturing traffic
• Edit web sessions in real-time

Cons

• Only for advantage users who have some knowledge of how web servers and HTTP / HTTPS protocols actually send / receive data

Alternatives

Although it's more like complementary to Fiddler, rather than a direct alternative, Firebug is a Firefox add-on that offers a way to debug different types of code without needing an external text editor to do so.

Conclusion

Fiddler Web Debugger is an excellent global proxy debugging tool that can be used to discover problems with a web site. It has many useful features that particularly can help commercial web sites that need to squeeze as much out of their web servers as possible.