# dannagle/PacketSender

Network utility for sending / receiving TCP, UDP, SSL, HTTP

Repository: https://github.com/dannagle/PacketSender
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/packetsender
Homepage: https://packetsender.com
Language: C++
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: packet-sender, ipv4, tcp, tcp-server, udp-server, tcp-client, ssl, ipv6, udp, ssl-client, ssl-server, packetsender, dark-mode, qt5, cross-platform, networking, http-client, ui-generator, traffic-generator
Last push: 2026-08-26T01:41:46+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 88/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 66, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4220, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 17, "gap_med": 193.0, "n_releases_24m": 5}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2668, forks 396 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:09.247705+00:00)

## What it is
Packet Sender is a free, open-source cross-platform utility for sending and receiving TCP, UDP, SSL, and DTLS packets, plus HTTP/HTTPS requests, with a GUI, CLI, traffic generator, and panel generation. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux (built with Qt) and includes features like Wake-on-LAN, macros, smart responses, and Packet Sender Cloud for sharing packet definitions.

## Use cases
- send test TCP or UDP packets to a device
- test network APIs with raw UDP/TCP/SSL clients
- test HTTP GET/POST requests with auth headers
- stress-test devices with intense traffic generation
- test firewall rules by having two senders talk to each other
- malware analysis with built-in packet servers
- send Wake-on-LAN magic packets
- build single-button control panels for AV systems

## When to choose
- you need a free GUI tool to send/receive raw network packets across Windows, Mac, and Linux
- you want both a GUI and a CLI for interactive and scripted packet testing
- you need SSL/DTLS packet support or HTTP request testing in one tool
- you want to share packet definitions with teammates or customers via portable mode or cloud

## When to avoid
- you need deep packet inspection or full traffic capture like Wireshark
- you require high-performance load testing at scale beyond stress-testing single devices
- you need a headless server-side network testing framework rather than a desktop utility

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: http-client, networking, developer-tools, gui, cli, testing
- domain: networking, developer-tools, security
- platform: windows, cross-platform, cli
- tags: packet-generator, tcp, udp, ssl, dtls, wake-on-lan, traffic-generator, panel-generator, qt, network-debugging, automation, macos, linux, ios

## Member repositories
- dannagle/PacketSender (main) score 88

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:09.247705+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:18:13.819998+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/dannagle/PacketSender (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:09.247705+00:00, sha 07bd168af3cb)
  - homepage: https://packetsender.com (fetched 2026-08-29T10:00:50.789925+00:00, sha b4b3e13a0a4b)
  - site_page: https://packetsender.com/documentation (fetched 2026-08-29T10:00:50.793164+00:00, sha 14cab9cdcec7)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.