Monitor for packets on a communications network

An apparatus for monitoring a plurality of packets on a local area network, wherein the local area network couples a host computer to a plurality of other hose computers with each packet of said plurality of packets comprising a plurality of bit fields including a header field, said header field identifying the source of said packet and the destination of said packet, said apparatus for monitoring packets comprising:

• a memory containing monitoring data, said monitoring data including a plurality of data category fields identifying a plurality of types of data to be monitored;
• means, coupled to said local area network and said memory, for receiving at least one of said plurality of packets from said local area network;
• means for providing forwarding data responsive to said plurality of fields of said packet, said forwarding data including a category field identifying a data type of said received packet and a destination field identifying the destination of said packet;
• and
• means, responsive to said data category fields in said memory and said category field of said forwarding data, for monitoring packets on said local area network and for indicating whether said packets on said local area network have fields corresponding to said plurality of data category fields stored in said memory.