Network General Corporation was an American technology company active between 1986 and 2007 and based in Silicon Valley.

[1] Saal, the company's primary founder, president, and CEO,[2] had previously worked at IBM as a software engineer before founding Nestar Systems, his first startup dedicated to computer networking, in October 1978 with three others, including Shustek, Jim Hinds and Nick Fortis.

[7] Between the company's inception and the end of 1988, the Sniffer became Network General's flagship product, and the company sold $8.9 million worth of Sniffers and associated services, earning them $1.8 million in net profit.

[8]: 18  Financing was initially provided only by the founders until an investment of several million by TA Associates in late 1987.

[15] In August 1991, the company acquired Progressive Computing, a manufacturer and supplier of equipment for wide area networks.

Progressive Computing was kept around as an independent subsidiary of Network General; they released a handheld WAN protocol analyzer, the LM1 PocketScope, in early 1992.

[19] Weeks later, Network Associates bought Pretty Good Privacy, Inc. (PGP), the encryption company founded in 1991 by Phil Zimmerman, for $35M in cash.