Looking for high quality network monitoring software

[ITguy]

I read what you guys said about the freeware networking monitoring software programs. I am not adverse to purchasing one though as it is for my business. I need a high quality one to monitor a network of 12 computers not going through a domain controller. Any suggestions would be great.

[Greenstead]

Thats quite a difficult question since there are so many and so varied. It depends what you want to achieve.
In a large installation the primary monitoring is to get alarms if servers go down or discs are filling up - 'whats on gold' is a popular tool. But really it does little but ping specific hosts and alarm if there is no reply. Other tools use SMTP to log activity and errors in a syslog trap with SQL. The problem with this approach is that the volume of logs can be unmanageable and the important errors are missed until too late so its more of a 'after the event diagnostic tool'. We have a satellite link service to a remote site which has dedicated monitoring 24/7, but its alwyas us that tell them when the link goes down. Generally monitoring is poor unless it is limited and very visible.

For a small installation I would use free tools and monitor just key events and ensure they turn red on a dedicated screen and/or generate a broadcast alarm to your PC. I have looked around for simple monitoring tools and still like the SMC monitor even tho it is old and simple. It allows you to produce a grahical layout of the network with connected objects (IP hosts) that are green when up and red when down + broadcast of event changes. It also logs to a file. I also include objects for the internet gateway and ISP DNS servers and ISP e-mail servers.

The Look@LAN and Look@Host are quite interesting. It scans your subnet and reports new devices. You can also scan any device for its open ports.

The other monitoring administrators find irresistable is traffic monitoring. i.e. who is doing what on the internet and for how long. I find this pointless (not to mention invasive). IMO you either trust people to be sensible and get their job done, or you don't give them internet access. The criteria should be their job performance, not their internet activities.

I guess this doesn't fully answer your question but its just an opinion. You might do better at an enterprise forum to hear of tools others use.

[ITguy]

Thank you for ur response. Honestly, i feel that monitoring where people are going on the internet is not as intrusive as you say. At least in my case. There have been many viruses on this network and it is from the people using the network. By being able to monitor where they go and for how long, I can better be aware of where my problems are comming from and fix them that way. Just because a person is trustable, that doesn't mean they won't stray from the path every once in a while. Personally I feel keeping tabs on people is the only way to keep them in line. I can't force a person to work. I also can't be around all the time or even most of the time for that matter. This is just one of those things that I use to make sure everyone is doing their job. We have already had to relieve 2 people of their duties because of their lack of ability to discipline themselves in the manner you speak of. But, once again, thanks for the reply.

Btw, every person at my work has to use the internet to do their job. So, I have to trust them to use the internet.

[ITguy]

Well...ive been testing software all day and have been unimpressed to say the least. Do you know of any software that will only do these things without all the extra bs.

monitor ports (whats accessing them, whats going out/in..etc)

ping cpus to test if they are and running on some sort of schedule

monitor network bandwith usage (incomming, and outgoing)
and monitor which computers are using the most bandwith and which are using the least....etc.

[Greenstead]

I can only recommend what I have tried. Setup is simple, operation is simple.

For ping monitoring - SMC's Elite View
http://eu.smc.com/english/index.html
Free

Port monitoring - Look@Host & Look@Lan
http://www.lookatlan.com/index.php
Free

For bandwidth monitoring - you need a monitor on the shared internet connection (presumably your have broadband and a router). I recently put in Expand which is a dedicated bandwidth management box. It compresses traffic, monitors all traffic by port/protocol, produces graphical reports, allows prioritisation of traffic, and blocking of traffic.
http://www.expand.com/
~£2,500
For example your might give top priority to video conference, 2nd to e-mail and block all Kaza traffic. You could get a report of FTP traffic and drill down to see which PCs it went to.

[hurnBurfurt]

We are using a beta release of Labtech NMS. It is very powerfull and easy to use. It installs and runs on windows machines. No domain controllers or username and passwords to remember. Best of all it works behind firewalls with no aditional configuration of the routers. I emailed them for the beta but it looks likes it will be available to the general public very soon.

Check it out here www.***********.com (http://www.***********.com/)

[cszeto]

You might also try http://www.enterpriseitplanet.com since these forums are mostly geared at SOHO networks. They also have a forum too and it is geared at business networks.

[cszeto]

hurnBurfurt,

Point 11 on the AUP at http://www.jupitermedia.com/corporate/privacy/aup.html.