Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Network Monitoring Systems

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Posts
    23

    Question Network Monitoring Systems

    Forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, I'm new here and still learning my way around.

    Could someone recommend a reliable/accurate NMS? I've looked into Sniffer Pro, and registered with them, requesting info but no one has contacted me.

    I'm looking for something that will give me detailed reporting, capable of crossing multiple subnets and domains, as well as a wide variety of protocols, including some that may be considered slightly archaic. Bandwidth utilization is a must, as well as collision/error reports.

    Windows platform would be preferred (NT/2000/XP Pro), but *nix is an option.

    Thanks for any assitance.

  2. #2
    Senior Member BrainStop's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    295
    As I'm not very familiar with NMS tools ... here's just a link I picked up recently:

    http://www.solarwinds.net/

    It may be of use to you or it may not.

    Cheers,

    BrainStop
    "To estimate the time it takes to do a task, estimate the time you think it should take, multiply by two, and change the unit of measure to the next highest unit. Thus we allocate two days for a one-hour task." -- Westheimer's Rule

  3. #3
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Posts
    23

    Talking

    Actually, something like this is -exactly- what I'm looking for!

    Thanks for the link!!

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    458
    Unfortunately, a sniffer is not what you are looking for i don't think. The main reason being that a sniffer itself will only capture traffic on a single network segment, and you need it to span multiple subnets.

    it also depends on how much $$ you are willing to spend, and what type of devices you are going to monitor. If you have lots of money, look at something like HP Openview or CA Unicenter. If it is just network devices (routers and switches) that you are trying to monitor, you might want to look into MRTG:

    http://mrtg.hdl.com/mrtg.html

    A sniffer will give you the protocol breakdown that you are looking for though. You may also want to try EtherPeek:

    http://www.wildpackets.com

    or the infamous and FREE Ethereal:

    http://mrtg.hdl.com/mrtg.html

    I have a feeling however that what you are looking for might be a collection of tools instead of a single application that will do all. I believe you can get demos for most if not all of these products, so try them out and see which one best suits your needs..

  5. #5
    I was also going to recomend www.solarwinds.net b/c of what I have read and herd. Please let us know if this solves your problem or if you have to implement more programs on diffrent segments etc. etc.

    Hmmm... customer needs one tool to take the place of many....
    A squirrel with no nuts will soon starve.

  6. #6
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Posts
    23
    Well, I've spent the good part of the morning playing with the eval of SolarWinds application suite, and essentially it has given me the information I need, though some of the functions -are- disabled. No printing the many charts it generates for example. Though screen captures by-pass that easily enough.

    So far, it appears to be a fairly solid product. I'm going to keep it running in the background and see what it'll tell me. I'm still open for other suggestions at this point though. With the size of the network I'm dealing with, this is definately a tool that will come in handy. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to specify and/or filter unused protocols in SolarWinds, but I'm still working on it.

    A simple sniffer isn't what I need, you're correct. I should have been a bit more specific, because what I actually need is a suite of applications that work together. "One app to do the job of many" sums it up nicely.

    -Thanks again,

    Aryoche

  7. #7
    You can also try eitherpeek found on www.download.com
    LATER-
    __________________________
    Computers make sense people
    DON\'T.

  8. #8
    Priapistic Monk KorpDeath's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Posts
    2,628
    How about VitalSuite from Lucent Netcare? have you looked into that?
    www.lucent. com
    Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
    - Samuel Johnson

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •