Network Monitoring Overview

If you are network administrator, or work on networks to some capacity, you know the importance of keeping the network up and running 24/7. As a business, you cannot afford any downtime at all. This also means no slowdowns or systems that just fail. You have to monitor the network at all times to ensure that everything runs as expected. But if you are dealing with a huge network, monitoring it will be a major task. So how can you monitor a network in such a way? By using network monitoring tools. Network monitoring tools consist of software that will scan the network and report any failures or slowness in the system. Just what software or tools that network monitoring use? Here are some software programs that have been found to work with networks:

 

·        Ping: This is a tool that tests whether there is a connection between one computer and another. It sends out a command and waits for a response. If there is a response, the network is working fine. However, if there is no reply, the connection is not there.

·        Big Brother: Big Brother is a monitoring tool for networks. It works by monitoring your network and displaying the status and results on a web page.

·        Netflow monitoring software: What Netflow does is it takes information from routers and analyzes the data. It uses a user-friendly, web interface so reviewing reports and data is easy.

·        MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher): This tool monitors the traffic load on network links. It then creates web pages where it shows all the data in graphic form.

·        RRDTool: This is a round-robin database tool that is designed to handle data gathered in a series over time. This data includes network bandwidth, temperature, CPU load, and more. You can extract all data with a tool that is included in the software.

·        Intellipool Network Monitor: This is a tool that monitors a network, server, and the network’s performance. It has a web interface so all data is visible, and all administration is done at this location.

·        ManageEngine OpManager: This is a complete monitoring package. When you get this you have the ability to monitor WANs, servers, and applications running on servers. And the good thing about this software is it can be configured to work automatically.

 

These are by no means all the tools, but you can get an idea as to what types of tools are used and how they are used.