Cable monitoring network tool

This automatically populates all of the base information needed for the monitor to work. The discovery service is continuous, so it will spot when new devices are added to the network. As a cloud-based system, Auvik is designed for remote system monitoring — even your home network is remote to the processes on the Auvik servers.

Network monitoring works on a system of thresholds. The service tracks a list of metrics on network activity and a threshold for resource usage or system performance is added to each of these conditions. If that threshold level is passed, the Auvik service will generate an alert. The Auvik service can be expanded through the use of third-party tools for which the network monitor has integrations. There are two plan levels for Auvik — Essential and Performance.

The Performance plan is the higher plan and it offers traffic analysis functions and Syslog management on top of the network monitoring services that are available in the Essentials plan. Scan network segments to discover and add devices to monitor. You can choose between a range of sensors to monitor various segments of your network. For greater visualization, the tool has a customizable dashboard that allows you to produce real-time network maps of your infrastructure.

You can create maps with the drag-and-drop editor and use over map objects to build the map. You can even create your own map objects with custom HTML. The threshold-based alerts system keeps the user updated if the status of a sensor changes, a value changes or a threshold is breached. PRTG Network Monitor is a must-try for enterprises looking for cost-effective but comprehensive network monitoring tools. The platform is available for free for less than sensors, after which you have to pay.

Related post: Network Configuration Management Software. Nagios Core is an open-source network monitor that has a web interface for monitoring network performance.

The GUI is color-coded so you can easily see elements that are unavailable or compromised. Track performance events through the alerts system, which sends out notifications by email and SMS.

View the Alert History section to see what alerts were created and when. The list of alerts is also color-coded making it easier to prioritize critical alerts.

You can use APIs to integrate other network services. If you require more functions then you can also check the thousands of community plugins available on the Nagios Exchange to help you add additional functions. Nagios Core is an excellent free network monitoring software however the setup can be slightly more hands-on than other products on this list.

Zabbix is an open-source free network monitoring tool that combines network, server, cloud, application, and services monitoring into one unified solution. The autodiscovery feature automatically locates network devices and adds them to be monitored. The tool can also detect configuration changes automatically so you can tell if a network device has been updated. Network monitoring templates make it easy to configure the program for monitoring.

If you require more variety then you can access even more community templates form the Zabbix community site. To ensure that you can respond to alerts in time, Zabbix has a notification system. Alerts are sent by email, SMS, messenger, jabber, or custom scripts to update you on evolving network security events.

The notification content can be customized according to the recipient to make sure that the point of contact has everything they need to reopen intelligently. Zabbix is one of the top Linux network monitoring tools on the market.

Autodiscovery and templates make the program straightforward to deploy. The software for the package is installed on Linux , macOS , and Unix. You can download the software for free. Related post: Nagios vs Zabbix. Icinga is an open-source network monitoring tool that monitors the performance of your network, cloud-service, and data center.

Having the choice between the two gives you the power to monitor however you want. You can log in to the GUI and use the dashboard to view an overview of performance management.

The dashboard displays whether there are any problems with performance or availability and color-codes them according to severity. Critical or Down network devices are marked in red. Extensions or Icinga Modules , allow you to add more functions to the program. For example, the Icinga Module for vSphere allows you to monitor virtual machines and host systems. There is a range of community-created plugins you can download for free from the Icinga Exchange. Overall, Icinga is a scalable solution that gives you control over how you manage your environment.

You can download the free trial version. Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard is a popular free network monitoring software. Through the web-based GUI, you access the dashboard and monitor the availability of your network infrastructure in real-time. The software also comes with integrations with Spiceworks Inventory and Cloud Help Desk so that you can monitor your network inventory more effectively. The alerts system lets you know about any performance fluctuations so you receive notifications via emai l.

Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard is ideal for smaller enterprises that are looking for an affordable network performance monitoring solution. You can download the software for free to install on Windows. It is common in many IT departments to combine the functions of server, application, storage, and network management, because all of these elements are interdependent on ensuring successful delivery of services to end-users.

Combined software packages containing monitoring tools can cover all of these elements of company infrastructure. A network monitoring tool can be a small command-line utility, or a vast suite of services. Networking technology involves many different specialist functions. You also have to ensure that the network is secure and that the environmental conditions in the building are suitable for your equipment. In all, you need to keep on top of potential problems on the network and head them off.

If failure does occur, try to catch it and fix it before it impacts the work of the users of the network. If all measures fail, the help desk enables you to receive alerts from users to identify undetected problems. The tool has all the essential features you need to start monitoring your network including autodiscovery, dashboards, network maps, bandwidth monitoring, and an alerts system.

Network monitoring is concerned with the performance of the devices that operate the network, such as switches and routers. This activity is called network performance monitoring. The other main task of network monitoring examines traffic flow, this is called network traffic analysis. While some network traffic analysis tasks involve identifying the applications that generate or receive traffic, those monitoring functions are not concerned with whether the applications are running properly.

Application performance monitoring watches whether applications are able to get all of the resources they need in order to function properly. One of those resources is access to the network. All of the tools listed in this review are capable of monitoring networks remotely, that is, they can connect over the internet to another site and monitor all aspects of network performance. Remote monitoring can be performed just as easily by software resident on a cloud server as it can by software resident on a server in the same building as the network administrator.

There are two types of network monitors: packet sniffers, which sample network traffic, and network performance monitors, which collect network device reports.

There are seven types of network monitoring systems:. Traffic monitoring tools are called traffic analyzers or NetFlow monitors. While network performance monitors query network device statuses, traffic analyzers examine throughput data from network devices and also extract the headers of passing packets to quantify traffic by protocol, source, and destination.

An SNMP agent needs to be resident on each device. All network device manufacturers ship their products with an SNMP agent already installed. All that is lacking is the SNMP manager and this is the role that the network performance monitoring tool provides.

It depends on your needs. Unless I misunderstood, SpiceWorks Network Monitoring has not been under development for several years. This was from a support person at SpiceWorks. We have been pretty happy with it but are looking for something else due to the lack of development.

Thank you for your comment. Thanks Tim, good list of tools. Thank you, Tim. It is the most complete list I saw. Make sure that you have a full complement of screwdrivers so you are equipped to tackle any particular screwdriver task.

All of these tools certainly make for an easier life for a networking professional, but it can be difficult to amass a collection of such tools one by one. For example, you might not have the need for a crimping tool , and you might think it would be a waste of money, so you decide to not buy one. If you are a high-end networking professional, then one of the best choices for you would be to outfit yourself with a state of the art network installation tool kit, or simply, a high-quality general-purpose toolkit.

The kits ensure that you are ready for a job whenever a hand tool is required. That said, with all these tools, you would require a quality bag or tool case to transport the tools easily. Before we move on to bags and cases, we feel that it is necessary to provide you with an explanation of all the tools that we have mentioned above.

A wire stripper is a small device that is useful in stripping the insulation from electrical wires. Wire strippers come in both automatic and manual designs, so choose one which might suit your work-setting best. Wire strippers are also wire cutters. For example, you might be installing an outdoor cat6 cable , but you just cannot seem to get the right connection.

You can use the wire stripper to cut part of the wire and its cutter to give the wire some edge so that it fits into the plug perfectly. Cable cutters are more advanced than wire cutters, especially the ones with higher leverage. When you have a high leverage cable cutter, you can easily cut through a wire of sizeable width.

So it is useful to have one when cases like that occur. Often times, you would find yourself faced with irregularly shaped nuts or metal objects. You would need a pump plier, popularly known as a Tongue or Groove Plier. They are best when it comes to holding and turning nuts and bolts. Pliers are designed in different shapes and sizes, each one with a specific use.

Some might be for gripping a piece of pipe or a road, while some are used for twisting wires. Side cutting pliers are used specifically for cutting different types of wires.

Long nose pliers can be used for cutting smaller pieces of wire. They are the primary tool when you are working with Ethernet cables or telephone lines. They are also used to skin the insulation off of wires. Most of the tools that we have discussed have an in-built tool for skinning wires.

However, there will always come a time when you would want a skinning knife at your side. A crimper tool works by joining two pieces of metal together. It deforms one piece or both in a way that causes them to hold onto one another. You would want a crimp when you want to fix a connector to the end of a cable.

Hand tools are great and all, but you also need to have critical testing equipment to ensure network reliability. First off, you would want to have a quality network cable tester within your tool kit. This acts as a great time saver. This enables you to get a look at traffic in a replay. This saves you the worry of having missed the reasons for any slow down or failure that might have occurred while you were out of the office or away from your desk. The NetFlow Generator creates fake traffic to give you extra volume to run around your network.

This is a great exercise if you plan to increase services or add extra endpoints to your network that would result in greater traffic volumes. You can test the performance of your load balancers, firewalls, and network performance monitoring alerts before planned changes occur. The Flow Tool Bundle helps you head off disaster before it happens. The Flow Bundle is offered as a free utility. The Site24x7 Network Monitoring Tool is a comprehensive IT infrastructure monitoring system that also has application monitoring baked in.

Another module in the package tracks user behavior on websites and creates synthetic user walk-throughs for website testing. A major part of the infrastructure monitoring service is the network monitor. This is a network performance monitor that communicates with network devices rather than watching traffic as it passes over the cables of the network.

This is a cloud service , so there is no need to install any system management software on-site. The service connects to the monitored network over the internet.

All communications between the network and the controller in the cloud are protected by encryption. Access to the dashboard, which is resident in the cloud, is facilitated through any web browser.

The data transmissions of this access are also protected by encryption. Site24x7 begins its service by contacting the monitored network and performing a system sweep.

In this phase, the network monitor contacts every device for its identification details, including make, model, and statuses. The results of these inquiries are written into an inventory. Site24x7 also creates a network topology map from the information gleaned during the autodiscovery phase.

The inventory and topology map are constantly updated to reflect changes in the network and the devices that run it. Apart from switches and routers, the service monitors firewalls and other network appliances. It will track the performance of WAN links, wireless networks, and cloud services as well as the on-site cabled network. This network protocol is an industry-standard. The role of the SNMP manager is to poll device agents. Each agent scans the device that it is monitoring for statuses and places that information in a standard format.

When the information request arrives, it replies with the current version of the status report, which is called a Management Information Base MIB. SNMP agents are loaded onto every network device by the equipment manufacturers. Site24x7 fills the role of the SNMP manager. The manager also receives urgent status notifications from device agents when a critical condition is detected.

Site24x7 is available in a free version and four paid editions. The free version is limited to active monitoring of five websites or servers. The charged-for versions are paid for by subscription and each is available on a day free trial.

Further Reading: Site24x7 — Full Review. Syxsense Manage is SaaS platform that offers system monitoring that focuses on endpoints but also monitors networks. The service requires an agent program to be installed on enrolled networks. The Syxsense Manage service can unify the monitoring of many different sites , you just need to install the agent on each network.

The service scans each enrolled network and identifies the devices connected to it. This creates an asset inventory. The discovery process is continuous, so new additions to the network will be included in the inventory automatically.

The Syxsense service also scans each endpoint to compile a software inventory. This records the operating system version and the software packages installed on each endpoint. The service can scan endpoints running Windows , macOS , and Linux. The software inventory is the basis for the automated patch manager that is included in the Syxsense Manage package.

The platform logs all events on the network and records all actions taken for maintenance. That includes both manual processes and automated maintenance services. The audits are stored automatically on the Syxsense cloud server. An account includes 50 GB of cloud storage space for logs and patch installers. The logs will be stored in a meaningful directory structure and that makes compliance auditing easier. The Syxsense Manage service also produces assessments on the security weaknesses on the network with a Security Risk Assessment report.

Syxsense Manage is a subscription service. The console for the system is hosted in the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere through any standard Web browser. The minimum service for the package is for coverage of 10 devices and fees are levied annually in advance.

You can access Syxsense Manage with a day free trial. Atera is a cloud-based support package for managed service providers MSPs The system includes professional services automation PSA tools, which MSPs use to run the business and remote management and monitoring systems RMM , which are the software tools that technicians use to support client systems.

Technicians access the dashboard for the system through any standard browser. The network monitoring system uses SNMP to supervise devices on the network. The service requires that agent programs are installed on the client site. The LAN monitoring pages of the RMM are attractively laid out and include alerts and performance data in color-code graphical elements. The layout of the monitoring page can be customized to create limited views.

This also enables the MSP to make information screens available to the client. As well as monitoring networks, the RMM is able to monitor servers and applications. All of the screens are customizable and the dashboard also gives access to process automation features. One automated tool in the system is its network discovery utility. This does an initial sweep when the agent is first installed on a new site.

The autodiscovery program will compile a device inventory. The process runs recursively, so the inventory is updated with a live list of all equipment connected to the network. As this is software-as-a-service , Atera bundles processors and storage space on the cloud in with the use of the software.

Prices are set per technician per month or per year , so it is easy to expand the MSP by just adding on seats.

You can get a look at Atera by applying for a day free trial. Related post: Network Configuration Management Tools. Nagios manages open-source network monitoring software, which is completely free to use. The interface for this free system, which is called Nagios Core, is not very comprehensive. You get a basic web interface with the main download, and then you can search through the Nagios Core community pages to look for plugins and skins that other users have developed for themselves and are willing to share.

The Nagios Core system is a great option if you have no budget for LAN monitoring tools and you are prepared to compromise on presentation. There is a free version of Nagios XI that is free with limitations — you can only use it to monitor seven nodes. However, this offer, together with two grades of paid usage, means that Nagios XI is suitable for all network sizes.

That is a one-time purchase price and includes access to email support and community forums. You can pay extra for phone support. The buyers of the Enterprise editions are obliged to subscribe annually to a maintenance plan or a maintenance and support plan. With Nagios XI, you get the real-time monitoring capabilities of Nagios Core, but the data that is collected is managed, presented and filtered in a much more digestible format. The graphics on the dashboard do all of the work for you. You can see instantly where there are problems on the network.

The pages of the interface include charts, graphs, and dials that help you get performance data at a glance. The Nagios XI system is easy to set up because the software includes auto-discovery, so it maps the network by itself. This feature is very useful when you add equipment to the network. A Configuration Wizard helps you to get the interface operating to your tastes.

You can create user groups and individual accounts to delegate partial access to data among team members. Nagios is able to monitor equipment on remote sites and you can deepen your remote monitoring capabilities for server physical statuses by installing the Remote Program Execution agent on those servers. The range of subscription options, including Nagios Core and the free version of Nagios XI for small networks, means that this system is truly scalable.

Nagios Core upgrades to Nagios XI with just a software install. This is a very good feature for rapidly expanding companies. Related post: Nagios vs Zabbix. A Pandora NMS install begins with a network sweep that enables the system to map your topology. The network map is just one of the graphics contained in the dashboard that helps you keep track of the system at a glance. Your central network manager node will poll the system constantly to keep track of device statuses.

Standard SNMP alerts report critical conditions as they arise without waiting for a status request from the network manager.