In this product review, we look at tools that can monitor network performance.
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Contents 
Packet shaping/bandwidth compression
Observer 10.1
AppManager v6.0
Lightspeed Systems Bandwidth Management
Specifications
How we tested
About RMIT |
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The tools tested can do analysis, migration, monitoring, security, and testing. What's most impressive is that some of these tools can help you see problems immediately, taking the guesswork out of problem solving network issues. Some even use Expert Analysis to make a recommendation on how you should rectify your network problem.
Packet capture. Some of the software tools allow you to capture packets across your network then decode them for you. These tools can almost make perfect hacking tools since you will be able to sniff all the traffic on your network.
Expert systems. Expert systems on the other hand can offer real-time recommendations to potential network problems. The expert system can not only spot network anomalies but it can eliminate the guess work and give you the root cause of the problem.
Traffic generation. It is also possible to create different traffic loads to assist you with stress testing your network. This may be an area of interest for someone who would like to investigate how the network will stand up to increased traffic and more end users.
Remote analysis. Remote monitoring can make it easy and economical to extend your knowledge and expertise across your network. With some of these tools you can monitor distant sites directly from your desktop so you can zero in on problems. A worthy thing to find out is how many remote sessions you can run at any one time.
Probes. Many of these tools use probes to collect additional network statistics. There are software probes and hardware probes. Software probes sit on remote machines while hardware probes typically connect to a network switch on either your local or remote network. The is so you can have remote access to remote data without having to physically travel to the remote part of your network. These probes would be accessed through a central console or management machine.
There are probes that monitor 10/100/1000 networks, wireless networks, WAN links, gigabit trunk probes (Network Instruments-based probes). Network Instruments even offer complete hardware and software solutions in a ruggedised format called GOSS.
Reporting. We know these tools do a great job collecting data but how well do they display it? What you should be looking for is a package that can display different levels of detail and represent data in lists, dials, 3D pie graphs, and be able to publish reports in a variety of formats including HTML.
