How to Monitor Your Network with the Free Real-time NetFlow Analyzer
The primary reason for monitoring your network is to see at a glance that
your servers are online and there is no problem. However, sooner or later everyone becomes curious,
and wants to discover who or what is
hogging their precious network's bandwidth.
Thus, if you want to
identify the real culprit rather than indiscriminately blaming the
'Psycho user', then Guy recommends SolarWind's
Real-time NetFlow
Traffic Analyzer; amazingly it's free!
Most administrators soon give up on network monitoring. This is
because they
find collecting network traffic complicated. Even if they manage to
capture network conversations they find it challenging to analyze the raw data in a meaningful way.
Hopefully my NetFlow Analyzer review will persuade you to take the
plunge and learn a valuable computer skill.
We live in a hectic world, thus it's probably one of two extremes that
causes you turn
to a Traffic Analyzer. Either you are swamped by a network
crisis that you must solve, or else you have that rare 5 minutes slack before
your next appointment, so you fire-up the
free Real-time NetFlow Analyzer
and quickly check what's occurring in your computer 'empire'.
Invest time learning to interpret the Real-time NetFlow analyser and
you will be rewarded with the knowledge of which servers, and which
users, are devouring the bandwidth. Without this tool your network
performance may seem mysterious and random, with the NetFlow analyser
you get the satisfaction from not only understanding the daily network
ebbs and flows, but also being able to control them.
Crisis Mode In crisis mode you want to indentify the root cause as
quickly as possible. You need to know if a server is down, or where resources are exhausted.
By using the Real-time NetFlow Traffic Analyzer you can make certain
your important network applications have priority over users who maybe
downloading videos.
Just Browsing Mode When you are just surfing with the
NetFlow GUI you might
contemplate which are the main outbound routes? Where is the
inbound traffic going? Are there any servers which are idle?
Other Roles for Network Monitoring As you learn
more about network monitoring, you will discover other roles for this
style of analysis, for
example capacity planning, load-balancing the servers on your network(s), and preparing
duplicate routes to eliminate the single point of failure.
SolarWinds' Real-time NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is freeware. It is hard to
believe that you get all these interesting and wonderful features at no
cost. One reason that SolarWinds can supply such a fine utility for
free is because they produce a bigger and even better tool. The
big brother (Orion NetFlow Traffic Analyzer) monitors
multiple routers and records data not for just 1 hr, but stores historical
data for weeks. Incidentally, with the paid-for utilities you get
the most marvellous technical support, SolarWinds live up to their
catchphrase 'built by network engineers, for network engineers'.
Because SolarWinds produce so many NetFlow tools, I have a hard job
keeping up with the all their names, the key to remembering the name of
this free traffic analyzer is the word 'Real-time'. All its bigger
brothers all have the word 'Orion' in their NetFlow name.
If traffic analysis was easy then everybody would be doing it.
For those who have never done any network monitoring before, then certain
settings in the utility may seem mysterious at first. What I can say is that
Real-time NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is easier than other packet
analyzers that I have tried. As with all products, carrying out the pre-requisites saves frustration down the line.
One strange matter of psychology is that once you admit that something will be
difficult, then problems seem to melt away, and learning seems easy.
If you are NOT a network engineer, then using this Windows NetFlow
Analyser will also give you on-the-job training for this role.
Another paradox is that
to get up-and-running quickly, you have to take the time to read the instructions carefully.
For example, you need to know the names of
your: network cards, TCP/ IP addresses and router. It will Also help if you have a working knowledge of these concepts: data capture,
nodes and interface. Furthermore, an understanding of CPU, memory
utilization, SNMP and other network protocols will help you get the most
from
real-time network monitoring.
With Solarwinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer installed and configured, you can view
what's occurring on your network. If a picture is worth a 1,000
words, then a chart is worth a zillion pieces of raw data.
The Real-time NetFlow Analyzer lists your network's utilization by user
or application.
This helps you to analyze
traffic from different perspectives for example, router or server.
Naturally, you can also fine-tune the reports.
Realtime network monitoring ideal for troubleshooting connectivity problems, and also for
detecting network bottlenecks.
Examining the results will help you understand the effect of a server's workload on resources.
Consequently, you may get ideas to optimise resources by moving servers and printers
to the subnets with the most users.
In your more reflective times, reviewing which Windows NetFlow charts will highlight
which sub-systems need upgrading. It can also help you predict network
traffic if you employ more users or open new offices.
I bet that if you install SolarWinds' NetFlow Traffic Analyzer that you will find a server,
or workstation on your network that you did not know was there.
Perhaps your predecessor installed a backup server and forgot to
document it? If you want to try for yourself - for free - here is
the
Free Real-time NetFlow Analyzer.
More Free and Trial Network Software
Here are Guy's reviews, recommendations and download links for handy
utilities.
Guy Recommends: Orion's NPM - Network Performance Monitor
Orion's performance monitor is designed for detecting network outages. NPM makes it easy to see what's working, and what needs your attention.
This utility guides you through creating network maps. It also helps troubleshooting by indicating whether the root cause is faulty equipment, or resource overload.
