Network Monitoring Tools *

Les Cottrell, SLAC. Last Update: August 16, 2008
ESnet | ESCC | Internet end-to-end monitoring | Tutorial
This is a list of tools used for Network (both LAN and WAN) Monitoring tools and where to find out more about them. The audience is mainly network administrators. You are welcome to provide links to this web page. Please do not make a copy of this web page and place it at your web site since it will quickly be out of date. See here if you wish to suggest additions or changes.

Page Contents Addition History
What is my IP address/traceroute?
What is my IP address, OS, browser?
Visual Traceroute
Where am I?
PingWorld
Interactive PingER Map
Test my network configuration from Stanford, from ANL
Network Path & Application Daemon
Bandwidth test to my host
Bandwidth from Houston
Calculate Latency
Estimate Bandwidth
Estimate Speed of my connection?
RTT & bandwidth test
Links Index of Links on this Page by Label
Locations of visitors to this page
2008 BGPLay, BreakingPoint, Colasoft, Collectl, dopplerVUe, EffeDetect, Engineer's Toolset, EtherDetect, Ethergrouik, FreeNATS, GEM Network Monitoring, iBGPlay, Inventory Genie, IPAudit, IPHost Network Monitor, , MoniTiL, monitis, mon.itor.usd, Monitoring Genie, MTD Sentry, Netcop, NetGong, NetInfo, NetMRI, NetScope, Network Miner, Network Performance Daily, OPNET Modeler, Orion, Osmius, PacketTrap, Panopta, PC Inventory Advisor, Q3ADE, Remote Asset Tracker, Sentinel, Tembria, tcpillust, The Dude, ZettaView,
2007 Ace, APCON, akk@da, Andrisoft WANGuard, Anue, Aurora, Aware, BasicState, CommandCenter NOC, David, Denika, Dummmynet, GFI LANguard, Gomez, GroundWork, Heroix, Hobbit Monitor, Hyperic HQ, IMMonitor, Jiploo, Monolith, moods, Munin, Net::Flow, NetMapper, NetQoS Performance Center, NetQos VoIP Monitor, Network Enforcer, Network Management Tutorial, Network Weathermap, NetVoyant, OidView, op5 Monitor, Pandetix, Pingdom, Pingwy, Scrutinizer, ServersCheck, SimpleServerMonitor, skipole-monitor, SLA, SMARTHawk, Smarts, SuperAgent, Total Network Inventory, WAPT, WebPerform, WFilter, XRate1,
2006 arping, Axence nVision, BBMonitor, Cacti, CSchmidt collection, Cymphonix Network Composer, Darkstat, Etherape, EZ-NOC, Eye-on Bandwidth, Gigamon University, IPTraf, Jnettop, LITHIUM, mrtg-ping-probe, NetMRG, NetworkActiv Scanner, NimTech, NPAD, Nsauditor, Nuttcp, OpenSMART, Pandora FMS, PIAFCTM, Plab, PolyMon, PSentry, Rider, RSP, Pktstat, SecureMyCompany, SftpDrive, SNM, SpeedTest, SpiceWorks, Sysmon, TruePath, Unbrowse, Unsniff, WatchMouse, Webalizer, Web Server Stress Tool, Zenoss,
2005 Advanced HostMonitor, Alvias, Airwave, AppMonitor, BitTorrent, bulk, BWCTL, Caligare Flow Inspector, Cittio, ClearSight, Distinct Network Monitor, EM7, EZMgt, GigaMon, Host Grapher II, HPN-SSH, Javvin Packet Analyzer, Just-ping, LinkRank, MoSSHe, mturoute, N-able OnDemand, Netcool, netdisco, Netflow Monitor, NetQoS, Pathneck, OWAMP, PingER, RANCID, Scamper, SCAMPI, Simple Infrastructure Capacity Monitor, Spirent, SiteMonitor, STC, SwitchMonitor, SysUpTime, TansuTCP, thrulay, Torrus, Tstat, VSS Monitoring, WebWatchBot, WildPackets, WWW Resources for Communications & Networking Technologies, ZoneRanger,
2004 CleverEye, CueVision, D-ITG, FastCopy, FREEping, Ganglia, H.323 Beacon, GFI Network Services Monitor, internetVista, IPCheck Server Monitor, Little:eye, MonitorMagic, N-central, N-vision, Netmeter, NetMechnica, Network Physics (ACE Live as of Nov '07), NetVizor, Observer, OSSMon, Overseer Network Monitor, Orca, PRTG Traffic Grapher, QOVIA, QRadar, Route Explorer, Scriptroute, Server Nanny, SNMP Explorer, ServerFiles.com, SNMP Informant, STAB a Linux tracepath, SolarWinds Orion, Vantage, Vigilix, VitalNet, WatchTower Website Monitoring, WindowsNetworking.com, Wombat, ZTI,
2003 ABwE, ActivXpets, AdventNet Web NMS, Analyse It, Argus, Big Sister, CyberGauge, eGInnovations, Internet Detective, Intellipool Network Monitor, JFF Network Management System, LANsurveyor, LANWatch, LoriotPro, MonitorIT, Nagios, NetIntercept, NetMon, NetStatus, Network Diagnostic Tool, Network Performance Advisor, NimBUS, NPS, Network Probe, NetworksA-OK, NetStat Live, Open NerveCenter, OPENXTRA, Packeteer, PacketStorm, Packetyzer, PathChirp, Integrien, Sniff'em, Spong, StableNet PME, TBIT, Tcptraceroute, Tping, Trafd, Trafshow, TrapBlaster, Traceroute-nanog, Ultra Network Sniffer, Vivere Networks,
2002 ANL Web100 Network Configuration Tester, Anritsu, aslookup, AlertCenter, Alertra, AlertSite, Analyse-it, bbcp, BestFit, Bro, Chariot, CommView, Crypto-PAn, elkMonitor, DotCom, Easy Service Monitor, Etherpeek, Fidelia, Finisar, Fpinger, GDChart, HipLinkXS, ipMonitor, LANExplorer, LinkFerret, LogisoftAR, MGEN, Netarx, NetCrunch, NetDetector, NetGeo, NEPM, NetReality, NIST Net, NLANR AAD, NMIS, OpenNMS PageREnterprise, PastMon, Pathprobe, remstats, RIPmon, RFT, ROMmon, RUDE, Silverback, SmokePing, Snuffle, SysOrb, Telchemy, TCPTune, TCPurify, UDPmon, WebAttack, Zabbix,
2001 AdventNet SNMP API, Alchemy Network Monitor, Anasil analyzer, Argent, Autobuf, Bing, Clink, DSLReports, Firehose, GeoBoy, Packetboy etc, Internet Control Portal, Internet Periscope, ISDNwatch, Metrica/NPR, Mon, NetPredict, NetTest, Nettimer, Net-One-1, Pathrate, RouteView, sFlow, Shunra, Third Watch, Traceping, Trellian, HighTower, WCAT, What's Up Gold, WS_FTP, Zinger,
2000 Analyzer, bbftp, Big Brother, Bronc, Cricket, EdgeScape, Ethereal (now renamed Wireshark), gen_send/gen_recv, GSIFTP, Gtrace, Holistix, InMon, NcFTP, Natas, NetAlly, NetScout, Network Simulator, Ntop, PingGraph, PingPlotter, Pipechar, RRD, Sniffer, Snoop, StatScope, Synack, View2000, VisualPulse, WinPcap, WU-FTPD, WWW performance monitoring, Xplot
1999 Cheops, Ganymede, hping2, Iperf, JetMon, MeasureNet, MatLab, MTR, NeoTrace, Netflow, NetLogger, Network health, NextPoint, Nmap, Pchar, Qcheck, SAA, SafeTP, Sniffit, SNMP from UCSD, Sting, ResponseNetworks, Tcpshow, Tcptrace WinTDS,
1998 NetOps, Triticom, Maple, PV-Wave, S-Plus, VisualRoute
1997 INS Net Perf Mgmt survey, tcpspray, Mapnet, Keynote, prtraceroute clflowd flstats, fping, tcpdpriv, NetMedic Pathchar, CAIDA Measurement Tool Taxonomy, bprobe & cprobe
1996 mrtg, NetNow, NetraMet, Network Probe Daemon, InterMapper, Lachesis, Optimal Networks, Digex

Introduction [Contents]

The following Network Monitoring Tools grew out of a list that were reported to be in use at 11 ESnet sites in a survey made by the ESnet Network Monitoring Task Force (NMTF) and completed in October 1995. For some snapshots of earlier web pages see the Internet Archive Wayback site. Where possible I have provided hypertext links to further sources of information on the tool. These links vary in quality ranging from a pointer to the vendors home page, to the man pages entry, and to how to download the code. We welcome corrections such as identifying broken links.

Suggesting Additions

This is a volunteer, unfunded effort. This helps assure its independence. Increasingly new additions are from reader suggestions/recommendations. If you have a suggestion for adding something: please make sure that you indicate where the tool fits in the hierarchy and provide a short one sentence description of the tool's purpose with no marketing hyperbole.

Network Monitoring Platforms (NMPs) [Contents]

  • AdventNet Web NMS
  • Airwave Management PlatformT (AMP) wireless network management software provides centralized control for Wi-Fi networks. Features include: access point configuration management, reporting, user tracking, help desk views, and rogue AP discovery.
  • akk@da is a simple network monitoring system designed for small and middle size computer networks. Its purpose is to quick detect system or network fault and to display information about detected problems for administrators. akk@da is designed as a pro-active network monitor. It does not wait for information from any agents, systems, etc. It collects information every single minute (you can decrease this period to 1 second). Almost all services of the monitored hosts are discovered automatically.
  • Andrisoft WANGuard Platform provides solutions for WAN links monitoring, DDoS detection and mitigation, traffic accounting and graphing.
  • Axence nVision monitors network infrastructure: Windows, TCP/IP services, web and mail servers, URLs, applications (MS Exchange, SQL etc.). It also monitors routers and switches: network traffic, interface status, connected computers. nVision collects network inventory and audit license usage - it can alert in case of a program installation or any configuration change on a remote node. With the agent you can monitor user activity and access computers remotely.
  • Castle Rock
  • CITTIO Watchtower WatchTower is an automated network and systems monitoring platform. It automatically discovers, configures, thresholds, and monitors IP-enabled devices from servers and switches to security cameras and HVAC.
  • CommandCenter NOC from Raritan provides polling, Windows and UNIX/Linux server management, intrusion detection, vulnerability scanning, and traffic analysis in an integrated appliance.
  • Cymphonix Network Composer monitors Internet traffic by user, application, and threat. Includes controls to shape access to Internet resources by user, group, and/or time of day. Also featuring anonymous proxy blocking, policy management, and real time monitoring.
  • David system allows you to manage your resources and services through both Intranet and Internet. provide auto-discovering and network topology building features to help keep an intuitive view of your IT infrastructure. Resources, real-time monitoring and accessibility of historical data enable reaction to failures. Configured interfaces for monitored devices allow you to focus on the most important aspects of their work.
  • dopplerVUe provides network discovery, mapping and rules system enables monitoring of Ping, SNMP, syslog, and WMI performance metrics. Can be used to monitor IPv6 devices. Monitors services such as DNS, http and email.
  • EM7 from Sciencelogic is an NMS integrated with trouble-ticketing, event management, reporting, IP management, DNS and monitoring.
  • Fidelia also has the Helix entry level tool for small enterprises.
  • FreeNATS, is an open-source network monitoring, alerting and reporting system available as PHP source and as a virtual appliance.
  • GEM Network Monitoring a network monitoring tool that provide SLA reports, dashboards, also monitors anything within a IT network, performance graphs, notifications prior to device failures.
  • Intellipool Network Monitor is a solution for monitoring, notification, and reporting. It includes agentless monitoring of Windows, Unix, Linux, and BSD operating system. It also includes distributed testing, a unique feature that makes it possible to monitor servers, routers and other network connected equipment that are behind a firewall or only accessible trough a VPN.
  • InterMapper Networking monitoring and alerting software for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Solaris.
  • IP Host Network Monitor is a network and server monitoring tool that lets you monitor availability and performance of mail servers, internet hosts, database servers, and other network resources. Performance counters on Windows computers can be monitored using WMI. Other supported protocols are HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, ODBC, PING...
  • ipMonitor is a network monitoring solution that allows network administrators, webmasters, and Internet service providers to monitor any networked device on the Internet, corporate intranet, or TCP/IP LAN and receive alerts immediately via audible alarm, message, e-mail, or third-party software when a connection fails. It is a powerful personal monitoring product delivering low cost, simplicity of operation, and round-the-clock coverage.
  • Just For Fun Network Monitoring System (JFFNMS) is FREE and designed to maintain a IP SNMP / Syslog / Tacacs+ Network. It can be used to monitor any standards compilant SNMP device, Server, TCP port or Custom Poller, also it has some Cisco oriented features.
  • Klogie a commercial remote network monitoring system that designed for ease of use.
  • LANsurveyor network and desktop management software providing automatic network maps, asset management reports, network monitor and remote administration and distribution.
  • is a server/client based monitoring system. On every monitored node, a monitoring agent launches and communicates using a push/pull protocol with sensors which are responsible for retrieving monitoring information. The extracted samples are stored on a local cache and forwarded to a central Measurement Repository using UDP or TCP transport protocol with or without authentication/encryption of data samples. Sensors can collect information on behalf of remote entities like switches or power supplies. The Measurement Repository can interface to a relational database or a flat-file backend for storing the received samples. Web based interface is provided for visualizing the data.
  • LITHIUM LITHIUM|Core is an integrated device and service monitoring platform with a tightly coupled incident tracking and case management system and incorporates a web-based interface as well as Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X monitoring consoles.
  • Little:eye, for management of IT infrastructure of enterprise provides management of fault, performance, inventory and configuration.
  • LogisoftAR provides is an NMP running under Windows providing device discovery, mapping, fault (using SNMP traps and syslog) and performance management. Reporting is provided in HTML pages.
  • MoniTiL continuously monitors applications, services, networks and events using WMI, snmp, web, tcp and ping.
  • Monitoring Genie is a large scale data collection and monitoring platform built for telcos and large service providedrs, able to monitor multiple parameters in 100Ks of nodes in very shory cycles of about a minute using multiple protocols (icmp,snmp,sql,http,telnet,ssh,wmi,registry,open ports...). It can perform actions based on monitoring status changes using conditions and correlation rules. The platform comes with a builtin reporting system and pre made reports, and can extended to monitor any parameter in the supported protocols. The platform can work as a stand alone product or connect to existing management platforms (hpov, tivoli & micromuse, unictenter, etc).
  • MTD Sentry brings information from SNMP and non-SNMP devices alike together into an enterprise monitoring system with extensions for video based devices.
  • Monolith a commercial Syslog, Trap, NT Eventlog Aggregator package.
  • Netcool suite offers five product families that support domain-specific IT management, end-to-end consolidated operations and business service management.
  • Netcop visualizes network performance metrics in real-time, consolidating topology, traffic & events in a unified view. It automates response to network events and contextually launches 3rd party tools for assisted troubleshooting.
  • NetGong is a network monitoring solution allowing network administrators, webmasters, and Internet service providers to monitor any networked device on the Internet, corporate intranet, or TCP/IP LAN and receive alerts via audible alarm, message, e-mail, or third-party software when a connection fails.
  • NetInfo is a collection of 15 network tools on a single, interface. NetInfo allows businesses to combat network downtime by allowing network administrators, webmasters, and Internet service providers to isolate faults, process diagnostic data and increase internal network security.
  • Netmapper creates automated up-to-date Microsoft Visio® network diagrams, combining multiple physical (Layer 2/3) and logical views of the network with detailed device configurations and topology overlays like BGP, OSPF, VLANs & VPNs
  • NetMRI from Netcordia automates much of Network Change & Configuration Management (NCCM)by collecting and analyzing network configuration, snmp, and syslong/event data, and providing daily actionable issues.
  • NetCrunch from AdRem, provides visualization of physical network topology; flexible performance monitoring, trending and reporting; event filtering and escalation; SNMP management; web access.
  • NetMechanica provides low-cost network masnagement services.
  • Netview
  • NimBUS for Network Monitoring solution verifies network connectivity to devices (routers, switches, servers, etc.) and application services (FTP, SMTP, HTTP, etc.) revealing accessibility and network latency. The solution auto-discovers network interfaces, monitors interface traffic and calculates bandwidth utilization. Uses SNMP and if not available then syslog can be used.
  • op5 Monitor provides active monitoring of the IT infrastructure - hardware, traffic & services. This includes connected components from servers, routers and printers services such as mail services, web servers and virus programmes. It is based on Nagios.
  • OpenNMS
  • OpenView
  • Orion
  • Pandetix MSOware is a web based service for monitoring, managing, reporting and notification of events for IP enabled devices. MSOware monitors your host with the selected tool. There is a free trial version.
  • Pandora the Free Monitoring System is a Free Software set of programs, set under the GPL license, that monitors and detects network systems using remote tests (ICMP, TCP Sweep, Network scan, SNMP monitoring...), or using local agents to grab application/system datga (has agents for Linux, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and Windows XP,2000/2003). Pandora FMS is able to fire alarms, draw graphs and keep event history for each element using a SQL backend
  • Q3ADE
  • SecureMyCompany provides hosted, On Demand network and systems management software for a low monthly fee. Solutions include SNMP, WMI, Event Log and many more monitoring features.
  • ServersCheck is a web based monitoring tool for monitoring networks and servers (e.g. temperatures etc.)
  • Smarts from EMC is an automated root cause tool with topology views of the network infrastructure, applications and the business layer.
  • SolarWinds Orion Network Performance Monitor will monitor and collect data from routers, switches, servers, and any other SNMP enabled devices. Additionally, Orion monitors CPU Load, Memory utilization, and available Disk Space. Orion NPM is highly scalable, capable of monitoring from 10 to over 10,000 nodes.
  • Spectrum (ex Cabletron, then Aprisma then Concord Communications then CA). Network Tool specialized in Fault Management and Root Cause Analysis engine. Helps optimize MTTR and MTBF.The tool is modular in that it can also monitor/manage QOS,MPLS/VPN,Multicast Network, Device Configurations.
  • StableNet PME Carrier-Grade performance management tool, built upon open standards. Supports active (Ping, SAA) and passive (SNMP, RMON, NetFlow, SFlow) measurements. Integrated topology/inventory, SLA/SLM, reporting.
  • Sun Solstice
  • SwitchMonitor from NetLatency is a network performance monitoring system that runs on Windows and is designed to monitor network devices for utilization and errors using SNMP.
  • SysOrb monitors both network equipment and servers/applications and is accessed via a web interface. Monitoring is done with Agents and IP and SNMP polling. SysOrb comes with an embedded database for stats, alert notification module, report generator etc.
  • SysUpTime is a free distributed network/systems management product. It provides users out-of-box capabilities to efficiently and proactively manage networks of any size.
  • Tembria Tembria Server Monitor is an affordable server monitoring platform with deep support for Windows server monitoring plus support for Linux and SNMP devices too.
  • The Dude is a free network monitor will automatically scan all devices within specified subnets, draw and layout a map of your networks, monitor services of your devices and alert you in case some service has problems.
  • VitalNet from Lucent provides on-demand access to data to track, analyze, manage and predict problems, improve capacity utilization and meet service quality commitments. It provides Web-based graphical visibility into wireless or wireline multi-vendor network for DSL, VPN, IP Centrex, streaming video, GigE and diverse 3G wireless services.
  • WhatsUpGold Simple network monitoring tool, detects unavailable services, sends alarms to pagers and produces web page of colorful alerts.
  • ZettaView is a 24/7 monitoring, trend analysis, reporting, and alarm management system for LAN, WAN, and ATM that stores information at a 10 second granularity on local probes.

Monitoring Tools Integrated with NMP [Contents]

Commercial Monitoring Tools, not integrated with an NMP [Contents]

Analyzer/Sniffer | Application/Services/Systems monitoring | Emulators | Flow Monitoring | FTP | Network Security tools | SNMP Tools | Topology/Traceroute | VOIP

Public Domain or Free Network Monitoring Tools [Contents]

Application Monitoring | BGP | Finger Printing | Flow Monitoring | FTP | Host based network monitoring tools | Mapping | Monitoring Infrastructures | Packet Capture | Path Characterization | Ping | RRDtool | SNMP | Throughput tools | Traceroute