Network monitoring software is used to observe and control the network traffic flow over a network. This software is primarily used by security agents and network administrators to control the actions of a network. It helps in automating most of the workflow and process, which is related to network monitoring. You can also use this software to check if there is any sort of unusual activity happening and then alert the network administrator if you spot suspicious activity over the network. The process of monitoring a network can be wired or wireless. It helps in providing information related to the IP addressing scheme, active devices and equipment on a network. Network monitoring tools periodically inspects the network for availability and produces an alert when an issue is detected.
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What is Network Monitoring?
Network monitoring is basically a computer network’s methodical endeavour to identify failing network parts, such as failing routers, crashed servers, failed switches or any other uncertain devices. If such issues are detected, then the network monitoring system alerts the network administrator by sending notifications related to the issue. It can be said that network monitoring is a part of network management. Monitoring the network can be performed with the help of software that offers monitoring tools to automate the process of reviewing the status of the network traffic flow.
Importance of Network Monitoring
Network monitoring is one of the most crucial components for your business as it will help you to keep your data secure. It will track everything and send notifications before the issue gets bigger. Other benefits of using network monitoring are:
1. It will save a lot of time that you spend on diagnosing as it takes no time in showing you the issue. This will not only save time but also assist your support team in resolving the problem quickly.
2. This software saves money at the same time as it immediately spots the issues and increases your profit.
3. Network monitoring will help you to find out when the device has reached its limits and needs to be changed. In this way, you can easily plan beforehand and take decisions wisely.
Advantages of Network Monitoring Software
- Low cost and mostly they are free.
- It offers customization for different environments.
- It provides a great amount of reliability.
- They are easy to use and implement.
- They are designed and developed by skilled developers.
Disadvantages of Network Monitoring Software
- It might be a bit of a hassle to install them.
- It lacks in providing good customer support.
- Sometimes the user-interface can be difficult to use.
Here are Top Free and Open Source Network Monitoring Software
1. Icinga 2
Icinga 2 is an open-source network monitoring software that not only presents access to relevant data but also provides alerts to keep the user in the loop. With the help of this software, you can inspect any application across your entire infrastructure. The monitoring engine that this software has is capable enough to monitor the complete data centre. Moreover, if you are worried about your data, then you must know that it processes the collected results and stores them in a very efficient manner that prevents any sort of damage to the data. It comes with a very swift and organised web interface that allows easy access to all the important data. This interface aids you in taking action with just a single click to save not only time but also enhance productivity. All the connections are secured with SSL, which provides peace of mind to the users. Each and every sensitive data present through the whole network can also be restricted from other users. You can take advantage of the 30 days free trial before paying the subscription for the software. This software provides you with DevOps tools to generate a modified monitoring solution that satisfies your requirements.
2. Nagios Core
Nagios Core is a free network monitoring software that observes the network to detect any issues that can be caused by crashed or overloaded servers. This software can monitor uptime, availability and response time with ease for every node on the network. In addition to that, this software does not provide results in a typical form, and rather, it offers them in a variety of visual representations. It is one of the most powerful and trusted monitoring tool that you can find in the market. Net monitoring can be done with this software without the assistance of any third party agent. This software is capable of spotting the unresponsive machine and immediately alerts the staff, that provides them with enough time to fix the issue before it gets bigger. With the help of this software, you can increase the services, servers and availability of applications. It is a pretty reliable solution, and more than thousands of organisations are using this software to increase their profit in the business.
3. Spiceworks
Spiceworks is one of the most effective network monitoring tool, which is easy to install and hassle-free to set up. This software is 100% free, which makes it possible for small business people to use the software. The real-time updates of ani IP device or server can be obtained without any issue with this software. This can be an effective software for you if you want to monitor less than 25 devices in your organisation. There are thousands of businesses who are using Spiceworks to keep an eye on their entire infrastructure. You can quickly add devices to monitor the data from the dashboard. Talking about the dashboard, it is very user-friendly, and it takes no time to get used to it. With the help of this software, you can get access to real-time network insights and can easily spot sluggish systems and devices way before they get crashed, this helps you to take action before any misfortune takes place.
4. Zabbix
Zabbix is a popular network monitoring software that comes with a plethora of features. It is easy to install, unlike other software, and you can easily get used to the user-friendly interface. It has the capability of auto-detecting network devices and can easily add or remove switches. It is a free enterprise-class monitoring solution, which can come handy for those who want to control their network across the entire infrastructure. It comes with a virtual machine monitoring and hardware monitoring. This software is capable of processing more than 3,000,000 checks per minute with the help of mid-range hardware and can collect gigabytes of historical data on a regular basis. In addition to that, there’s no such limitation to the number of devices that you want to monitor. With the help of Zabbix, you can perform agentless monitoring without any hassle. It comes with the security of SSL connections that keeps the results safe and provides peace of mind to the users.
5. Zenoss
Zenoss is a web-based network monitoring solution that offers customizable console and dashboard. With the help of this software, you can perform agentless monitoring and also get access to the network across the entire infrastructure. It also comes equipped with features like modelling and device discovery that makes it an effective network monitoring solution. The event monitoring feature helps in preventing any sort of network incidents. This software offers unified monitoring, reports and event management. A support community is also provided in case you get stuck somewhere and need help to fix the issue. However, this software can only monitor 1,000 devices, so if you are looking for a network monitor to look after a thousand devices, then this is one of the most suitable solutions for your business. The criteria mentioned above are only applicable if you opt for the free version. If you want to add more devices, then you always have the option of getting the paid version of this software.
Network monitoring can be very beneficial for your business as it will surely provide you with great profit and also save a lot of time. You can keep track of all the devices that are running across your entire organisation and get alerts from the software if any uncertain activity is spotted. This will not only help you to prevent from big damage but also provide you with enough time to fix the issue.
