January 2, 2021

Everything You Need to Know About Network Monitoring Tools

Network monitoring tools became an integral part of network management helping IT administrators to gain visibility into their network, keep an eye on business infrastructure including servers, switches, SNMP devices, and services.
Editor’s choice 2019
Network Inventory Advisor
Automatically collect all relevant data on all network devices and get detailed OS and devices statistics.
Network Inventory Advisor for Windows scans Windows, Mac OS X, Linux computers and SNMP devices, any of them will count as a node.

What Is Network Monitoring?

Network monitoring is broadly defined as any systematic effort to keep track of network resources and detect slow or failing network components.

Network monitoring is concerned with the following network resources:

  • Routers: Think of routers as traffic cops that direct the flow of traffic. Routers choose the best path for data packets to travel in a network, connecting users and devices to the internet. Routers are located at gateways, which are places where two or more networks connect.

  • Switches: The purpose of switches is to filter and forward packets between various LAN segments. Unlike routers, which are Layer 3 devices, switches typically operate at Layer 2 of the OSI model, allowing connections to multiple devices, managing ports, and being responsible for VLAN security settings.

  • Firewalls: By controlling incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules firewalls (which may be implemented both as software applications and hardware devices) establish a barrier between a trusted internal network and an untrusted external network, acting as network security systems that monitor and control traffic.

  • Servers: There are various types of servers out there, and they all provide a service to another computer program and its user, who is typically referred to as the client. Servers may be dedicated machines or virtual environments that share hardware and software resources with other operating systems.

All of the above-described network resources form the lifeline of the IT infrastructure, which is why it’s so important to keep track of them all the time. When a network resource fails, it can cause prolonged downtime and even bring the entire organization that relies on it to its knees.

“It’s important to keep track of network resources form the lifeline of the IT infrastructure all the time”

Back in the day, network monitoring was a fairly simple affair because networks were much smaller and more static than they are today. But times have changed, and networks have become significantly more dynamic. Network administrators are constantly adding new users, implementing new technology, and making far-reaching network modifications to keep up with the relentless pace of technological progress.

What’s more, there are many IT organizations that are subject to Service Level Agreements, or SLAs, which are essentially contracts defining the level of service expected from the service provider. Meeting SLA commitments is possible only with a highly optimized network, which is where the best network monitoring tools come in.

What Should I Look for in a Network Monitor Solution?

There are literary hundreds of network monitoring tools, but not all of them have all the features network monitoring tools should have. For starters, network monitoring should be proactive. They should be able to automatically conduct comprehensive network audits, scanning hundreds of devices in a matter of minutes.

Network monitoring tools should also be able to alert network administrators when problems arise so they can intervene as soon as possible, way before the problems have a chance to impact users, applications, and the business itself.

It’s always a good idea to select a network monitor tool that supports a wide array of network devices and a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Sometimes, organizations adopt a network monitoring tool that can support only certain network devices, only to discover a few years later that the needs of the organization have completely changed, making the network monitoring tool obsolete.

The best network monitoring tools must be intuitive and easy-to-use. Even though IT professionals are used to complicated software applications that would leave most regular users puzzled, they can still be far more productive with a software application that has been designed with usability in mind.

Price is, of course, always something to consider when selecting a network monitoring solution, and it’s important to keep in mind that free networking monitoring tools are rarely worth their attractive price of zero dollars. The best network monitoring tools tend to be free to try and priced in such a way that anyone from small businesses to large enterprises can afford them.

Which Network Monitoring Tool Is Best?

Selecting a single best Network Monitoring Tool is far from easy, but Network Inventory Advisor stands out as a cost-effective solution that makes network monitoring surprisingly easy. Network Inventory Advisor works on Windows and macOS, and it can monitor every computer running Windows, macOS, or Linux.

In addition to hardware assets, Network Inventory Advisor can keep track of installations, software versions, licenses, and services on all computers. Its unique license aggregation functionality can recognize most major software products from more than 500 vendors.

Network Inventory Advisor

Network Inventory Advisor boasts powerful reporting capabilities that IT departments can use to better communicate with non-IT managers and other stakeholders. Network administrators can schedule automatic network scans, and Network Inventory Advisor is able to send notifications when it detects network issues.

These and many other features make Network Inventory Advisor the best network monitoring tool for organizations of all sizes. Anyone can download Network Inventory Advisor for free from its official website and use it for up to 15 days to see what it has to offer without making any financial commitments.

Editor’s choice 2019
Network Inventory Advisor
Automatically collect all relevant data on all network devices and get detailed OS and devices statistics.
Network Inventory Advisor for Windows scans Windows, Mac OS X, Linux computers and SNMP devices, any of them will count as a node.

Get the Best Performance of Your Network

To be able to quickly address and solve network performance problems the perfect visibility is needed, especially in the complex environment of today's IT business. With ever popular cloud services and people constantly bringing their own devices it is rather important to be able to see who is consuming the WAN resources.

By performing a regular network monitoring procedure you can ensure the accurate performance of your servers and the network as well as their availability. And it doesn't matter if your company is big or small, when it's efficient it produces impressive results. The right network discovery software will always notify you of the outages, help optimize the bandwidth and hardware usage according to the deep monitoring analysis.

Network Inventory Advisor is a friendly monitoring solution for checking bandwidth and keeping an eye on network performance, usage, and availability.

What to Monitor and How

Ideally the network performance monitoring tools should be comprehensive and friendly. Network monitoring tools are expected to be tough enough to cover the whole enterprise despite its size. Tools like that also need to be able to span all layers of the network stack. Without a versatile helper, IT will struggle to find the root of the problem, whether it is the app, system, server, or core network elements.

With a great network monitoring solution complex network problems are solved quickly and effectively. Permanent issues with data transmission over network are easier to discover than the intermittent spikes. More than that some issues are on the surface, while some are deeply hidden at the level of a service provider. You need true network monitoring tools like Network Inventory Advisor to pinpoint complex problems like that and solve them brilliantly.

First-rate network performance is usually achieved thanks to proper network management and monitoring tools, but those tools should correspond with the following:

  • Horizontal breadth (the complete purview of the enterprise);

  • Vertical depth (working through the seven layers of network to organize application, server, and network performance data);

  • Real-time and back-in-time views (showing and assessing current and past information to find the root of any problems that arise);

  • Simple interface (a centralized organization and display from all data sources of easy-to-analyze charts, graphs, and reports).

Monitor the Performance of Your Network and Servers

Constant network and server monitoring make you efficient in responding to a problem right on time and solving it fast. Network Inventory Advisor helps make your business even better:

  • Get rid of network performance bottlenecks;

  • Offer better service to users by being proactive;

  • Save money by paying for bandwidth and devices in consonance with your real needs;

  • Eliminate undetected system failures;

  • Stop worrying about something going wrong in the IT department. The network is operating perfectly well and you can concentrate on other important business.

Network Monitoring Software Helps You Optimize Your Network Infrastructure

Network Inventory Advisor is a network monitoring tool that keeps an eye on your network structure and helps you keep everything running smoothly with no outages. The app is easy to install and set up. With its help, you will quickly get the information on software titles and installations throughout the network, antivirus updates, and subscriptions, the disk space usage, how automatic updates are set up, offline assets and more. You can also view and track changes to the software and hardware on the monitored network.

Network Inventory Advisor is especially good for:

  • Eliminating the losses caused by undetected system failures;

  • Reducing expenses by knowing exactly how much bandwidth and hardware you need;

  • Getting rid of server performance issues and network bottlenecks;

  • Being proactive and thus improving the quality of service.
Editor’s choice 2019

Network Inventory Advisor
is the best Monitoring Tool

Automatically collect all relevant data on all network devices and get detailed OS and devices statistics. Add custom data. Track important changes in your network.

You are getting 15-day, fully featured trial version.