9 - Network Maintenance, Monitoring, and Control

Abstract

The monitoring of traffic patterns in network help to identify network segments that are under- or overloaded. Network monitoring (often referred to as “network management”) can be performed with wide range of software packages. This chapter introduces the sampling of those software packages and their capabilities. Network monitoring software can also be used for network discovery, a process through which software traverses the network to discover its layout. This is of particular use when inheriting the management of a network that has grown without planning, and it is unknown what devices are connected or the way the network is configured. Network magic is a network discovery and management tool designed for the smallest of networks. Network magic scans the network and creates a network map. LANsurveyor is a commercial networking management and discovery tool. The software, which can run from either a Windows or Mac OS X machine, communicates with devices that run simple network management protocol (SNMP ), using a piece of client software known as a “responder.”