Monitor Your Network

You can use LANsurveyor as a real-time network monitor and receive immediate notification of system failures. LANsurveyor's Poll Lists can measure network latency, allowing you to track the health of your network. The TCP Port Monitor tests the availability of applications and services on your network.

Use this tutorial to set up Poll List and TCP Port monitoring with LANsurveyor. To learn about LANsurveyor's optional intrusion detection system, Continuous Scan, view the Continuous Scan tutorial.

Step 1 of 10: Draw a Map

Use the map you created in Draw Your Network Map or create a new map that includes the computers and/or devices you would like to monitor.

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Step 2 of 10: Set Alerts

The first step in setting up your Poll List is to set up Alerts. Alerts allow you to receive immediate notification of network problems.

Select Alerts from the Edit menu to see your configured alerts.

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Initially, only the Default alert is displayed. Click on Default and then the Duplicate button.

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Use a name for the alert that has some meaning to you and your organization such as Critical, Servers, or Routers. You may have as many different named alerts as you would like.

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After you create your new alert, change the settings to be appropriate for your organization. Modify the options by clicking directly into the field or clicking on the appropriate check box. Click Test to make sure your alert settings work. Click OK when you have finished setting alerts. (You can always add more alerts later.)

Step 3 of 10: Poll List Wizard

Click on the New Poll List toolbar icon or select New Poll List from the Monitor>Poll menu. The Poll List Setup Wizard is displayed.

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Any selected map nodes are already selected. To select nodes, click on the check box next to the node then click Next.

Step 4 of 10: Set Polling Rate and Alert Options

Set your polling rate and alert options. Use the alerts you set up earlier in the tutorial.

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You can receive alerts when a system on your list can't be contacted after any number of retries, and you can receive alerts when the system can be contacted again. Click Finish once you have set your polling rate and alerts. The completed Poll List is displayed.

Step 5 of 10: Start Polling

Once you've set up the Poll List, select Start Polling from the Poll menu or click Start Polling to begin polling.

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Step 6 of 10: Save and Modify Poll List

You can save and name your Poll List by selecting Save from the File menu. If you want to add or subtract nodes or change your polling options, select Modify Poll List from the Poll menu or click Modify Poll List .

If you would like to chart the throughput of any of your SNMP-supported network devices or create Quality of Service (QoS) reports, consider trying our CyberGauge software.

Step 7 of 10: TCP Port Monitor

LANsurveyor also allows you to monitor availability of applications and services on your network through TCP Port Monitoring. Select Window>TCP Port Monitor to view the TCP Port Monitoring window. You can monitor 20 nodes with the basic version of LANsurveyor and one additional node with each Neon Responder license you add on.

Click on the Modify button to select the nodes to monitor in the wizard, then right-click in the appropriate cell to enable monitoring of the node in that row and the port in that column.

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Step 8 of 10: Set TCP Port Monitor Options

Click on the Options button on the TCP Port Monitor window or select TCP Port>Options from the Monitor menu to set the TCP Port Monitor options.

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Specify the number of retries LANsurveyor should use before warning or declaring the TCP port "down" as well as the number of seconds LANsurveyor should wait for a response from the TCP port.

The Default Options section includes the monitoring rate (in minutes) as well as the alert actions to take when port up, down, or warning conditions are triggered. Alerts are edge-triggered. For example, if a TCP Port is not responding after the specified number of retries, LANsurveyor will send the selected alert. No further "down" alert will be sent unless the port becomes available and then fails again.

Step 9 of 10: Custom Port Options

Some nodes and/or services may be more important than others or may be monitored by different people. LANsurveyor allows you to override the Default Options for any cell on the TCP Port Monitor window. Once monitoring is enabled in the cell, right-click in the cell, select Options, click Use these options for this service and specify the cell-specific monitoring rate and alerts.

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Step 10 of 10: Start/Stop Monitoring

Click on the Start button or select Start Monitoring from the Monitor>TCP Port menu to start monitoring.

Click on the Stop button or select Stop Monitoring from the Monitor>TCP Port menu to stop monitoring.

While waiting for the status of the TCP Port, LANsurveyor displays an empty circle . If the port responds and the ASCII text received from the port matches the expected result for the TCP server in question, a green dot is displayed; if there is no response, a red dot is displayed. A warning dot is displayed when the TCP port is responding, but the ASCII text received does not match the expected result for the TCP server in question. An alert is triggered when the number of retries set in Options has been reached.