Total Network Monitor

A tool to continuously manage a local area network and to monitor its performance.

Pros: Total Network Monitor enables a local area network (LAN) administrator to monitor the performance of the network from a single location. This location is the Network Management Center at the center of the Total Network Monitor solution, which as its name suggest allows the LAN administrator to manage the network in addition to monitoring. A number of aspects such as the HTTP, FTP, SMTP & POP3 servers functionality, the states of a number of services, an event log, the Registry entries on a number of machines can all be checked at a central location. It allows an administrator to create monitor lists for utilities, services, file systems, etc. – each monitor consists of a probe which continuously probes a particular device or service (port number) to see if it is functioning properly (how often is customizable and determined by the administrator) and actions which are list of things to do in case of a failure or error being determined.

Cons: Generally, there is little to complain about its overall working and usability. The question though, is that which computer is the Network Management Center going to be located at. Supposing you had created monitor lists and so on, but that particular computer goes down. This can potentially be a problem. The other thing is that the approach taken to monitoring is a probing approach, and one that necessarily requires some understanding of what’s going on to use it effectively. So it is preferable for more experienced administrators. But then those more experienced administrators may prefer more advanced tools (which do more than just probing).

Overall: 4 stars. 5 stars also possible. It works well and has a decent interface. The problem might be the probing approach it takes to monitoring, which requires a fair amount of prior knowledge on the part of the administrator.

Monitor large and medium networks without leaving your chair! Total Network Monitor looks after your LAN no matter how large, raising alerts automatically if certain events occur. Watch network performance and get notified about the problems immediately with a variety of alerting options. You won't miss a problem no matter where you are! Total Network Monitor can notify you by email or by phone, while making an attempt to fix the problem by launching an action or your custom script.
Total Network Monitor makes it easy to control your entire LAN without leaving your chair. A number of network monitoring alert notification options will ensure you are aware of a problem in LAN performance no matter where you are. Thanks to the many available tests, probes, and automatic scans executed by Total Network Monitor, network monitoring becomes as simple and automated as possible.
The network monitoring tool can probe the Internet, test Windows, and scan files to ensure the best performance of your entire network. The ability to scan ICMP, TCP, HTTP, POP/SMTP, FTP, and IMAP protocols makes Total Network Monitor the most complete network monitoring product. Windows performance commands are just a click away, including Registry, Event Log, and Service State tools. Remote file systems are easy to check with easy network monitoring functions.
The network monitoring suite is fully able to build a network topology map completely automatically by launching a comprehensive scan of the network. If a new PC is added to your LAN, it will appear on the map created by Total Network Monitor.
Just look at the network monitoring window to see how your LAN is performing at the moment. Every feature of Total Network Monitor is just a click away. You can arrange the presentations by device, event, or monitors to see how every part of your LAN is performing.