There are a number of free network scanner tools, apps and utilities for Mac OS X if you’re looking to monitor the devices connected to you LAN or even the specific packets that are traveling to and from your LAN. In the video above, I go over 5 different tools that you can use to monitor your network traffic on a Mac OS X computer. Open source Network monitoring for MAC OS X - Open Source Software Directory - The best open source and free software for at home or in business. Tools: lists for network monitoring. 26 Best Network Monitoring Tools and Software. a review of the best free and paid network monitoring tools. Best Cisco Network Monitoring Tools reveals a list of the top five Cisco monitoring tools. For each one, there is a brief review of the product and its best features.

Way back in 2015, we reviewed the must-have top free networking tools. And honestly, those reviews have stood the test of time. But now that time has passed, the landscape has changed, and we think it’s worthwhile to review those old choices and possibly add a few new ones.

Manage and maintain Windows®, Linux® and Mac® OS servers, workstations & laptops. Wrapped in a single, all-in-one solution, Naverisk provides tools for device and network scanning & IP monitoring, alerting, auditing, patching, reporting, ticketing, workflow, automation, scripting, and much more. Intel® Power Gadget is a software-based power usage monitoring tool enabled for Intel® Core™ processors (from 2nd Generation up to 10th Generation Intel® Core™ processors). Intel® Atom™ processors are not supported. For Mac Using the Intel® Power Gadget API on Mac OS X. For Windows Using the Intel® Power Gadget API on Windows. Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack. I’m a big fan of this bandwidth monitoring software bundle from.

Laying the Foundation

To build a network, you start with an architecture, draw the design, and analyze and choose the hardware that meets your requirements. Because many organizations need their network to be up and functioning to generate revenue, having the right set of tools to monitor and manage the one you so lovingly created is critical.

But how do you find the best network monitoring tools when there are hundreds of commercial products, freeware tools, and open-source software to choose from? While the debate about free versus commercial goes on, there are tried and tested, free network monitoring tools that many network admins swear by. Below, we will share some of our favorites with you.

But first…

Open-source choices are good and can even match commercial tools, but you should know that using open-source monitoring requires a high level of involvement with the tool, which may not perfectly suit your needs. As the saying goes, “Open-source is only free if your time is worthless.”

Open-source monitoring solutions often require a significant investment in time and resources. Missing features may have to be built with the help of community support or an in-house IT team. The second consideration is security, which may become an issue, depending on the tool you select and your enterprise’s security guidelines. Additionally, immediate custom fixes may not be available unless you spend time developing and maintaining them yourself.

When we need a network monitoring tool that is easy to install, and supports monitoring and reporting out of the box, we like SolarWinds^® Network Performance Monitor (NPM). NPM acts as a single pane of glass to provide complete and comprehensive network monitoring capabilities that complement some of the essential free tools you may already use.

Knowledge Base

Because enterprise networks are becoming bigger and more complex, it’s important to put network monitoring and managing solutions in place early in the implementation phase.

What’s on the list?

If you do decide to go the free/open-source route, you should check out the following. It’s our list of the best free network monitoring tools available today.

Nagios Core

Nagios^® is the great-grand-daddy of monitoring tools, with only ping being more ubiquitous in some circles.

Nagios is popular due to its active development community and external plug-in support. You can create and use external plugins in the form of executable files or Perl^® and shell scripts to monitor and collect metrics from every hardware and software used in a network. There are plugins that provide an easier and better GUI, address many limitations in the Core^®, and support features, such as auto discovery, extended graphing, notification escalation, and more.

Cacti

Cacti^® is another of the monitoring warhorses that has endured as a go-to for network monitoring needs. It allows you to collect data from almost any network element, including routing and switching systems as well as firewalls, and put that data into robust graphs. If you have a device, it’s possible that Cacti’s active community of developers has created a monitoring template for it.

Cacti supports SNMP polling, which itself covers a wide range of network devices. You can also extend Cacti’s capabilities to use scripts, queries, or commands for data collection, and save it as a template to use for polling other devices for similar datasets. Cacti leverages the power of RRDTool, an open-source data logging and graphing system for creating graphs from the stored datasets. RRDTool’s data consolidation lets you store collected data forever and is limited only by the size of your storage. Cacti also allows you to add multiple users and give them access with or without edit permissions, which is perfect for service providers and enterprises with a large NOC team.

Zabbix

Admittedly complex to set up, Zabbix^® comes with a simple and clean GUI that makes it easy to manage, once you get the hang of it. Zabbix supports agentless monitoring using technologies such as SNMP, ICMP, Telnet, SSH, etc., and agent-based monitoring for all Linux^® distros, Windows^® OS, and Solaris^®. It supports a number of databases, including MySQL^®, PostgreSQL^™, SQLite, Oracle^®, and IBM^® DB2^®. Zabbix’s VMware^® monitoring capabilities allow you to customize using any scripting or programming language, which is widely regarded as its best feature.

Zabbix is probably the most widely used open-source network monitoring tool after Nagios.

ntop

ntop, which is now ntopng (ng for next generation), is a traffic probe that uses libpcap (for packet capture) to report on network traffic. You can install ntopng on a server with multiple interfaces and use port mirroring or a network tap to feed ntopng with the data packets from the network for analysis. ntopng can analyze traffic even at 10G speeds; report on IP addresses, volume, and bytes for each transaction; sort traffic based on IP, port, and protocol; generate reports for usage; view top talkers; and report on AS information. This level of traffic analysis helps you make informed decisions about capacity planning and QoS design and helps you find bandwidth-hogging users and applications in the network. ntopng has a commercial version called ntopng pro that comes with some additional features, but the open-source version is good enough to quickly gain insight into traffic behavior. ntop can also integrate with external monitoring applications such as Nagios for alerting and provide data for monitoring.

ntopng has some limitations, but the level of network traffic visibility it provides makes it well worth the effort.

Icinga

Built on top of MySQL and PostgreSQL, Icinga is Nagios backwards-compatible, meaning if you have an investment in Nagios scripts, you can port them over with relative ease.

Icinga was created in 2009 by the same group of devs that made Nagios, so they knew their stuff. Since then, the developers have made great strides in terms of expanding both functionality and usability since then. As the Nagios pedigree might imply, its primary focus is monitoring infrastructure and services.

Spiceworks

Spiceworks offers many free IT management tools, including inventory management, help desk workflow, and even cloud monitoring, in addition to the network monitoring solution I’m focusing on here. Built on agentless techniques like WMI (for Windows machines) and SNMP (for network and *nix systems), this free tool can provide insights into many network performance issues. You can also set up customizable notifications and restart services from within the app.

Note that Spiceworks is free because most of its revenue comes from the sale of ad displays in its network. It’s a small price to pay for a free solution, but it’s something to think about before you install.

Observium Community

Observium follows the “freemium” model that is now espoused by most of the open-source community—a core set of features for free, with additional options if you pay for them. While the “Community” (i.e., free) version supports an unlimited number of devices, Observium is still careful to say that it’s meant for home lab use. This is bolstered by the fact that the free version cannot scale past a single server. Run this on your corporate network at your own risk!

The free version also enjoys a 6-month patch and update cycle. If you want fixes any faster than twice a year, you’ll have to pay for them. One of the most painful features held back from the free version is the lack of alerting capabilities. Those caveats aside, you get a full auto-discovery of your devices and metrics (using SNMP and standard protocols, as usual).

Related Top Tools for Network Monitoring

There are a few tools that aren’t monitoring solutions per-se but are so incredibly useful to the monitoring professional that we didn’t feel right leaving them out.

Wireshark

Wireshark^® is an open-source packet analyzer that uses libpcap (*nix) or winpcap (Windows) to capture packets and display them on its graphical front-end, while also providing good filtering, grouping, and analysis capabilities. It lets users capture traffic at wire speed or read from packet dumps and analyze details at microscopic levels. Wireshark supports almost every protocol, and has functionalities that filter based on packet type, source, destination, etc. It can analyze VoIP calls, plot IO graphs for all traffic from an interface, decrypt many protocols, export the output, and lots more.

Wireshark provides unlimited opportunities to study packets, which makes it a solid go-to for network, system, and security admins.

Nmap

Nmap uses a discovery feature to find hosts in the network that can be used to create a network map. Network admins value it for its ability to gather information from the host about the Operating System, services, or ports that are running or are open, MAC address info, reverse DNS name, and more.

Scalability is the other big reason why network admins love Nmap. It can scan a single host or an entire network with “hundreds of thousands” of machines.

When you need to quickly map the hosts in your network, Nmap is your tool.

Free Network Monitoring Tools

Most of the tools we’ve focused on in this post have been of the “freemium” variety—a limited set of features (or support) for free, with additional features, support, or offerings available for a cost.

But there is a whole other class of tools which are just free-free. They do a particular task very well, and there is no cost (with the exception of the odd pop-up ad during installation). We wanted to take a moment to dig into a few of the tools that are in “network_utilities” directories on our systems and frequently use.

Also, we want to be clear that the list below isn’t meant to be (or even appear) exhaustive. There are many, MANY useful free network monitoring tools out there, and which ones an IT pro uses is often up to personal preference or the specifics of their work environment. We’re listing out the ones we’ve found in our travels and use often.

Traceroute NG

Ping is great. Traceroute is better. But both fall short in modern networks (and especially with internet-based targets because the internet is intrinsically multi-path). A packet has multiple ways to get to a target at any moment. You don’t need to know how a SINGLE packet got to the destination; you need to know how ALL the packets are moving through the network across time. Traceroute NG does that and avoids the single biggest roadblock to ping and traceroute accuracy—ICMP suppression—at the same time.

Bandwidth Monitor

If you are doing simple monitoring, the first question you’re going to want to know is, “is it up?” Following closely on the heels of that is, “how much bandwidth is it using?” Yes, it’s a simplistic question and an answer that may not really point to a problem (because let’s be honest, a circuit that’s 98% utilized most of the time is called “correctly provisioned” in our book), but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to know. This tool gets that information quickly, simply, and displays the results clearly.

Response Time Viewer for Wireshark

We mentioned Wireshark over in the non-monitoring monitoring tools section because of its flexibility, utility, and ubiquity. But the “-ity” that was left out was “simplicity.” That sucker can be HARD to learn to use, especially for new network engineers fresh on the job. This utility will take Wireshark data and parse it out to show some important statistics simply and clearly. Specifically, it collects, compares, and displays the time for a three-way-handshake versus the time-to-first-byte between two systems. Effectively, it shows you whether a perceived slowdown is due to the network (three-way handshake) or application response (time to first byte). This can be an effective way to narrow down your troubleshooting work and focus on solving the right problem faster.

IP SLA Monitor

IP SLA is one of the most often-overlooked techniques in a monitoring specialist’s arsenal. Relegated to being “that protocol for VoIP,” the reality is that IP SLA operations can tell you much more than jitter, packet loss, and MOS. You can test a remote DHCP server to see if it has addresses to hand out, check the response of DNS from anywhere within your company, verify that essential services like FTP and HTTP are running, and more.

So, this free tool is something of a secret weapon for engineers who need to get miraculous tasks done on the cheap.

What have we learned?

Here in 2020, monitoring professionals have almost an embarrassment of riches when it comes to free and open-source solutions to help us do our jobs. While none of these free tools are exactly push-button simple to install, maintain, or use, if your budget for tools is close to non-existing and you have the time to invest, they may fit the bill. Otherwise, we’d recommend using a tool like SolarWinds NPM, which is easy to install and supports motioning and reporting right out of the box.

The realm of Network Monitoring Tools, Software and Vendors is Huge, to say the least. New software, tools and utilities are being launched almost every year to compete in an ever changing marketplace of IT monitoring and server monitoring.

We've now in the new decade and as we're looking into 2020, you absolutely need a solution that fits all your criteria!

We've gone through as many tools as we could find and rounded up the best ones in easy to read format and highlighted their main strengths and why we think they are in the top class of tools to use in your IT infrastructure and business.

Some of the features we are looking for are Uptime/Downtime indicators, along with a robust and thorough alerting systems (via Email/SMS), custom templates and thresholds, Netflow and SNMP Integration, Automatic Network Topology Discovery and Mapping functionality, and much more.

The features from above were all major points of interest when evaluating software suites for this article and we'll try to keep this article as updated as possible with new feature sets and improvements as they are released, as newer versions of the tools below will likely be released throughout the years.

Here's a List of Top Network Monitoring Tools and Software of 2020:

Below you'll find an Updated list of the Latest Tools & Software to ensure your network is continuously tracked and monitored at all times of the day to ensure the highest up-times possible. Most of them have free Downloads or Trials to get you started for 15 to 30 days to ensure it meets your requirements.

1. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor is easy to setup and can be ready in no time. The tool automatically discovers network devices and deploys within an hour. Its simple approach to oversee an entire network makes it one of the easiest to use and most intuitive user interfaces.

The product is highly customizable and the interface is easy to manage and change very quickly. You can customize the web-based performance dashboards, charts, and views. You can design a tailored topology for your entire network infrastructure. You can also create customized dependency-aware intelligent alerts and much more.

The software is sold by separate modules based on what you use. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Price starts from $1,995 and is a one-time license including 1st-year maintenance.

Best Free Network Monitoring Tools For Mac

Solarwinds NPM has an Extensive Feature list that make it One of the Best Choices for Network Monitoring, including:

• Automatically Network Discovery and Scanning for Wired and Wifi Computers and Devices
• Support for Wide Array of OEM Vendors
• Forecast and Capacity Planning
• Quickly Pinpoint Issues with Network Performance with NetPath™ Critical Path visualization feature
• Easy to Use Performance Dashboard to Analyze Critical Data points and paths across your network
• Robust Alerting System with options for Simple/Complex Triggers
• Monitor CISCO ASA networks with their New Network Insight™ for CISCO ASA.
• Monitor ACL‘s, VPN, Interface and Monitor on your Cisco ASA
• Monitor Firewall rules through Firewall Rules Browser
• Hop by Hop Analysis of Critical Network Paths and Components
• Automatically Discover Networks and Map them along with Topology Views
• Manage, Monitor and Analyze Wifi Networks within the Dashboard
• Create HeatMaps of Wifi Networks to pin-point Wifi Dead Spots
• Monitor Hardware Health of all Servers, Firewalls, Routers, Switches, Desktops, laptops and more.
• Real-Time Network and Netflow Monitoring for Critical Network Components and Devices

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2. PRTG Network Monitor from Paessler

PRTG Network Monitor software is commonly known for its advanced infrastructure management capabilities. All devices, systems, traffic, and applications in your network can be easily displayed in a hierarchical view that summarizes performance and alerts. PRTG monitors IT infrastructure using technology such as SNMP, WMI, SSH, Flows/Packet Sniffing, HTTP requests, REST APIs, Pings, SQL and a lot more.

It is one of the best choices for organizations with low experience in network monitoring. The user interface is really powerful and very easy to use.

A very particular feature of PRTG is its ability to monitor devices in the datacenter with a mobile app. A QR code that corresponds to the sensor is printed out and attached to the physical hardware. The mobile app is used to scan the code and a summary of the device is displayed on the mobile screen.

PRTG has a very flexible pricing plan, to get an idea visit their official pricing webpage below.

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3. ManageEngine OpManager

At its core, ManageEngine OpManager is an infrastructure management, network monitoring and Application Performance Management “APM” (with APM plug-in) software.
The product is well balanced when it comes to monitoring and analysis features.

The solution can manage your network, servers, network configuration and fault & performance; It can also analyze your network traffic. To run Manage Engine OpManager, it must be installed on-premises.

A highlight of this product is that it comes with pre-configured network monitor device templates. These contain pre-defined monitoring parameters and intervals for specific device types.
The essential edition product can be purchased for $595 which allows up to 25 devices.

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4. WhatsUp Gold 2017

WhatsUp Gold (WUG) is a network monitoring software from Ipswitch. It is one of the easiest to use and highly configurable tools in the market. The dashboards are user-friendly and visually attractive.

For daily IT management, WhatsUp Gold is a price/feature balanced network monitoring tool. It is also completely customizable. Dashboards can be customized to display your IT infrastructure and alerts to fit your requirements.

The highlights of the newest 2017 Plus version are hybrid cloud monitoring, real-time performance monitoring, automatic and manual failover and extended visibility to distributed networks.
WhatsUp Gold is limited for Windows OS support. This software comes with different pricing plans to adjust to your network and wallet. Compare different editions in their official website and ask for a price quote.

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5. Nagios XI

Nagios XI is aimed at a wide audience, from freelancers, SMBs (Small-to-Medium-Business), to large corporations. This makes Nagios’s XI pricing model one of the most flexible. They have a free version, open-source, one-time license and subscription. It is one of the few tools that allows an extreme flexibility (because of its adaptability to plug-ins) on what’s being monitored and alerted for a low cost.

Nagios XI focuses on monitoring. The key IT components that Nagios XI monitors are Network, Infrastructure, and Database. Although the software is easy to install, it will initially take some time to adjust to your requirements. This is because Nagios XI does not auto-discover devices. You have to configure each device that needs to be monitored with a configuration file.

Standard paid edition starts from $1,995 for 100 nodes. Nagios XI is supported only by Linux (or UNIX variants) OS.

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6. Zabbix

Zabbix is an open source monitoring tool. It is popular for its easy-to-use and pleasing Web GUI that is fully configurable. Zabbix focuses on monitoring and trending functionality. This software is frequently used for monitoring servers and network hardware. One of the highlights of Zabbix is that it can predict trends in your traffic. Zabbix can forecast future behavior based on historical data.

Since it is open source, it has an active user community spread around the world and good documentation. Zabbix gives the freedom to use the open-source solution without vendor lock-ins (including all components).

Zabbix is powerful for SMB networks below 1,000 nodes. Over that, the software can get slower and its performance decreased. Another disadvantage is that it doesn’t include real-time tests and reports.

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7. Incinga

It is another open source infrastructure and service monitoring tool. Icinga was developed in 2009 by the same team of developers that brought you Nagios.
It is a very easy to use and flexible tool for SMB and enterprise networks. The software focuses strongly on monitoring infrastructure and services. The tool also includes great threshold analysis and report/alert functionalities.

Icinga is popular at providing superior alters and reports of the general health of your IT infrastructure. All alert dependencies can be displayed in the dashboard and sent via email, SMS or mobile message applications.

Since Icinga is open source it is completely free. With its strong community forum, you can get all support you need.

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8. Datadog

It is a monitoring service specially designed for hybrid cloud environments. Datadog can also monitor the performance of network, apps, tools, and services.

One of the highlights of Datadog is that it can provide extensibility though many APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) with very good documentation.

The software is very easy to install and can be up and running in on time. To make it easy, agents can download and install the software. The agents are available for various different platforms such as Windows, Mac OS, Several Linux distributions, Docker, Chef, Puppet, etc.

You can create custom graphs, metrics, and alerts in an instant, and the software can adjust them dynamically based on different conditions. Datadog prices start from free (up to five hosts), Pro $15/per host, per month and Enterprise $23 /per host, per month.

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9. ConnectWise Automate

Formerly known as Labtech, ConnectWise Automate is a new cloud-based manager and monitoring solution that can keep track of your IT infrastructure devices from a single location.
ConnectWise Automate discovers all devices in your network so they can be monitored proactively. The network visibility is improved because the tool interprets problems and initiates an automatic pre-defined action to mitigate the issue.

A cool feature of this software is the “Patch Management”, as it allows you to protect all your systems with simultaneous patching from a centralized manager. Use Windows Patch management or third-party software.

By extending the ConnectWise suite, the software can also allow a premier remote control. You can resolve issues quickly by allowing remote support, remote access and even remote meetings.
ConnectWise Automate is aimed at SMBs. The price of the software is based on quotes. You can get a price on their official site tailored accordingly to the size of your network.

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10. Logic Monitor

LogicMonitor is an automated SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) IT performance monitoring tool. With LogicMonitor you can get full visibility of the performance and health of your network.
This software will automatically discover IT infrastructure devices and monitor them proactively. Besides from extraordinary monitoring capabilites, the software also improves the performance and health of your network. LogicMonitor can help identify incoming issues by providing predictive alters and trend analysis.

Logic Monitor is popular because it comes with a highly customizable dashboard, alerts, and reports. The software supports over 1000 different technologies, including hybrid cloud and networking devices, in order to provide granular performance metrics.

To get a price you can request a quote from LogicMonitor’s official pricing site.

Free Network Monitoring Tools For Mac

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Free Network Monitoring Tools For Mac

11. OP5 Monitor

OP5 Monitor is OP5’s Enterprise level monitoring solution. With OP5 Monitor you can monitor applications, networks, servers and storage, regardless of location, whether that’s on-premise, hybrid or in a private/public cloud.

OP5 Monitor is also Nagios compatible, meaning that it’s easy to migrate from Nagios and re-use existing agents and plugins.

Key features include:

• Unified Dashboard – Fully customizable and interactive dashboards
• Scalability- Unparalleled Scalability across Distributed Environments
• Automation – Endless Possibilities To Automate
• API- Developer Friendly Interface
• SNMP Traps – Read, process and generate alerts from SNMP traps
• Reporting – Custom, SLA- reports and availability reports.

OP5 Monitor is free for up to 20 devices, and has a pricing plan based on your specific requirements.

Network Monitoring Mac

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Remote Monitoring Mac

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SNMP, short for Simple Network Management Protocol, is a widely used protocol and an essential piece of any network management strategy. IT administrators use SNMP monitoring to detect and manage devices, gain insights into performance and availability, and ensure the health of their network. In this guide, I’ll break down everything you need to know about SNMP monitoring, such as what SNMP is, its major components, how it’s used, and how to install it. I also provide a list of the best SNMP monitoring tools currently available on the market ranked by features, including an in-depth review of my top pick: SolarWinds^® Network Performance Monitor.

What Is SNMP?
What Is SNMP Used For?
SNMP Versions
Key Components of SNMP Network Monitoring
How Does SNMP Work?
Tools for SNMP Monitoring
Choosing the Best SNMP Monitoring Tool

What Is SNMP?

SNMP is an application-layer protocol for the exchange of information between network devices. SNMP is not a product, but a set of guidelines anyone can access. It’s defined by the Internet Architecture Board and is part of the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) suite. The SNMP definition is managed and maintained by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and can be downloaded from their website for free.

SNMP is one of the most common protocols for managing and monitoring network components. It has complex but extremely useful functionalities, allowing network administrators to get network devices to communicate with each other regardless of the type of hardware used or the software they run. Without it, network management tools and programs wouldn’t be able to do their jobs. They wouldn’t be able to monitor performance, recognize devices, maintain a record of network changes, or gather real-time data on device statuses.

SNMP is supported on an impressive array of hardware, including wireless access points, routers, switches, gateways, scanners, printers, and even IoT devices. Beyond SNMP hardware monitoring, the protocol can be used to monitor services such as DHCP. SNMP agents are featured on the operating systems of devices you purchase, enabling activities from SNMP switch monitoring to wider SNMP network management.

To account for differences in device hardware or software, SNMP serves as a shared language, meaning devices can communicate within a single, multi-vendor environment. This functionality is applicable to local area networks and wide area networks.

What Is SNMP Used For?

SNMP can be used in any sized network, but it’s best for larger networks, where its benefits are most obvious. With SNMP, administrators of large networks don’t need to waste valuable time and resources manually logging into hundreds, or potentially thousands, of nodes. Combined with a network management system, SNMP lets you view, monitor, and manage the nodes via one interface. This interface usually has batch command and automatic alert functionalities, stripping away the need for grueling, manual tasks.

SNMP Versions

At this time, three SNMP versions have been developed. These are labeled by the IETF with a Request for Comments (RFC) number. The versions are outlined below.

1. RFC 1157: This is a refined version of the first SNMP definition, commonly referred to as SNMPv1. Due to its longevity—it’s been around since 1988—this is the version with the most implementations.
2. RFC 1901: This second version features improved error-handling functionalities. It evolved from the 1993 definition SNMPv2 and as such is known as SNMPv2c. It’s the most common variant of SNMPv2, the key difference being that it adopts a community-based authentication mode. A user-based authentication model, called SNMPv2u, is available, but isn’t used as often.
3. RFC 3410: This is the most recent version of SNMP. Called SNMPv3, it boasts advanced security and enhanced privacy utilities. These extra features make a big difference in terms of overall functionality and usefulness, so network administrators should prioritize this version. SNMPv3 has user-based authentication and can use transport layer protocols—such as SSH and TLS—to establish message encryption.
   Though it’s the best of the SNMP versions, SNMPv3 comes with some issues. The main one involves compatibility, which all network managers come up against, no matter their approach. New versions of a protocol, and migrating from an older version, can be a tricky business. In the case of SNMPv3, it defines access levels per user, rather than per device, which isn’t especially supportive or backward compatible with any devices running prior protocol iterations.
   Fortunately, this doesn’t need to be too disruptive, as you can install a basic translator to make your devices compatible with SNMPv3. The translator encrypts and converts incoming traps, or alert messages, to SNMPv3 standard.
   Though this solves one problem, it creates another. The messages sent through the translator, a remote terminal unit, aren’t secure, and if you have multiple sites, you’ll need a minimum of one translator for each of them.

Key Components of SNMP Network Monitoring

Before we look at how to use SNMP to monitor network activity, let’s look at the key components of its architecture. The foundation of an SNMP network comprises the following essential components:

• Managed devices
• SNMP agents
• Network management system
• SNMP manager
• Management information base
• SNMP messages

I’ll cover each of these in depth below.

Managed Devices

SNMP monitoring applies to network devices, including but not limited to routers, servers, workstations, printers, and switches.

SNMP Agents

Managed devices feature SNMP agents—when enabled, this software will undertake continual monitoring of device status and relay information to the network management system.

The SNMP agent is installed on a device and communicates with an external SNMP manager. When the agent is enabled, it maintains the device’s management information base and ensures the SNMP manager can access it when a query is received.

Agents have several key functionalities. These include collecting management information about the local environment, signaling an event to the manager, storing and retrieving management data, and acting as a proxy in the case of non-SNMP management network nodes.

Network Management System

To control SNMP, you must have a network management system, or NMS, which can be installed on any computer on the network. The NMS navigates and manages the system, compiling, storing, and requesting status information; the SNMP software agents respond to its requests. These agents and NMS communicate via the SNMP common language, which can provide key information on configuration changes and statuses.

SNMP Manager

Within the NMS, the SNMP manager is responsible for establishing communications with the SNMP agents. This reduces the need for the network administrator to communicate directly with each individual device. In large networks, there could be hundreds or even thousands of devices, so this saves time.

The key functions of the SNMP management tool include querying agents, getting replies from agents, establishing variables in agents, and recognizing asynchronous events. The SNMP standard lets you have more than one SNMP manager, though their responsibilities may overlap at times.

Management Information Base

The management information base (MIB) is maintained by the SNMP agent. It defines parameters for the managed device, the SNMP manager uses to inform its requests for certain data. The MIB then translates this data so it can be processed in the NMS. Put simply, the MIB files determine the questions the SNMP manager can ask the agent.

To elaborate, the structure of the MIB determines how the exchange of information in the SNMP system is formatted. Device information is collected by the appropriate agent, then stored locally in a device file. Once a request is received, the stored data serves as the response, displaying the status of the parameter queried by the SNMP manager.

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Management information bases are hierarchical databases, since use hierarchical notations to map statuses and conditions of managed objects—objects within a managed device. For example, in the case of a printer, managed objects include the states of the cartridges; in the case of a switch, they might include packet loss rate and traffic. Managed objects are identifiable by object identifiers, or OIDs. The device attributes supplied by the MIB can either be fixed or dynamic, as determined by the relevant SNMP agent for the device.

SNMP Messages

SNMP messages, also known as “protocol data units” (PDUs), are the requests and responses exchanged between the SNMP manager and the SNMP agents. They can take one of seven forms:

1. Trap: A trap is an alert message—for example, a trap might alert the SNMP manager to the failure of a device. SNMP trap monitoring is crucial, as it notifies you of issues so you can address them proactively.
2. Get: This is a basic information request. A Get message is the main way the SNMP manager gets information from an agent.
3. GetNext: As the name implies, a GetNext message sends for the next segment of information.
4. GetBulk: This lets the SNMP manager request an array of information via a sequence of GetNext requests, meaning a bigger segment of the MIB can be queried.
5. Set: Set messages allow the SNMP manager to give agent instructions regarding changes to settings on a monitored device.
6. Response: The response is simply the reply from the agent, acknowledging the request.
7. Inform: This is the SNMP manager’s version of the response message, acknowledging receipt of a trap.

How Does SNMP Work?

Activation vs. Installation

On most network devices, SNMP capabilities are pre-installed and ready to use. In instances where this isn’t the case, you can usually turn the SNMP functionalities on and off in the factory settings. Sometimes, by default, these SNMP capabilities are turned off, so check the settings when you first acquire your device.

As I mentioned earlier in this guide, there might be compatibility issues when implementing SNMPv3, which can be addressed by implementing an RTU translator. The same applies to network equipment issues. Say some of your hardware is old and isn’t compatible with SNMP. Installing an RTU establishes SNMP monitoring on the chosen device, enabling the sending of traps in case of errors.

File Storage

Once active, SNMP functionalities are ongoing and uninterrupted, set to fire up as soon as the operating system is turned on. Each operating system will store executable files in a different place, and possibly under a different name, so it’s worth getting familiar with how your operating system does this. Each network server will have multiple .mib files, created when the SNMP software agent is activated. For Windows, these files are under the Windows/System32 directory, while on Linux they’re in /usr/share/snmp/mib.

On-Premises vs. In the Cloud

SNMP managers comprise three key elements: a datastore, a user interface, and a collector. If you’re using a cloud-based network monitor, ensure the collector is installed; however, the datastore and interface software will be located remotely.

Conversely, an on-premises installation entails having the key components installed on a server. You have the choice of establishing your datastore either as a SQL database or as a file.

Initial Request

Once all the agents are active and operating correctly, they can reply to a collector’s Get request. The process of installation is fully complete when the first request is broadcast and picked up by the agents. After that, the interface software will put together an inventory based on the SNMP responses, eradicating the need to manually map your network. Now you’re ready to start monitoring and managing the health of your devices, as well as the overall network.

Tools for SNMP Monitoring

SNMP equips network admins to monitor their managed devices, allowing for the collection, organization, and modification of information related to device behavior. It offers efficiency, granularity, and accuracy in painting a picture of network health and performance. With good SNMP monitoring software, users can leverage the protocol to better monitor key metrics of device performance, receive and configure alerts, and undertake active polling. I’ve compiled a ranked list to help you find the one best suited to the needs of your organization.

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) tops my list of SNMP managers and SNMP monitoring tools. A few features of SolarWinds NPM push it to first place, including its automatic device discovery tool and interactive, dynamic dashboards. I also found the intelligent mapping feature especially useful, as its intuitive design can make data reading much easier.

I’ll start with the device discovery tool. While some other products include a similar feature, none of them can compete with the efficiency, speed, and ease of NPM. The device discovery tool can locate, map, and configure network nodes automatically once the program is installed, implementing agent software and instructing pre-loaded agents when appropriate. All of this contributes to an easy installation process.

Another strength of SolarWinds NPM is its single-page path analysis. It locates all your important data in one place for comparative and big-picture analyses, giving you a more in-depth and comprehensive view of critical network paths. This negates the common need to ask yourself if it’s the app or the network causing network slowdowns, making troubleshooting easier.

In terms of alerts, NPM features what I consider to be the best SNMP trap receiver available. Most products on the market feature an alerts system of some kind, but few of them—if any—offer the same degree of functionality. Other products’ alerts systems can lead to you feeling inundated with unnecessary alerts. It defeats the point of an alert if you’re getting too many: they start to seem meaningless and eventually, you could start ignoring them because they’re often irrelevant. This can make your network vulnerable.

For this reason, it’s crucial for you to have robust and reliable alerting functionalities. NPM lets you create and customize alerts according to nested trigger conditions, which can be as simple or complex as you like. This means the likelihood of getting irrelevant or uninformative alerts is significantly reduced.

As I mentioned earlier, the dynamic representation of data in NPM is a noteworthy advantage. The way data is visualized can potentially alter its meaning: if the representation is convoluted and difficult to understand, diagnosing issues can be a lengthy or impossible process. NPM features auto-generating network visualization maps, which organize data in a meaningful, intuitive way. This makes it easier to read and interpret data, saving you time by speeding up your troubleshooting processes.

The topology maps report on link utilization through color coding, and are generated automatically, making data visualization extremely simple. The console can also show a close-up of detected device details, offering an in-depth report. I valued NPM’s clean, comprehensible dashboards, which can keep troubleshooting from feeling like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Finally, most networks feature SNMP-enabled devices, but they’re sourced from a range of manufacturers. NPM employs a universal SNMP, so it’s great for multi-vendor networks.

NPM is an excellent SNMP monitoring tool for Windows Server and is also supported by Microsoft SQL Server. A fully functional 30-day free trial is available.

ManageEngine OpManager stands out for its trap receiver features; its processing element can manage 300 messages per second. The user receives collated feedback identifying any potential issues or equipment defects. OpManager’s trap features also include logging functions to take trap conditions into account, giving you a comprehensive overview of trap processes.

This SNMP management software, Windows and Linux compatible, lets you monitor critical metrics, including packet loss, speed, latency, errors, and discards. With OpManager, you can analyze bottlenecks and monitor CPU, disk utilization, and memory. It boasts multi-level thresholds, meaning you can set multiple thresholds for critical performance monitoring, and be alerted of any breaches or violations of those thresholds.

With features extending to network mapping, traffic analysis, network status monitoring, and VoIP traffic management, OpManager serves as a highly comprehensive SNMP tool. With its customizable dashboards, you can choose from and organize more than 200 performance widgets. I also like its integrated mobile app for Android and Apple, which lets you stay on top of real-time monitoring across devices. Via the app, you can perform basic troubleshooting, receive alarms and alerts, and customize your dashboard.

OpManager SNMP software is a fully integrated network management tool and operates on a device-based price plan, which has its advantages and its disadvantages. On the one hand, it makes sense to pay according to the number of devices you employ on your network. On the other hand, the three different editions—Standard, Professional, and Enterprise—increase in price according to the number of devices, so value decreases if users don’t maximize the number of devices allowed within their edition.

Although OpManager also offers a free SNMP monitoring tool, available for up to three devices and two users, it’s limited and basic in its functionality. Instead, I’d opt for the paid editions.

Paessler PRTG is a versatile tool offering three network monitoring methods, of which SNMP monitoring is one. The other two methods are packet sniffing and NetFlow. These are activated when network traffic analysis is undertaken, widening the scope. Used together, these three methodologies provide visibility of a range of network information, giving you a comprehensive overview as well as access to detailed analytical data across the levels.

PRTG differs from other tools on the market in its use of what Paessler calls “sensors.” These sensors are the basic monitoring elements of the tool. One sensor, for example, might monitor the CPU load of a server, while another sensor might monitor disk drive space. PRTG comes with multiple preconfigured SNMP sensors. They’ve even developed sensors specifically for device manufacturers like HP, Synology, Dell, and Cisco. I found the SNMP custom sensor, which lets you monitor devices from a range of manufacturers with SNMP, especially valuable.

I also like the tool’s built-in alerts feature, because it lets you designate your own threshold values. You can also choose how you’re notified of a breach or violation (e.g., via email, free push notification, or SMS). The notification system is user-friendly and can be customized to suit your needs.

As an SNMP client and monitoring tool, PRTG has several features vying for the spotlight, one of which is the SNMP tester included in the management console. This gives you more detailed information on reported alert conditions by trap message. Lastly, I enjoyed the PRTG dashboard, which gives you a dynamic view of your data in the form of graphs and dials.

The key disadvantage of PRTG is its sensor-based price plan. To keep the cost lower, some companies might be tempted to limit the number of sensors they use, which could potentially affect full network visibility.

Kaseya Network Monitor is a great SNMP monitor for Windows, offering monitoring of Windows performance registry counters and WMI queries. This agentless platform is integrated with Kaseya VSA, a network and system remote monitoring package. Kaseya VSA can be used to monitor everything from servers and hypervisors to routers and firewalls.

I liked Kaseya’s breadth of monitoring utilities, which include file and directory, log, database, SNMP trap, and mail quality-of-service monitoring. Of these, I found the file and directory monitoring functionality especially useful, because it lets you determine whether a file exists, as well as how many files are in a directory, the size of the directory, and the capacity.

Kaseya Network Monitor integrates a scripting language called Lua, which is simple and easy to use since the integrated development environment helps you assemble scripts. Lua lets you create customized automation programs. Moreover, the standard installation of Kaseya also features pre-established reports, as well as commands and routines, so you can get things going quickly.

Kaseya is available for 24 operating systems, including Windows, Linux, VMware, and Cisco IOS. Overall, Kaseya Network Monitor holds its own against many of its competitors, though it lacks the dynamic and varied visualization features offered by the higher-ranking products on this list. The dashboards aren’t as clean or comprehensive, and don’t offer the same in-depth degree of detail.

With SysAid, you can proactively monitor your SNMP assets. The SysAid Monitoring module automatically identifies specified event types, notifying the relevant parties if there’s a problem. It monitors services, processes, URL and webpage availability, hardware changes, software changes, critical hardware components, and ports. The program also covers CPU, hard drive usage, and memory, in addition to letting you receive traps from SNMP devices. You can create custom scripts for monitoring, which SysAid will run for you.

The alerts system is limited to notifications via email or SMS. I would’ve appreciated more options for notification, like push notifications to your smartphone. Moreover, SysAid Monitoring is not a standalone product, but is offered as part of the SysAid help desk and IT service management software. This may not be suitable for companies not wanting to adopt the full SysAid software package.

Free Network Monitoring Tools For Mac Os

I also found the dashboard more cluttered and overwhelming than most. Though it’s comprehensive, offering visualization of hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly data in graphical form, it’s not necessarily intuitive.

In short, SysAid Monitoring offers some nice functionalities, but is more limited, and at times less user-friendly, than the higher-ranking products on this list.

6. Pulseway IT Management Software

With Pulseway SNMP management software, Windows, Linux, and Mac users gain monitoring capabilities for a wide range of network elements: system resources, network performance, Windows updates, and SNMP-enabled devices, among many others.

One of the reasons I like Pulseway for SNMP monitoring is its compatibility with mobile devices. This utility lets you send on-the-go commands, fixing issues as they occur directly from your mobile device. A lot of mobile applications for monitoring software give you visibility of data, but don’t offer much opportunity to act. With Pulseway, you can run commands in terminal, restart services, manage processes, and apply updates from your mobile device.

I also like the focus on automation. You can create your own customized scripts, which can be used to automate all IT activities—backups, security checks, and more—potentially saving a lot of time. There’s also a rules base, where you can apply and categorize alert thresholds for SNMP trap signals. The response to an alert can be scripted, allowing for automated reporting and resetting of devices.

Although Pulseway has its merits, it doesn’t offer the same degree of sophisticated technologies as some other products on the market. For one thing, its alerts system could be more versatile, offering greater choice as to how notifications are received.

Atera is an SNMP monitoring tool with a great price plan. The pricing model is technician-based, boasting unlimited workstations and servers. You can even add extra customers without paying anything more. As far as paid programs go, this one has an attractive pricing system, giving you transparency and flexibility.

Atera offers a full MSP support package, which includes network monitoring functionalities as well as a help desk system. Atera’s program covers application usage and capacity, as well as generating invoices and log reports based on user activities. SNMP features in the network monitoring module, and SNMP traps are a core part of this.

I appreciated the real-time alerting utility Atera provides, as well as the remote access capacity, which lets you view and interact with your console via your mobile device. Though Atera doesn’t give SNMP monitoring the same amount of focus and attention as other products higher on this list, the price plan is attractive.

Spiceworks Network Monitor is a free tool specifically designed for SNMP monitoring—in other words, it isn’t just a module in a wider IT software package. Considering it’s free, you can expect a lot from Spiceworks. The dashboard is user-friendly and simple, and you can get the program set up in a few minutes.

You can set up SNMP-enabled devices as widgets on your dashboard, so you have constant visibility into critical device data. You can also configure the attributes shown, such as packet loss, packets, and I/O. This customization feature sets Spiceworks apart from other free SNMP managers on the market.

The alerting system is decent, providing a basic threshold-based approach, both on a global level and at the device level. You won’t have to learn any new programming languages, do any programming yourself, or implement any rules. On-screen and email notifications keep you apprised of any changes. Usefully, SNMP traps are displayed as alerts, which appear as a headline strap on the dashboard, making them difficult to miss.

Real-time performance graphs are a welcome feature, although they can make the dashboard look a bit cluttered. Nevertheless, they give you a wide scope of visibility, so you’re unlikely to overlook any important changes or issues.

While Spiceworks is a useful free tool, it’s best suited to small networks. If you need a sophisticated SNMP monitoring tool for a larger network, I recommend investing in a more comprehensive and robust paid solution. Spiceworks has a learning center and a big community forum, meaning you’ll have ongoing access to free support if you decide to download it.

EventSentry is a resource utilization monitor designed to give you visibility into how software and hardware are being used on your network. This program’s distinguishing feature is its security monitoring capability, which tracks user activity.

EventSentry can be configured to identify several issues, including multiple cross-server logins and any activity indicative of a threat, infection, or virus. It can also be set up to recognize multiple failed sign-in or authentication attempts, which could be a sign a hacking attempt is underway. EventSentry can trace the location of a suspicious source, conducting internet monitoring checks on incoming connection events and integrating details of the source into its activity reports. The threat intelligence capacity is impressive, alerting you to any malicious IPs, detecting and flagging port scans, and letting you view recent threads on your dashboard.

Overall, EventSentry is a useful SNMP monitoring tool for companies with a focus on security. It uses SNMP to monitor network equipment capacity, with SNMP traps collected by the network management console. A range of conditions—including storage capacity and memory availability—are regularly polled.

The latest version of EventSentry enables the use of multiple customized dashboards, as well as a mode to makes the console viewable on TVs. I found this feature especially unique, as it allows you to give your whole IT department full and constant visibility if desired. The web interface can be viewed in nine languages, which could be extremely useful for companies with global offices or multilingual employees.

EventSentry has some interesting Windows-specific features. This includes Windows registry tracking, which lets you track any changes made by a specific program, identify any user changes to the registry, search for registry actions in a comprehensive log, and view before and after values related to any changes.

The emphasis on network security over resource performance might be appealing to some, but for those who want to prioritize performance, I recommend using a different SNMP manager. In terms of the cost, EventSentry’s pricing is license-based. So, the price will vary according to how many licenses—whether for servers or workstations—you need.

This price plan lets you choose add-ons to accompany your package, customizing it to suit your needs. For example, you could choose a NetFlow license add-on, a deployment add-on offering remote training and installation, or an ADMonitor User Objects add-on, which gives you active directory change monitoring capacities. The license you buy has no time limit, no data limit, and requires no subscription.

WhatsUp Gold is a monitoring system developed by Ipswitch. Though this software incorporates infrastructure monitoring capacities, its focus is on network performance monitoring and augmentation. This is an SNMP monitoring tool for Windows, covering Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2, and 2016.

When you’re getting started with WhatsUp Gold, you’ll appreciate its network discovery tool, which is SNMP driven. The tool is integration friendly on account of its powerful REST API, which means you can integrate it with your own scripts and systems. You can also extract specific data from WhatsUp Gold, letting you automate your workload. Alternatively, you can undertake automation by inputting information from an external system or separate script.

On top of this, current status information can be extracted for use by another system, and devices can be put into maintenance mode before changes are automatically made. These integration utilities make it easy to use WhatsUp Gold alongside other tools, systems, and scripts.

With WhatsUp Gold, SNMP MIB responses provide in-depth information on each device on the network, including device manufacturer, type, firmware version, current status settings, and serial number. Moreover, devices are identifiable by their MAC address, hostname, and IP address. These details enable you to gain granular, comprehensive insights into your network and all its connected devices. All the information collected from the SNMP responses is collated into a database and assembled in the console, with dynamic visualization in the form of graphs and charts. Moreover, the device register is fully searchable, so you can access desired info quickly and efficiently.

My favorite WhatsUp Gold feature is the dashboard, which is colorful, clean, and simple. It doesn’t feel cluttered, and it’s highly user-friendly, with clear tabs at the top letting you navigate between “Discover,” “My Network,” “Analyze,” and “Settings.” Even with its simplicity and ease of use, the dashboard doesn’t lack information by any means, but offers a wide scope of visibility of critical metrics.

Another thing I liked was the mobile phone application, which is available for both Android and iOS. The app lets you monitor network status at a glance, so you can keep on top of changes and issues even when you’re away from your desk.

As an SNMP manager, WhatsUp Gold continuously listens for trap messages sent by device agents, which are then converted into alerts. In addition to being displayed on the dashboard, alerts can be delivered in other ways. You can choose to receive notifications via methods including email, SMS, Slack, IFTTT posts, and web alarms.

The main reason WhatsUp Gold didn’t rank higher on this list, despite its range of features, is setup can be complicated, to the point that you might need support or training.

Mac Network Monitoring Tools

Observium bills itself as a “low-maintenance” platform for network monitoring, which I find to be an accurate description. It offers three open-source editions: Professional, Enterprise, and Community. Community is a free SNMP-based monitoring tool, best suited to home or evaluation use. The Pro and Enterprise editions are priced on a yearly subscription basis. Every edition features an auto-discovery utility to identify all the devices on your network and then report on their status.

Whichever edition you opt for, Observium is simple to use. Just add the devices you’d like to monitor, either using the automatic discovery feature or manually. Once devices have been identified or added, visit the overview page to view the status of each device.

Observium supports a wide range of device types, platforms, and operating systems, including F5, Citrix, Juniper, Linux, and Windows.

LogicMonitor combines NetFlow-sourced data with its SNMP functionalities, offering users a comprehensive view of their network’s performance. The SNMP portion keeps track of network equipment status, as well as which devices are connected, while the NetFlow utility displays traffic flows over links.

LogicMonitor relies on a cloud-based concept, which is useful because it lets you combine and integrate data from multiple sites, as well as from other cloud services. For IT professionals, this is an obvious advantage, considering how many of us use multiple cloud storage providers and managed application servers.

The tool employs a software-as-a-service approach, which means information-collating servers are located offsite. To access this information, you can use your desktop browser, or an app on your smartphone. The benefits to this approach are numerous. Most notably, you can access LogicMonitor from anywhere, meaning you don’t have to be at your desk to be working. With the smartphone application, you can stay up to date even when you don’t have access to your laptop or desktop.

Since responding to changes and issues quickly can be critical, the SaaS orientation of the tool is a feature I highly valued. This cloud-based approach makes integrating multiple sites and cloud services easy. However, there’s a potential drawback to the software-as-a-service design. Many IT professionals have rightly raised the issue of security, arguing cloud-based data is more vulnerable to hacking. This is important for network administrators to consider when looking for an SNMP monitoring tool.

In sum, LogicMonitor has some excellent utilities, but its cloud-based approach isn’t for everyone. Still, it’s an attractive program, offering automatic device and interface discovery, interface metrics, wireless access-point monitoring, and much more. It supports over 1,500 technologies, so it can collect actionable performance data from switches, firewalls, routers, and load balancers, in addition to other networking gear.

Free Network Monitoring Tools For Mac Operating System

Choosing the Best SNMP Monitoring Tool

Mac Network Speed Monitor

After trying out a wide range of the tools currently on the market, I have no qualms about ranking SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor as the best SNMP network monitoring software. At the end of the day, this comes down to overall usability, the breadth of SNMP monitoring features it includes, and the sophistication of the technology. The visualization of data, intuitive alerts system, and vast community of support further sets SolarWinds NPM apart from other tools. Try it out before you make your decision: the company offers both a fully functional trial and a hands-on demo free of charge.