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Hi,

I’m currently using Spiceworks Network Monitor to keep an eye on the traffic and bandwidth etc. on our LAN - but I’m aware that it has now been decommissioned and won’t be receiving updates etc.
I wouldn’t mind sticking with it for longer, but I’m also experiencing the same reported issues as others have had (long loading times), having to restart the service manually etc. to get it to kick back in action - so I think now is the time to finally move away.

I’m after an alternative that is low cost and easy to set up and use - a bit like Spiceworks Network Monitor was.
What I liked best was that I just put each IP address into Spiceworks (and the SNMP community name) and it just mapped it with little effort.

I would like something simple to setup, and relatively low budget.
I’ve looked into Solarwinds and PRTG, but hoping to find something a little cheaper.

I don’t need anything all singing all dancing - just something that will show the network bandwidth health, speed, email alerts etc. and preferably something with server monitoring as well.

Our environment is Windows based, so I’d prefer to stay away from Linux-based Network Monitors if possible.

Thanks in advance.

8 Spice ups
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Paessler PRTG​ (PRTG) is free for up to 100 sensors then its pretty cheap after that.

I use it on my customers network and my own home labs and it does everything I need it to. Good SNMP implementation so I can keep an eye on my linux boxes, raspberry Pi’s and @Ubiquiti_Inc ​ devices like my unifi switch and AP AC Lite.

Worth a look! but all depends on your budget!

1 Spice up
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I’ve used Solarwinds for years. Pricing is reasonable and you get a load of other tools as well: Network Traffic Monitor - Analyze & Optimize Traffic | SolarWinds

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Decommissioned?!? First I’ve heard of it! Guess I’ll stop tinkering with it, then…

Check out Mikrotik’s ‘The Dude’. You’ll have to find the older version to get it on Windows. 4.0 beta 3 is the one I have. Once you have it set up correctly, it gives a pretty good graphical overview of the network…

1 Spice up
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Thanks, I’ll take a look!

Here’s a link to the Spiceworks page announcing the end of the line for the Network Monitor

https://community.spiceworks.com/blogs/products/2706-network-monitor-update

2 Spice ups
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Hi @ashleylewis ​,

of course, it depends on your budget. But please keep in mind that we don’t charge you for addons or modules. We support all types of monitoring (SNMP, WMI, Flow etc.), and our integrated proprietary database means you don’t need an additional database license.

Best,

Michael

@nickiu ​, thx for the mention!

@Paessler_AG

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I’m using 2 right now, both live on the same Linux VM, Observium and OpenNMS

Observium is the easier of the two to setup, configure and use, but doesn’t monitor non-SNMP devices.

OpenNMS is a bit trickier, but I can set it up to monitor services (HTTP, FTP, etc…) on devices that have SNMP and/or those that only can be ping’d (ICMP).

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Although a little bit trickier to setup (though it can be made easier by using Ansible, Puppet or Chef), Icinga is amazing and can monitor anything you like.

It’s also free.

The installation is very straight-forward, the tricky part is configuring what to monitor, since it requires you to handle configuration files.

This could be done automatically using an automation tool like Ansible.

After you set it up, it’s really easy.

A lot of plugins to choose from.

You can also use Zabbix, but it has a lot of false-positives (at least for me) and I don’t really like it. It is very easy to setup though.

Good luck and have fun :slight_smile:

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You might find it helpful to read user-based reviews of various Network Monitoring solutions in the market today on IT Central Station to see if any of them fit your needs and are at the right price point: https://www.itcentralstation.com/categories/network-monitoring-software/tzd/c1107-sf-7

When reading the reviews, take note of the aspects of each tool that users find most valuable, and decide whether this is something that will be beneficial to you. For example, one user on our website, a Group Information Security Manager, reviewed PRTG Network Monitor and notes, “We’ve had PRTG in place for a number of years, so what we evaluated was in the early days, a lot of open-source solutions: Zabbix, Nagios, Cacti, etc. PRTG is differentiated because it caters to all platforms and endpoints, has features for Windows, and WMI sensors which aren’t necessarily available out-of-the-box in the other solutions. That would have been a determining factor.” For reference, this is the full review: https://www.itcentralstation.com/product_reviews/prtg-network-monitor-review-61323-by-groupinffc1b/tzd/c1107-sf-7