Available Methods of Data Acquisition

Depending on your infrastructure you can monitor the usage of your network using different methods supported by PRTG Traffic Grapher.

You can choose between four common methods for (bandwidth) monitoring:

·      SNMP: Using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to access traffic counters or other readings from SNMP enabled devices (most common)

·      Sniffing: Looking at incoming/outgoing network packets that pass through a network card of a computer (so called packet sniffing)

·      NetFlow: Analyzing Cisco NetFlow packets sent by Cisco routers

·      Latency: Monitoring performance of a data line or a device by measuring PING times

Depending on your network configuration and your monitoring needs you must choose between these methods. All methods can be used at the some time, too.

Please read on to understand the differences between the four methods.