What PRTG Traffic Grapher can do for you

PRTG (Paessler Router Traffic Grapher) is an easy to use software that monitors bandwidth usage and many other network parameters via SNMP, Packet Sniffing, or Cisco NetFlow. It allows you to quickly and easily set up and run a monitoring station for networks. With just a few mouse clicks you can log the amount of data flowing through routers and leased lines, monitor CPU utilization, analyze the traffic by type, or check disk space usage.

The most common usage is monitoring the bandwidth usage of leased lines, routers, and firewalls via SNMP, packet sniffing, or NetFlow. But you can also monitor many other aspects of servers, managed switches, printers, and other network components, as long as they are SNMP enabled.

PRTG Traffic Grapher runs on a Windows machine in your network for 24 hours every day and constantly records the network usage parameters. The recorded data is stored in an internal database for later reference.

Here are two sample graphs showing the usage of a 2 MBit/s leased line over various time periods:

The recorded monitoring statistics can be viewed in the Windows GUI of PRTG Traffic Grapher. Also, all aspects of the configuration of the sensors is done using the Windows GUI.

For remote access to the monitoring results PRTG Traffic Grapher comes with a built in web server for easy access to graphs and tables using a web browser.

For data acquisition the three most common methods for bandwidth monitoring are supported:

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

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

·      Analyzing Cisco NetFlow packets send by Cisco routers

Included with the installer is the tool “Paessler SNMP Helper (Freeware Edition)” which drastically eases accessing various system readings on Windows 2000/XP/2003 systems via SNMP which usually is very complicated. Optional Pro Editions of SNMP Helper are also available for Exchange, SQL, ISA, and Biztalk Server, see www.paessler.com/snmphelper.

PRTG Traffic Grapher is available in both a Freeware edition (limited to monitoring up to three network devices and suitable for home users and SOHOs) and several commercial editions offering monitoring for multiple network devices and advanced features needed by companies.