WhatsUp Gold Network Monitoring Doesn't Come Cheap Forrest Stroud
WhatsUp Gold is the 32-bit successor to the freeware WS-Watch tool. The network monitoring tool provides a graphical display of all network elements that you choose to monitor and offers at-a-glance network status indicators as well as quick access to a variety of features and tools included with the package.
The $295 Small Business Edition of the network monitor features on-going confirmation of network connections, a graphical display of components and their status, the ability to monitor a variety of network elements (including hosts, servers, hubs, printers, workstations, bridges, routers, printers, and more), visual and audible alarms for failed network elements, remote notification capabilities, IPX monitoring, the ability to monitor multiple predefined services (SMTP, POP3, FTP, HTTP, telnet, etc.), and a collection of integrated network tools for troubleshooting network problems (Whois, Traceroute, Ping, Finger, and Lookup utilities).
A scalable, enterprise version of WhatsUp designed specifically for large, hierarchical networks is also available under the name WhatsUp Gold. In addition to the standard fare of features in the regular version, the $1995 Gold release offers multithreaded architecture, remote notification (by beeper, pager, e-mail, or pre-recorded telephone messages), IPX monitoring (multiprotocol support for tracking the status of devices on Novell NetWare LANs), improved capture and reporting of network statistics, and a Web interface for simplifying remote administration tasks (including the ability to configure new hosts, modify parameters and notifications, and change user privileges).
As far as the Windows 3.x WS-Watch release goes, it is also designed to monitor and graphically display the status of hosts and nodes on networks, but it lacks many of the more advanced features found in WhatsUp. WS-Watch does include integrated Telnet, FTP, Lookup, Finger, and Whois tools as well as Traceroute and Ping support. While WS-Watch will give you a rough idea of the capabilities of WhatsUp, in order to realize all the benefits that WhatsUp can offer, you'll need to upgrade (an evaluation release of WhatsUp Gold is available). WS-Watch has also ceased development and is no longer supported by Ipswitch.
Overall, if your job depends on the reliability and consistent performance of your corporate network, WhatsUp is worth its weight in gold and more. This is especially true for larger, multiple-site networks where WhatsUp Gold comes into play.
