ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.0 is a no-frills package for server, application and network hardware monitoring that is designed to be quick to set up and easy to use.

We downloaded a 30-day trial version and installed it on our Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition system. A Quick Configuration Wizard helps the user to get the system up and running. It begins by setting up and testing a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server, after which SMS options are set up. It then sets scan frequency and error thresholds, and follows this by adding several sample checks to the configuration that then run automatically so that users get a feel for how the system operates.

Using the samples as templates, we found it easy to set up checks for a wide variety of hardware, software and environmental checks, but IT admins may want to use their Visual Basic Scripting (VBScript) skills to get the best out of the package.

We could check for printer availability, and presence of Microsoft Exchange, ISA and Terminal Servers. Network Monitor can also notify admins when the maximum number of Terminal Services sessions exceeds licence conditions. We could also check systems to make sure that anti-virus software was present, and whether it was running or not. Currently, the system checks for 11 different anti-virus packages, but experts in VBScript programming would find it simple to add a more comprehensive check on anti-virus software running on systems.

There are five ways users can choose to be alerted to problems: email, SMS, pager, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps or popups generated over the local network for specific systems.

Report data is by default stored in a Microsoft Access database, but reports can be easily migrated to a SQL Server database if required. The reports generated by Network Monitor are fairly basic but still contain more information than those produced by many rival packages.

Reports can be run ad hoc, or scheduled via the Windows Task Scheduler. Report results obtained from a scheduled run can also be sent to any number of recipients by email, again on a pre-defined schedule. Format support includes HTML, XML, XML/XSL or comma-separated values (CSV).

Reports can also be viewed using the onboard web interface. ActiveXperts recommends publishing the generated XML pages using Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). The package comes with standard Web Views that provide, among other things, dedicated checks on databases, environmental variables and IP protocols. If a more specific check is needed, for example for monitoring company web sites and portals, a custom Web View will need to be set up. This involves some XML writing and maybe even some XSL coding.