LAN testing tool gets top rating

September 2000 Fieldbus & Industrial Networking

Fluke's Network Inspector 4.0 has received rave reviews for its intuitive monitoring capabilities and ease-of-use since its release in 1998. After Version 4.0's release, the United Kingdom PC Magazine's Frank J. Derfler, Jr reviewed Network Inspector 4.0 for the First Looks column.

He wrote:

"Network Inspector proved that it is an easy-to-use solution for the complex LAN environment. LANs have become more complex to manage and more likely to malfunction. Today, we have more problems with addresses and routing than with cables and hubs. Fluke's Network Inspector 4.0 software, part of a large family of Fluke network testing hardware and software, can uncover those subtle and annoying problems and tell you how to fix them.

Network Inspector discovers all of the devices on the network, not just IP devices, and monitors them for changes or errors. The program can graphically report on and register any devices using the IPX, NetBIOS or TCP/IP protocols. Network Inspector listens to the network using agent programs running on PCs on each segment. Because the program gets behind switches, it can report on the health of and generate detailed reports on each switch. The agent programs report to one or more central console programs - depending on which package you buy.

Network Inspector can launch Visio 2000 Standard, Professional or Enterprise Editions. You can then feed information to the version you have selected and use its icons and images of specific equipment to create a detailed network diagram. In about half an hour we installed the software, monitored a network of several hundred nodes and produced our first Visio diagram.

In our tests on a realworld network, Network Inspector immediately spotted many networked printers that were using a manufacturer's single, default IP address. Because Network Inspector can determine a device's network name, we were able to print out a detailed list of printers needing attention.

When we reviewed Version 2.1, the software missed a few tricks but we thought it was solid and easy to use. The Version 4.0 does not miss anything and it remains easy to use."

For those who like to 'try before buy', a 15-day trial version of Network Inspector 4 is available.

Spescom Measuregraph

(011) 266 1572

[email protected]

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