PRTG Network Monitor

First of all: Actually (April 2016) the product is free for up to 100 Sensors!

I was searching for an easy solution to monitor the internetconnection of one of my customers from outside. They sporadically experienced strange bandwidth problems and the cable provider didn't solve the problem within months. So while searching for an easy to install and use monitoring (simple ping) solution I found PRTG from Paessler in Nuremberg. I 've heard of it before as the Windows based alternative to Nagios.

What can I say: I expected a solid Dice Game and ended up in Las Vegas!

Installed withing minutes on a small Celeron machine running Windows 7. This runs the core Server and the Probe. You create Groups within the Windows (or Browserbased) Desktop. Within those Groups you create Devices and Sensors (Ping, HTTP, FTP, NTP, SIP, SMTP, SNMP Switch Traffic, ... and I'd say hundreds of others) at Locations you can define and are shown on a map. A configurable HTTPS allows secure Browser and mobile APP access. I use the one for my Windows phone that shows me my favorite (customer) Sensors directly.

Automatically scan your Network (that might create a lot of Devices and Sensors, especially when you are using SNMP ready Switches, but don't worry, just pause them before you run out of your licenses). Monitor Switch Traffic if you wonder how long the Windows 10 updates disturb your other Machines. You can install remote Probes in other networks to monitor them and still collect all data on one central monitoring server.

PS: In the end, the cable provider changed the modem after I sent them several times very clear screenshots from PRTG where you could see the 1800 ms echos all three weeks instead of 32 ms the rest of the time.

PRTG can do Monitor all systems, devices, traffic and applications of your IT infrastructure.
Everything you need, and don't expect more for custom weekly / monthly reports

The platform allows you to easily communicate to customers regarding the fault/s being investigated. This software use to be the preferred monitoring for our core environment.

I have been a longtime customer of PRTG 7+ yrs now. I contact them about once a year for little things I run into with the program. This time around they refuse to help, beyond basic email support in the middle of the night. If you want a program that provides support this isn't the product for you. If you are in the US the best you get is email support and they usually only respond while you are sleeping. Don't expect them to go out of the way for you. PRTG has wasted 2+ hrs fighting with me on fixing something their software caused, something they could likely fix in a 5min phone call. After paying them for support all this time I am done with this company, they are a scam!

Given the price, PRTG offers a good bang for buck. For this price we cannot expect the features of some of the higher end monitoring solutions.