The Netmon Remote Probe system uses the Netflow protocol to send network traffic monitoring data back to your central Netmon system, allowing you to analyze network protocol distribution data, visualize live network traffic using the Visual Network Explorer component, and run traffic reports. You can use any TCP/IP network link between your Netmon Appliance and Netmon Probe to transmit your network traffic analysis data.

Real-time traffic analysis capability is a defining feature of Netmon. With a properly configured switch, Netmon 5.1 can monitor, analyse and report on network traffic as it happens. Netmon is a leader in real-time analysis with features such as our proprietary traffic sniffer, advanced packet inspection plugins, and NetFlow collector / emitter capability. Netmon packet captures are compatible with the industry-standard WireShark traffic analysis client.

Netmon 5.1 can monitor bandwidth utilization on any physical or virtual interface. With Netmon 5.1's SNMP and traffic-sniffing capabilities, there are multiple ways to measure bandwidth utilization on network devices. In addition, Netmon can detect issues such as interface flapping, duplex mismatches on your infrastructure devices. These facilities are fully intetgrated with our alerting system.

Going deeper than reporting on bandwidth utilization, Netmon 5.1 also provides a detailed breakdown of the makeup of your network TCP/IP traffic. The main interface includes a protocol distribution graph which instantly shows you which protocols are being used on your network. Our packet inspection engine allows analysis of email and web traffic, with new plugins providing more protocol support on the way. Passive and active port scanning bring protocol activity monitoring down to the individual device.

Netmon 5.1 has multi-faceted facilities for managing your network servers and infrastructure devices. Netmon 5.1 has integrated support for industry-standard protocols SNMP and Syslog, including device-specific dashboards to give you the most relevant information about your network devices at a glance. Windows Event Logs can also be integrated into our logging facility using the free, open-source SNARE for Windows tool. To complete the picture, Netmon 5.1 also monitors device storage through "Disk Trackers".

Netmon appliances are a great choice for an organization that needs a complete network monitoring solution with one-stop shopping for hardware and software support. The Netmon appliance, featuring a powerful Intel (tm) Core 2 Duo processor, can handle most network workloads - even high traffic environments. When you purchase a Netmon appliance, you get a full year of unlimited phone support, access to software updates, and a complete hardware warranty.

In some scenarios - very large network environments, for instance - it may be preferable to install Netmon on your hardware. For these scenarios we sell and license Netmon Software Edition. We've made sure that installing Netmon SE is as easy as possible - the operating system and Netmon are installed together with very little user interaction required. Purchasing Netmon SE entitles you to a full year of software updates and a single support incident.

Whether you decide on an appliance or Netmon SE, you will need to purchase a "device" license for each device you wish to monitor. Netmon 5.1 is licensed on a per-device basis. This means you can set up an unlimited number of monitoring goals up to the maximum number of devices in your license.

Usually our users do not monitor every device on their network. All network traffic is discovered and analyzed by Netmon whether it comes from a "monitored" device or not - device licensing is only a factor for active monitoring such as up/down status monitoring, not passive monitoring such as traffic sniffing. Workstations and devices like network printers are typically not monitored and thus don't count towards the device total. In most cases a count of your servers and network infrastructure devices (routers, firewalls and so forth) will correspond pretty closely to your device count.