Your enterprise depends on you to keep the network running smoothly and securely. But, in our increasingly connected world, your enterprise may have cloud services and other systems connected to the global internet.
With this connection there can be issues or outages, such as DNS outages, denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, that can bring your enterprise network down.
However, there are some tools available that can help you stay on top of your network’s stability and security. These tools show the state of the internet in real time or show all of the DDoS attacks occurring around the world. And, there are other tools available to keep your network safe, such as the DNSstuff toolbox offered by SolarWinds.
DNSstuff
DNSstuff offers a toolkit that will help you troubleshoot your issues with “email, DNS and connectivity —fast.” The toolkit includes a variety of tools to help you solve issues with domain, IP, network and email.
These tools can help you perform forensic analysis on a variety of things, including path analysis, name and email servers and authenticate domains. It also helps you monitor blacklists and server compliance and connectivity. The toolkit provides a comprehensive report. You can test all of this at no cost by taking advantage of their free trial.
Digital Attack Map
The Digital Attack Map shows all of the DDoS attacks happening around the world. You can filter the information by Large, Unusual or Combined to see the type of attacks that you’re most concerned about. You can also color code the attacks based on type, duration, source port and destination port.
There is a gallery of recent notable attacks that you can browse and if you’re interested in seeing the information broken down geographically, you can select one of the most active countries to review. While the information isn’t live, it does provide interesting insight into the number of attacks and the kinds of attacks happening globally.
State of the Internet
Pingdom offers a site that shows the real-time state of the internet, including the number of websites down in the last hour. It also lists the most common error messages, the top browsers being used and the type of devices people are using to access the internet.
Pingdom also offers a monitoring solution for websites, servers or web applications that checks performance and availability. They also offer a free 14-day trial, so you can test the monitoring solution for yourself at no cost.
Finding the Right Monitoring Software
The first step to finding the right network monitoring software is to identify your requirements. Without knowing specifically what your needs are it’s easy to be impressed by bells and whistles that might not even apply to your situation.
Once you’ve identified your requirements, do your research. In order to find the best solution for your needs and your budget, you need to know all your options. Consider the emphasis of the tool, is it network monitoring or network management?
Does it really suit your needs? Think about implementation and the time and costs associated, as well as any security concerns. How is the software licensed, per device or per application? This could have a big impact on your bottom line.
Finally, take advantage of free trials. Sometimes you don’t really know how well a solution will work for your business until you can test it out for yourself. Many solutions offer free trials, many that last two weeks or up to a month. Set aside ample time and a safe environment to test the software so you can be sure you’re making an educated decision.
If you have questions about choosing the right network monitoring solution, our experienced staff at Summit will be happy to help you make the right choice for your business.
