MWSF: New InterMapper, InterMapper Remote coming

Version 3.6 of Dartware’s InterMapper, a network monitoring and alerting program, will be unveiled at next week’s Macworld San Francisco, as will the company’s new InterMapper Remote.

The application — which is designed to provide detailed information about the uptime and availability of network devices, servers and links — now includes probe timing and extensive logging facilities to help network managers monitor the service levels provided by their ISPs. InterMapper saves info such as packet loss, response time and availability to log files, and network managers can review stats monthly to decide if the service level matches the agreement. According to MacTech magazine, new 3.6 features include:

Background images for maps that allow users to give context to maps by placing a graphical image (such as a city map, campus map or floor plan) behind the items in an InterMapper window;

Response time measurements that measure the time a device takes to respond;

The ability to poll SNMPv2c MIB variables for devices that support 64-bit counters;

The ability to write chart data to disk, and restore it even after quitting and relaunching;

An outages window that offers a way to review recent outages and their durations;

The ability to save different kinds of log information to several log files, separating major failure alerts from Web page access logs, etc.;

New probes that let you test Simple Network Pager Protocol (SNPP) servers.

InterMapper 3.6 supports InterMapper Remote, a new remote viewer application that provides a live display of maps of the network via the Internet. It, too, will be unveiled at this week’s MWSF.

InterMapper 3.6 is priced by the number of devices being monitored; pricing ranges from US$295 for 10 devices to $2,395 for unlimited devices. InterMapper Remote 1.0 serves up a graphical view on the health and status of a remote network. It shows which servers and devices are down, where heavy traffic is flowing and where other network problems lie. It gets its data from an InterMapper server running at the network site being monitored. Its features include:

Remote access to maps. Authorized individuals (either using username/password or network address) can view maps from a remote location;

The ability to click and hold the mouse button on a device or link and a pop-up window will display current network information;

The ability to acknowledge and silence alarms off site;

Full access to all network statistics collected by InterMapper;

Minimized security risks. InterMapper Remote connects to its server through a connection to a single, user-defined port. You’ll only need to open one port on your firewall and direct that port’s data to the InterMapper server. You can also set the InterMapper server to refuse connections from all IP addresses except those of known authorized InterMapper Remote clients.

InterMapper Remote 1.0 is $195 with 60-day support. Educational pricing and additional support subscriptions are also available.