Daily Network Monitor » Network Management

LodgeNet Manages Network of 1300 Hotels with WhatsUp Gold

sbarry — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:33:19 +0000

LodgeNet Manages Network of 1300 Hotels with WhatsUp Gold

LodgeNet, the premiere media and connectivity solutions provider for the hospitality industry, ensures that millions of travelers are provided with TV and internet in over 1300 hotels throughout the U.S. and Canada annually. Their network’s monitoring software of choice? WhatsUp Gold.

Selecting a network management solution was not easy for this vast network, so why WhatsUp Gold? Well, according to LodgeNet Systems Engineer, Brian Jacobs, “familiarity with WhatsUp Gold by no means ensured its selection (…) Everyone recommended WhatsUp Gold. Even with the cost of custom programming factored in, WhatsUp Gold was by far the most cost-effective and feature-rich solution.”

WhatsUp Gold provided LodgeNet with:

Real-time monitoring of a cross-continent broadband network
Ability for 24×7x365 customer service
Reduced call center costs, increased customer satisfaction
Instant verification on installation of new networks
Proactive network maintenance
Strengthened competitive advantage in emerging technology

What’s more is that the provider of media and connectivity solutions was able to utilize the WhatsConnected plug-in to instantly verify that each individual hotel’s network was set up according to company specifications. In the end, LodgeNet’s deployment of WhatsUp Gold (a transition from manual monitoring to real-time monitoring) over the whole network was completed in just two weeks.

>>Read the full case study or press release

>>Learn more about what WhatsUp Gold can do for you

>>Try WhatsUp Gold free for 30 days

A Perfect Batch: How Marston’s Brewery Uses WhatsUp Gold

Erin Hayes — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:24:59 +0000

Ever wonder how other IT professionals use WhatsUp Gold?

Marston’s, Britain’s largest brewer of cask beer, has a cool use-case story. The brewers were interested in growing their business to become known for more than great beer and pubs. They wanted their evolving clientele to know them for also providing a fun public WiFi hotspot and the place to play the latest internet-connect gaming products.

In order to do this they needed to not only enhance both front of house and back-office infrastructure but also improve communications and reliability of connection between the individual pubs and head office so they could start offering these new services to clients.

To achieve this, Marston’s took on the ambitious and innovative step of moving into the telecoms industry in its own right, allowing it to package and deploy its own customized services to various parts of the business.

But creating its own broadband network and taking responsibility for the infrastructure of its 500+ managed pubs meant that Marston’s needed to invest in a scalable networking monitoring solution to provide visibility across the new telecoms network and to help identify problems with hardware and connectivity.

Luckily, their partner, Level 8 Solutions, stepped in and recommended Ipswitch’s WhatsUp Gold.

This wasn’t Marston’s first experience with WhatsUp Gold. They’d been using within their head office for several years. They then deployed a separate WhatsUp Gold installation to monitor routers and WiFi hotspots installed at its managed pubs, as well as to support home workers also served by Marston’s Telecom.

“Using Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold, we are able to monitor the remote infrastructure installed at our estate of managed pubs across the country, ensuring that equipment is functioning correctly and that the connectivity we are providing through Marston’s Telecom is also performing as expected,” McMinn explained.

Plus sides to using WhatsUp Gold over other products like HP Insight were WhatsUp Gold’s clear and easy to follow feedback on the state of the network and the devices connected to it; its single point of view over the health of the network being monitored; and the clear visual guidance when a device encounters a problem.

As in . . . Green is Good, Red is Bad.

If you’re interested in reading the full Case Study click here.

So what about you? Do you use WhatsUp Gold to monitor something even more interesting that beer? If you do, let us know about it in the comments!

WhatsUp Event Rover Now Available for FREE *

sbarry — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:54:13 +0000

As of Wednesday, September 1st, WhatsUp Event Rover will be available as a free, 10 workstation license. This event and log management tool can assist with identifying problems and security threats faster than ever before. Its accessible tree view and sorting feature will change the way you view and mine event logs. The tool also includes the capability to automatically save a local copy of event logs before reviewing and storing it for future use.

Additional capabilities of WhatsUp Event Rover include:

Easily perform routine review and spot audits
Ensure the integrity of master log files
Define, save and run filters for key event IDs
Recover and view damaged log files
Create HTML reports, or export data in CSV formats
Discover potential security incidents
Work with EVT and EVTX files side by side

Sound enticing? Download your free license today.

*A 10 workstation license of WhatsUp Event Rover will be available to download at no charge September 1 through October 31, 2010.

GeoLocation: Just for Social Media Mavens?

sbarry — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:16:02 +0000

Since the launch of the newest geolocation app, Facebook Places, the Web has been buzzing about the fate and ultimate purpose of these tools. There seems to be a few favorites, but preferences vary. The market once consisted solely of Foursquare and Gowalla, with Foursquare being the more widely accepted. However, now that there are so many options now that the concept is going mainstream it’s hard to decide which application to go with. (If you’re anything like me, you get a kick out of nerdy things like this that turn up on Mashable.) Hopefully, my high-level run-down of geolocation providers will keep you informed.

So which one is your favorite (if you have one)? For me, it’s Foursquare. I started using it a little over a year ago because it seemed like a fresh, fun social media app. There’s something deeply gratifying from becoming the mayor of your workplace or local coffee shop. There’s also a kind of collector-mentality over the highly sought-after badges on Foursquare, from Gym Rat to Mile-High Club.

Since the advent of the idea, geolocation as a whole has come a long way. With Gowalla making headway from its headquarters in Texas, others have entered the scene like Loopt, Brightkite, Whrrl, and SCVNGR. While all of these ideas are fairly similar to Foursquare, they each have their own twist. For instance, Whrrl focuses on building “societies” that let you join groups that share similar interests and activities so users can exchange recommendations. Britekite, on the other hand, is more than just a means of check-in, you can also share photos, comments, messages, tips, achieve different rewards, and hold group chats. Gowalla spins off the Foursquare badge idea by using “passport stamps” and virtual rewards that can sometimes be redeemed for tangible prizes. Loopt is a part of a suite of products that allows location sharing and customized rewards from names like Bing, TastingTable, and Zagat. Finally, SCVNGR takes check-in to a different level by offering a number of challenges at different locations – the most basic of which is taking a photo and posting a comment.

There’s something for everyone looking for their geolocation fix – that is if you don’t mind big brother keeping tabs on you…Now I turn the question over to you: what location app do you use if any? And do you see this whole geolocation thing going anywhere? Or is this just a pastime for social media nerds? – I’ll hold off on my opinion for now.

WhatsUp Event Rover will be available for free on September 1st!

kmyers — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:14:28 +0000

Do you have free time? So much time that you don’t even know what to do with it? Yea, neither do we.

However, our WhatsUp Event Rover can help with that. You know how fast Windows® servers and workstations event logs pile up, and your Windows event log viewer doesn’t really lend itself to recalling, sorting, and quickly viewing log data in a way that makes sense to you.

WhatsUp Event Rover will help you identify problems and security threats. With Event Rover you can accomplish much more in terms of forensics than you can with Windows Event viewer – including automatically saving local copies of log files before review and storage.

Check out our WhatsUp Event Rover Overview now. And check back September 1st when its available as a free download!

Now you just have to figure out what to do with your free time.

Simplify Network Engineering with the WhatsUp Gold Engineer’s Toolkit – Part 2

sbarry — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:15:37 +0000

If you haven’t already heard, the WhatsUp Gold Engineer’s Toolkit offers a lot to simplify and reduce time spent on common network engineering tasks.

Among this array of tools designed to make your life easier are the Spam Blacklist and Port Scanner.

The Spam Blacklist tool can help ensure your organization’s emails are not blocked by spam filters to improve their overall efficacy.
By providing visibility into open ports on a given device or group of devices, the Port Scanner tool makes sure unwanted traffic doesn’t get through because of unattended ports.

Imagine how much free time you’ll have now! You can finally start knitting that Star Trek tapestry you’ve been meaning to get to…or not.

Learn more about the Engineer’s Toolkit or view a presentation on Diagnostics & DNS Verification or Remote Control & Configuration Mgmt.

Have you met the WhatsUp Gold Plug-ins?

sbarry — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:14:03 +0000

You’re probably familiar with WhatsUp Gold’s device –based licensing. It keeps business costs down by not charging you per device elements like interfaces, nodes, and volumes. You may also know that WhatsUp Gold’s low maintenance costs also contribute to a total cost of ownership (TCO) far cheaper than “the other guy’s.”

We’re committed to providing the industry’s lowest TCO, and WhatsUp Gold is now extending savings onto our comprehensive list of plug-in modules. Expand your monitoring power and save big with:

->Buy any Plug-in and get the new WhatsUp Gold Engineer’s Toolkit FREE!

->Buy 2 Plug-ins, get a FREE WhatsUp Gold Engineer’s Toolkit and Save 20% on your Plug-in Purchases!

*Offers valid for a limited time, from August 16, 2010 to September 30, 2010

->Buy Failover Manager, Save 10% and get a FREE WhatsUp Gold Engineer’s Toolkit

*Offer valid for a limited time, from August 1, 2010 to September 30, 2010

Ipswitch Network Management Makes Strides with Government Sales and Pipeline Development

sbarry — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:38:25 +0000

On July 28, Ipswitch’s Network Management Division announced its earnings for the first half of 2010. Given the lousy economy, one thing came as a surprise: North American government sales had already exceeded its combined 2009 revenue.

Ennio Carboni, president, Ipswitch Network Management Division, expressed his faith in the WhatsUp Gold and WhatUp Event Log Management suite of IT management software, “Unlike our competitors, we are showing no signs of a decrease in government purchasing, as evidenced by our record-breaking first half of 2010 and our growing funnel of government proposals and opportunities.”

With a new Director of Government Sales, Tom D’Errico, and an aggressive go-to-market strategy, WhatsUp Gold was able to succeed in this sector. As part of this strategy, communications focused on reducing network downtime; managing network configurations, ensuring compliance through log management; and an affordable licensing model that improved overall staff efficiency.

This targeted strategy paid off as Whatsup Gold Network Management and Whatsup Event Log Management solutions were both awarded the Certificate of Networthiness (CoN) by the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command. In addition WhatsUp Gold 14 Premium was approved as a member of the U.S. Department of Navy’s Application and Database Management System (DADMS) list.

Deals were closed across government organizations in the U.S. and Canada including both countries’ defense departments, every branch of the U.S. military, the Executive Office of the President of the United States, the Federal Reserve, and multiple state and local governments.

“Mobile Network Management Smartphone Apps for On-the-Go Engineers” – We’ve Got an App for That

sbarry — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:37:26 +0000

Written by Lauren Smith

Maintaining a work-life balance is extremely difficult for some – especially network managers who are on-call 24/7. A great article titled Mobile Network Management Smartphone Apps for On-the-Go Engineers on SearchNetworking.com got us thinking about all the ways network management software for smartphones and tablets helps make network managers’ lives easier and achieve that work-life balance we all try so hard to maintain.

Before the rising trend of mobile network management software apps, network managers would receive a notification of an issue through email on a mobile device or a pager and have to find a computer as quickly as possible to identify the problem and the cause of it. What a hassle!

Thankfully, mobile network management smartphone apps now enable users to react to events immediately after receiving an alert or notification of a problem. As a result, network managers are able to drill into the problem and identify the cause right from a handheld device. No more running back to the office at 3a.m. — what a relief!

Network managers can now enjoy vacation and home life, while staying connected to their networks at the same time. According to the SearchNetworking.com article, network engineer Eric Steel received a phone call while he was on vacation that his company was having bandwidth problems in numerous office locations. He used his mobile management tool to identify and solve this problem quickly. He stated, “When I was on vacation, I was able to stop what I was doing and solve the issue quickly…and get back to my vacation.” Today mobile network management smartphone applications, like our WhatsUp Gold Mobile Access, have made this convenience possible for thousands of network administrators.

Simplify Network Engineering with the WhatsUp Gold Engineer’s Toolkit – Part 1

sbarry — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:52:29 +0000

Sometimes you probably think to yourself: “Self, why isn’t life easier?” I know I do. Thankfully for you network engineers and admins, life can be easier.

Nearly 5,000 users have already taken advantage of the new WhatsUp Gold Engineer’s Toolkit. Its ease of implementation and uniform interface serve to reduce the time spent on mundane network engineering tasks.

Here are just a few ways the Engineer’s Toolkit can help:

The MAC Address Discovery Tool – This tool is great when you need to track down an issue with duplicate IPs on your network or if your organization filters traffic based on MAC addresses by capturing all of the addresses on a specific subnet and the associated IP address.

The NetFlow Configurator – The easy-to-use graphical interface of the NetFlow Configurator allows you to configure NetFlow on your Cisco devices, especially if you are short on time to locate and learn the appropriate CLI commands for manual enablement of NetFlow.

These two tools are just a few of the ways Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold aims to make your life easier. Now if only they had an Engineer’s Toolkit that could help with yardwork……

Learn more about the Engineer’s Toolkit or view a presentation on Network Design and Planning.