Network Monitoring Solution

If your looking for a good network monitoring application that is low cost, easy to setup, easy to use, and still does a good job, take a look at Cacti. Cacti is an open source network monitoring system that uses apache, php, mysql, rrdtool, and net-snmp to monitor network attached devices.

Cacti gives you device status via SNMP or ICMP and various performance graphs via SNMP. SNMP versions 1, 2, and 3 are supported by Cacti. The one shortcoming is a limited number of device types supported out of the box, but don't let that scare you off. The generic counters should be adequate to get you up and going.

I used Ubuntu 8.04 LTS as my host system and installation was straight forward and fast. Just make sure that you look at the install doc and install the required packages before you install Cacti. With the version of Ubuntu I used, apt missed the install of mysql-server for some reason. However, i simply installed mysql-server and then ran dpkg-reconfigure cacti and I was back on track.

If you want to get up and running with the least amount of trouble I would stick with one of the distros that have a package available, i.e. Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc...

Cacti Website

Have fun...

The Switching Kitchen

The Switching Kitchen is a Cisco website that gives some nice little tips on configuring switches. It contains recipe cards on what is being discussed in the videos and the videos are technical instead of sales driven.

Double posting

I have decided to double post for a while both here and on Wordpress till I decide where Tech Grab Bag is going to permanently land.

Warehouse 13

I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Warehouse 13 on Syfy (or SciFi if you prefer) for what I was hoping it could be.

While it did start out somewhat slow, I thought it picked up as the show went on and finished out fairly strong. I think the previews leading up to the airing did a good job of portraying how the show was going to go and would recommend anyone looking for a "what if" show to check it out.

Warehouse 13

It's handy and has a fun name.

If your ever sitting behind a firewall and need to know the address your NATing to, here is a handy site that will tell you. Did I mention it had a fun name?

IP Chicken