Hands on: I tested the Paessler PRTG Network Monitor – see what I thought of it
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This comment first appeared in issue 354 PC Pro.
Businesses focusing on Pestler’s PRTG Network Monitor focus on add-ons and upgrade costs can be relaxed easily, as prices are included in the price. Its sensor-based license means you only select the number you want and then apply it to any device, a single hardware component, a service or Business The application of your choice.
Paessler offers a range of sensor packages. We have shown the price of the PRTG 1000 permanent license, which includes one year of maintenance, should be enough to monitor up to 100 devices. You can easily upgrade to a larger package if you need it, and Paessler also offers a free version of 100 sensors.
Businesses with distributed offices may prefer cloud– Remotely monitor the apocalyptic version of each network by installing a PRTG probe in it. This is a subscription service, hosting 1000 packages is priced at 229 euros per month.
We have been running PRTG in the lab without problems for over eight years and all updates are automatically applied when they are released. New users will find the on-site installation: after loading software It runs a wizard to assist with your first network discovery, which takes about 45 minutes to scan the full IP subnet.
The PRTG does all leg work by assigning the most appropriate sensor to each device and applying a set of predefined alarm triggers. The service has sensors for every occasion, and Pestler currently offers nearly 300 sensors, and the value looks better as it includes options Monitoring All popular virtualized hosts.
Paessler estimates that most devices will use about ten sensors per device, but it really depends on what type of hardware or system it is. Switches can be greedy, our 24-port TP-Link Gigabit model awards a total of 47 SNMP and RMON services, while our VMware ESXI 7 and Windows Server 2022 Hyper-V 79 sensors were used between the host and all VMs.
The good news is that you can select the components you want to monitor, delete the unwanted components and apply them to be used elsewhere, making PRTG more flexible than products that adopt device-based licenses. Custom sensors can be added as needed, although these sensors are used for cloud HTTP, Google analyze, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive Monitoring has been discontinued and there is still an incredible range to choose from.
PRTG’s web console provides a network overview that shows the status of all sensors and clicking any icon next to Donut Charts will take you into the filtered view. The device view uses a tree structure, and all systems are neatly organized into a hierarchical group that inherits settings such as login credentials and discovery schedules from its parent group.
This view can be customized to suit your environment by adding a new group and moving the monitoring system to it. It’s easy to identify the problem because all sensors are assigned colors indicating whether they are up, down, paused or in a warning state, and selecting a sensor that takes you to a detailed overview with live graphs and charts showing activities for the past two days, months or year.
A large number of alert services are provided as notification templates are available for email, SMS, SYSLOG, SNMP traps, MQTT, Slack and Slack and Microsoft Team. You can use Paessler’s excellent iOS and Android Mobile apps and use Windows and MacOS desktop apps to view the same level of information as the main web console.
You need to focus on consumption, but the sensor makes Paessler’s PRTG a highly versatile network monitoring package. It provides a lot of information about almost everything on the web, and its included packaging price makes it an excellent choice for small and medium-sized businesses.
