Open source management-tool alternatives hit the mark

Product Test and Buyer's Guide This newsletter is sponsored by Hitachi Data Systems The First True Enterprise-Class Blade Server Go inside Hitachi's BladeSymphony 1000, which combines virtualization technology, integrated management capabilities, and reliable, scalable system resources to consolidate infrastructure, optimize workloads and run mission-critical apps. Click here to download this exclusive whitepaper. Product Test and Buyer's Guide, 06/19/07 By Barry Nance Several open source networking vendors offer free tools that conform to the GNU licensing strategy and whose source code is readily downloadable on the Internet. Compare Products with Network World's VoIP and Convergence Buyer's Guide From deployable IP-PBX systems to unified messaging, Network World has detailed information on hundreds of products. Side-by-side comparisons along with objective test and review results make it quick and easy to find the solutions that are right for your enterprise. Click here to find out more. If you hate to spend money, if you embrace the tenets of the Free Software Foundation, or if you have programming skills that you can devote to customizing and maintaining your own networking tools, then one of the three open source network-management tools we tested might be right for you. At any price and in any form, the perfect management and monitoring tool efficiently and accurately discovers servers, clients, routers, switches and other devices. It displays a map of the discovered nodes. It checks for connectivity problems and it notices performance problems. It alerts you via e-mail or pager, and it can escalate its alerts by e-mailing or paging multiple people until the problem's fixed. For more on this test, please click here.

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Contact the author: Barry Nance runs Network Testing Labs and is the author of Introduction to Networking, 4th Edition and Client/Server LAN Programming. His e-mail address is barryn@erols.com. This newsletter is sponsored by Hitachi Data Systems The First True Enterprise-Class Blade Server Go inside Hitachi's BladeSymphony 1000, which combines virtualization technology, integrated management capabilities, and reliable, scalable system resources to consolidate infrastructure, optimize workloads and run mission-critical apps. Click here to download this exclusive whitepaper. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007