Observer

• Over 550 primary protocols
• Countless subprotocols (including wireless)
• Nanosecond resolution
• Add administrator comments to any packet
• Dynamic port protocol decode
• Schedule packet captures
• Conceal private IP addresses
• Real-Time Statistics

Over 30 real-time statistics available

• Network summary
• Bandwidth utilization
• Internet Observer
• Access point load monitor
• Pair statistics
• Protocol distribution
• Network activity
• Wireless site survey
• Router Observer
• VLAN Analysis

• Understand bandwidth usage by device
• Determine if a station is consuming too much bandwidth
• View LAN use patterns
• Detect faulty network hardware
• Make informed decisions about network segmentation
• Find broadcast storms
• Review switch usage and resource allocation

• Include or exclude packets by address, address range, protocol offsets, and presets
• Use Boolean logic to create complex features
• Filter with Perl-compatible regular expressions
• Design filters visually
• Create protocol filters from the protocol distribution list
• Execute multiple filters concurrently
• Share filter libraries with other Observer users
• Quickly configure filters with fast post filtering
• Utilize data mining capabilities

• Flag activities or errors with a pre-defined list
• Set custom notifications based on any filter
• Receive alerts as vulnerabilities are detected
• Choose alert method (e-mail, pager, etc.)
• Obtain e-mails with virus information including source and destination
• Setup any trigger to have an associated action
• Pop up message windows
• Activate captures Start/append logs
• Print trouble tickets
• Execute external programs
• Manage triggers and alarms for multiple probes from one location
• Set a trigger on any WLAN activity

• Collect trending data for Ethernet Internet VLANs WLANs
• Gain insight into total network health over time
• Collect and store network, Internet, and switch data for days, weeks, months, even years
• View a single time period (i.e. day or month) or create period-to-period comparison reports
• Obtain instant snapshots with Ready-Made Reports

The Observer Expert network analyzer contains a multitude of Expert Events to alert you to problems and help you quickly solve them.

Expert Events work both in real time and post-capture, allowing you the function and flexibility to handle problems as they arise. Once an Expert alerts you to an issue, it offers likely causes and potential remedies.

Shows error events in a single, concise display. For connection-orientated problems, a simple double-click drills down for further analysis. Expert problem identification is displayed for TCP/UDP/ICMP, Wireless, IPX/SPX, NetBIOS/NetBEUI, SQL and Frame Relay.

Shows protocol-based and application-based problems in real-time. Local traffic is judged using different criteria than WAN/Internet traffic to help make certain no false readings are provided. All port-based services are tracked, slow response/no response and slow connect/no connect are flagged and sorted by severity. A generic TCP conditions expert tracks all port-based protocols for slow response or connection characteristics.

Provides a graphical view of system conversations. Packet-to-packet delay times are shown visually, allowing instant identification of long latency and response times. Retransmissions and lost packets are flagged in red for quick identification. Should a particular packet require further investigation, its decode is only a click away.

Any conversation can be displayed as a “drill-down” from any problem identified in the IP/TCP/UDP Experts. Time Interval Analysis shows network errors organized by time periods to identify whether a problem is sporadic or consistent throughout the day. This information is critical in determining if a problem is spread throughout a period of hours, or if it localized to a specific time span. Network utilization within the Interval Analysis is displayed to help match slow responses with heavy network load.

Displays a server's response times charted against the number of simultaneous requests asked of that server. Response times are charted for recorded request sets, and plotted for predicted response times as request loads increase.

Starts with measurements based on actual client/server conversations, or peer-to-peer conversations and plots possible response time, utilization and packet flow scenarios. This allows you to predict network bandwidth and response-time impact for topology changes (e.g. 10MB to 100MB) or by changes in variables such as average packet size, send-to-receive packet ratio, latency, server load, number of users. This “live-modeling” lets you assess the impact of possible network or application changes.

MultiHop Analysis and capture feature offers time synchronization technology that can track conversations through multiple segments, hops, and routes and identify the delays between hops. Require a probe at each hop to capture all points of a conversation. This feature quantifies transaction time between PC and server using a Network Instruments exclusive method of synchronizing captures. Pinpoint bottlenecks within specific conversations or verify if 3rd party service providers are performing to their SLA. Helps isolate if slowdowns are due to network delay or system processes.

VoIP Expert Details

• Monitor connections to improve VoIP performance
• Save or play voice conversations or streaming video
• Offers relevant and actionable detail and diagnostics
• High-level VoIP traffic summaries In-depth
• Call Detail Records Over 50 event and threshold-based VoIP Experts
• Displays the individual MOS and R-factor for every call
• Customize impairment factors of the E-model depending on your needs
• See reports on QoS by call, packet, and protocol
• Understand VoIP utilization to plan upgrades
• Sort TCP sub-protocols by precedence bit to help prioritize VoIP traffic
• Review flow including call setup, duration, and teardown
• Jump immediately to Connection Dynamics to understand direction and delay of every packet in the stream
• Monitors VoIP across LAN, WAN, gigabit, and WLAN
• Shows current and maximum jitter
• Analyze H.323/SIP conversational data

Capture traffic and recreate communications. Rebuild web pages (including images), and reconstruct e-mails, VoIP calls, documents, and IMs. Help maintain corporate Internet usage policies, assist law enforcement, and contribute toward Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Application Analysis Details

Observer Expert’s application analysis boasts a depth and detail unique in the network analyzer space. Our solution helps you ensure application uptime—and business productivity—in a single network and application performance package.

With Application Analysis:

• Monitor response time
• Gather detailed performance metrics
• Graphically pinpoint delay
• Create and monitor device groups
• Predict impact of new applications

• Support multiple views of SNMP device data
• View readable and writeable SNMP objects
• Perform trending on time-based SNMP data
• Baseline data for comparison reports
• Multiple notifications are available upon trap receptions
• Includes a MIB compiler to support any vendor
• Utilize one tool for multi-vendor hardware networks
• Display names or addresses of devices by switch port

• Monitor and control any RMON-standard device
• Fully compliant with all RMON1/2 specifications
• RMON console supports high capacity RMON (HCRMON)

• Share Observer reports with non-Observer users
• Generate reports dynamically
• Configure reports based on time, station, switch, or SNMP data
• Obtain current and historical trends
• Secure access with password protection
• Control report access at the administrator level
• Define different user levels
• Distribute network “Weather Reports” via your corporate intranet/extranet
• Quickly publish data with Ready Made or Custom reporting options
• Drill down inside any report for deeper analysis

Full XML/SOAP Report Obtain access to error, capacity, and historical network data to any application that supports XML or SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

Custom Decode Kit Add custom, proprietary, or additional protocols to Observer decodes Full wireless support