Introduction and Overview

The Introduction Section contains many of the general content pages related to the SolarWinds Tools.  These pages include:

         An Overview of the On-Line Manual

         A Product Comparison Matrix of the Tools

         Instructions on how to Generate a Key

         Information on How to Purchase the Tools 

         Information on our End User License Agreement, Copyrights and Terms

         Minimum System Requirements

Tools

The majority of the information in the help file relates to the SolarWinds Tools.  The topics of information vary from tool to tool. Some of the more common topics for each tool are:

         Overview

         Menus

         Settings

         Toolbars

         Interpreting the Results

         Exporting the Results

         Printing

         Hints and Tips

         Frequently Asked Questions

Within the On-Line Manual, tools are grouped by functional area.  This grouping is as follows:

Cisco Tools

         Compare Running vs. Startup Configs - Used to download and compare the current running Config against the start-up Config in the memory of the Cisco router or switch.

         Config Downloader - Used to pull the configuration file from a Cisco router or switch.

         Config Uploader - Used to upload configuration changes into a Cisco router or switch.

         Config Viewer - Used to download configuration from Cisco routers and switches.

         CPU Gauge - Monitors the load on the CPU of any Cisco router.

         IP Network Browser - IP Network Browser is an interactive network discovery tool. IP Network Browser can scan a subnet and show the details about the devices on that subnet.

         Router CPU Load - Monitor the load on Cisco routers in real-time.

         Password Decryption- Decrypts Cisco type 7 passwords.

         Proxy Ping - With Proxy Ping it is possible to remotely initiate a PING test from any remote Cisco router.

Email Tools

         Spam Blacklist - Spam Blacklist allows you to test the IP addresses of your mail servers and verify the mail servers have not been blacklisted.

IP Address Management Tools

         Advanced Subnet Calculator- A calculator that can assist you in calculating subnet masks and IP address management.

         DHCP Scope Monitor- The DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Monitor Scope will monitor DHCP Scopes and show which scopes are low on addresses.

         DNS & WhoIs Resolver- Retrieves information about domain names and IP network addresses.

         DNS Analyzer ?This tool can be used to visually display the hierarchy of DNS Resource records, including Name Server, CName, and Pointer.

         DNS Audit- Will scan a range of IP Addresses and look for DNS Errors by performing a forward and reverse DNS lookup for each address.

         IP Address Management- An IP Address Management tool that will automatically monitor the IP addresses within many subnets and report on their usage. 

         Ping Sweep- Scan a range of IP addresses and show which IP addresses are in use and which ones are not. Ping Sweep can also look up the DNS name for each IP address.

MIB Browser Tools

         MIB Viewer- Uses SolarWinds extensive MIB database to display any SNMP OID or Table.

         MIB Walk- Walks the SNMP tree for a target device and dumps the value of each OID.

         SNMP MIB Browser - A FULL MIB Browser which presents the results in easy to manage tables and views.  The MIB Browser contains a database of over 100,000 OID's.

         Update System MIB- A convenient way to remotely change the System Name, Location, and Contact for a device.

Miscellaneous Tools

         Send Page- Used by Network Monitor to deliver event notifications via E-Mail pages.

         TFTP Server - A TFTP Server that allows you to transmit and receive multiple configuration files and the same time.

         SolarWinds Toolbar- A user configurable toolbar for all of your network management tools.

         Wake-On-LAN- Used to send a "magic" packet and remotely power-up a remote Workstation or Server.

         WAN Killer - A Wide Area Network traffic generator. Set the circuit bandwidth and the percent of load needed and WAN Killer will generate random traffic.

Network Discovery Tools

         DNS Audit - Will scan a range of IP Addresses and look for DNS Errors by performing a forward and reverse DNS lookup for each address.

         IP Address Management- An IP Address Management tool that will automatically monitor the IP addresses within many subnets and report on their usage. 

         IP Network Browser- IP Network Browser is an interactive network discovery tool. IP Network Browser can scan a subnet and show the details about the devices on that subnet.

         MAC Address Discovery- Conducts a discovery on your local subnet and creates a MAC Address to IP Address table.

         Network Sonar - A high performance network discovery tool. Network Sonar can build a database of the structure and devices on a TCP/IP network. 

         Ping Sweep- Scan a range of IP addresses and show which IP addresses are in use and which ones are not. Ping Sweep can also look up the DNS name for each IP address.

         Port Scanner - Remotely discover the status of IP ports on devices.

         SNMP Sweep - Scan a range of IP addresses and show which IP addresses are in use. SNMP Sweep also looks up the DNS name, System Name, Location, Contact, Last Reboot, and System Description.

         Subnet List - Builds a list of subnets on a network by scanning the route tables on a seed router. 

         Switch Port Mapper - Can remotely discover the devices connected to each switch/hub port.  It can also discover the MAC address, IP Address, and Hostname of the connected devices and the details about each port. 

Network Monitoring Tools

         Network Monitor - Monitor hundreds of devices and keep track of response time and packet loss. Network Monitor can also send Pages or E-Mail when a device stops responding.

         Response Time Charts ? Charts used to display historical data collected by Network Monitor.

         Network Performance Monitor - A robust network performance monitor capable of monitoring traffic and utilization on hundreds of interfaces.  The real time alerting will notify you via e-mail or pages when an alert condition is detected.

         SysLog Server - The SysLog Server listens for incoming Syslog messages on UDP port 514 and then decodes the messages for logging purposes.

         Watch It! - Monitors servers, routers, web sites, etc. and notifies you when network response time begins to degrade or when a device is down.

Performance Monitoring Tools

         Advanced CPU Load - Monitors and graphically displays the load on multiple Cisco routers or Windows Servers in real-time.

         Bandwidth Gauges - A real-time traffic monitor gauge which monitors the amount of data being received and transmitted for any remote network device.

         Bandwidth Monitor - A real-time traffic monitor with historic charting and database capability.  Allows the monitoring of average bps RX and TX as well as Percent Utilization.

         CPU Gauge- Monitors the load on the CPU of any Cisco router or Windows Server.

         Network Performance Monitor - A robust network performance monitor capable of monitoring traffic and utilization on hundreds of interfaces.  The real time alerting will notify you via e-mail or pages when an alert condition is detected.

         Real-Time Interface Monitor ?This tool can display many statistics from Routers and Switches simultaneously. 

         Router CPU Load- Monitor the load on Cisco routers in real-time.

         SNMP Graph- Monitor and graph the statistics from any MIB OID that responds to SNMP.

Ping and Diagnostic Tools

         DNS Analyzer - This tool can be used to visually display the hierarchy of DNS Resource records, including Name Server, CName, and Pointer.

         Enhanced Ping - Used to continuously monitor a number of servers, routers, PCs, etc and show real-time response time. 

         Ping- A graphical version of the simple PING utility.

         Ping Sweep - Scan a range of IP addresses and show which IP addresses are in use and which ones are not. Ping Sweep can also look up the DNS name for each IP address.

         Proxy Ping - With Proxy Ping it is possible to remotely initiate a PING test from any remote Cisco router.

         TraceRoute - An advanced trace route that provides real-time SNMP discovery during the trace like ISO Level, Machine Type, Location, etc. The SolarWinds TraceRoute is very fast. Each hop in the complete path is processed concurrently.

Security Tools

         Edit Dictionaries- Used to build a database of words to be used during an SNMP or password attack.

         Port Scanner - Remotely discover the status of IP ports on devices.

         Remote TCP Reset - This security tool can remotely display or reset active TCP sessions on a terminal server, router, dial-in server, access server, etc.

         Router Password Decryption - Decrypts Cisco type 7 passwords.

         Security Check - The Router Security Check program will attempt to break into a Cisco Catalyst or router. It will try and determine the read-write SNMP community strings.

         SNMP Brute Force Attack - Attacks a set of IP addresses with SNMP queries using a sequential character discovery to try and determine the SNMP community strings.

         SNMP Dictionary Attack - Attacks a set of IP addresses with SNMP queries using know hacker databases as well as you personal imported lists to try and determine the SNMP community strings.

SNMP Trap Tools

         SNMP Trap Editor - Used to modify SNMP Trap Templates used by SolarWinds Network Management Tools.

         SNMP Trap Receiver - Used to receive and display SNMP Traps that are being sent from a network management application, network device, or server. 

Broadband Network Tools

         CMTS Modem Summary  - Used to pull acquired modems detail from a CMTS router.

         Network Performance Monitor - A robust network performance monitor capable of monitoring traffic and utilization on hundreds of interfaces.  The real time alerting will notify you via e-mail or pages when an alert condition is detected.

         Signal Quality Monitor  - Monitors the RF Signal Quality of CMTS headend router connections.

         Subscriber Modem Details - Used to view the status of CATV subscriber modems with details such as interface status, signal quality, and IP address.

On-Line Manual

In addition to the On-Line Manual provided with the SolarWinds Tools you can also access the latest updates at http://SolarWinds.Net/Help.  This file is routinely updated with additional Frequently Asked Questions, Hints and Tips.