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Network monitoring is nothing new and if you work at a large company in the IT department, there is a good chance that you have some type of robust network monitoring tools. But if you work in a small office or have your own network at home, you may not want to spend the money on some expensive network monitoring software and probably need something that just does the basics. In this article, we will be showing you how to monitor network connected devices at set intervals to make sure they are up and running.
To accomplish this task, we will be using a free app called Network Alarmer by Vovsoft. You can download the software here. There is an option for an installable version as well as a standalone version where you simply extract the zip file and run the executable file to start the app. You can then create a shortcut to the exe file on your Windows desktop or taskbar etc.
Network Alarmer has an air conditioner system monitor if you have networked attached AC units but if you do, then you most likely have some more advanced monitoring software that you already use for them. You will most likely be using the Ping Hostname List feature of the software.
If you click on the button that says Discover Local Devices in the Ping Hostname List section, Network Alarmer will go out on your network and look for devices that it can add to the list for you. You can also add your own hostnames, IP addresses and websites manually.
The Dial List section can be used to add phone numbers that can be called when the app detects that a device is down. You will need to have a modem attached to use this feature. You can also create a script that will do something such as send you an email when it detects an outage. You can find more information on how to configure these settings on their website.
As you can see in the image above, after the check interval time has passed, Network Alarmer will check the status of your configured hosts and show the results in the box below. You can change the check interval to a different number if desired. 600 seconds is the default setting.
If a networked device cannot be contacted, Network Alarmer will show the results in red and sound an audible alarm to notify you that there is a problem. You can change the sound for this feature if needed. If you have configured a script and the software has an issue with it, you will be shown the results in red as well.
If you do not want to wait for the check interval time to pass, you can click on the Manual Check button to run a check instantly.
The Show Logs button will open the log folder which will contain a text file showing you the results of the checks that have been run in the past.
If you are looking for another similar application, then check out PingInfoView.
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