Scrutinizer NetFlow & sFlow Analyzer 10.0

Overview

Scrutinizer is a network reporting software for NetFlow, sFlow and other related flow technologies. With this program you can see detailed information about network usage and find the hosts and applications causing most traffic. Data gathered include source and destination IPs, ports, IP protocols, and reported details about packet loss, latency and jitter. These, and a lot more features are included in this quite big package.

Installation

Setting up the program is not difficult. During installation you have to select the ports that are going to be used, and make sure that they are not used by any other application. You also have to make some other technical settings, but nothing too hard. No additional software are included (toolbars, plugins etc.) and it’s clean from malware. It will take a while for the installation to finish, so make sure you have some time available.

The program is supported by all versions of Windows.

Interface

The main interface can be accessed via your web browser by entering the URL http://127.0.0.1:<TCP port you chose>. It is split into six tabs: Dashboard, Maps, Status, Alarms, Admin and Help. Each one has a lot of different options and features, all of them divided into boxes for better organization.

Each one has different features and functions. Depending on the current tab, the screen changes.

Pros

This program is free, something that cannot be overlooked. Even though you can buy a Pro version too, the only difference is that every 24 hours the data that has been gathered throughout the whole day is deleted. But there is a workaround for this; since the program allows you to send email reports, you can set it to send emails daily, just before the deletion is performed.

A great feature of this program is that you can find out the hosts and applications using most of the network traffic. This is valuable to network analyzers since they can come to useful conclusions and take important decisions.

Graphs are available to users for easier understanding of information. Also, integration with Google Maps is supported for looking at the physical location of the network devices.

Cons

It needs a fast machine to work smoothly. Working with it on a slower system will take a long time to analyze even a relatively small network, therefore for larger networks it needs quite a powerful computer.

Alternatives

nProbe (free and pro versions available) is a complete network management tool that pretty much does everything Scrutinizer does. Other alternatives are ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer (paid) and SolarWinds NetFlow Realtime (paid). Out of those, the best one is ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer, since it is more complete than the rest, including Scrutinizer. However, it is not the type of software that you would refer to as “cheap”, with its Enterprise edition hitting almost 10k $.

Conclusion

Scrutinizer NetFlow and sFlow analyzer is the best choice for those who don’t want to spend a lot of cash for a professional tool to manage their networks, regardless of their size. It has everything a web administrator should have to examine and control all network usage, that’s why it deserves 5 stars from us.