15-Minute Reviews :: LANState v3.5

Greetings everyone and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s review is on LANState version 3.5 by 10-Strike Software – A real-time network monitoring tool for network admins.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“LANState is a network management and administration software solution for networks. LANState contains a network device status monitor that allows a network administrator to see the state of a network on a graphic diagram in real time and to receive notifications about the time devices go out or become available, and thus ensure prompt response to failures and minimized lost time.

The functionality of the program is based on periodical polling of devices available, as displayed on the graphic map, by pinging them or attempting to connect to the required TCP port over a network, or by applying other types of checks (such as file, folder, or free disk space monitoring, MAC address checking, and SNMP monitoring). The network administrator can set up the program to respond to particular events, such as when devices go down or are turned on. Such responses can include displaying a message, playing a sound, sending an e-mail, running external programs, or recording to a log.”

Quick Pros

• Network search finds computers and queries target for more information via NetBIOS
• Places icons for different network parts on the window for assembly of a map
• Use a an image file for background to make layout easier than using drawing tools
• Constantly watches for specific situations (designated by you) at designated times
• Monitor can display a message, send an SMS or email, run an application or use sound on status change
• Network actions give you a selection of tools for managing and monitoring your network

Quick Cons

• Scanning does not appear to be near the 16/second claim
• Drawing tools and interface are a bit clumsy
• Don’t forget to save – Lost first map when I closed application from system tray
• Application could be a little more descriptive on how to make network actions work properly

Expansion

This application is surprisingly powerful. Mapping, monitoring (Even from the system tray including notifications), and network actions; While not a full suite, it does offer a lot of what others may miss.

First off when you launch into the application, it shows you a demo layout; Pretty straightforward concept and shows you what you can do with the application. When you head to start your own map, you have two options; IP scanning and import from network neighborhood. Since I have some hardware that won’t show up via network neighborhood, I chose IP scanning. While the scan was relatively quick on a range of 255 IPs, I don’t think I saw the 16/second that it claims; It took almost a minute for the whole process (A lot longer if you select more than ICMP-ping/ARP-ping.) When it was done, the application deposited a collection of icons in the main window with the computer’s network name (If had) or its IP address and what the computer thinks it is.

When I started messing around with the map, I found a few quirks here and there; The drawing tools are hard to draw much more than a few boxes or connectors and that was it; It would be very time consuming to build an entire map on your own. The saving aspect of this is that the author did include the ability to include a background jpeg so you can add your own floorplan. When designing a layout and then controlling the situation, I found the interface as a whole uncomfortable; I found myself getting lost in the menus, settings and more. The design of the layout does not lend well to the process; You can get everything set up, but it seems to take longer by far than it should. If you have a larger network with a lot of shared printers, you have to open the properties of each printer to see which computer it is actually hooked to unless you know the name already – There should be some sort of linking already in place to help this. As well, while you can draw lines between equipment, there is no ‘linking’ functionality to help you trace where a problem in the network may be through built-in logic.

That said, I was surprised at the functionality of the monitoring. While not fully-featured, with the ability to not only watch for if the computer can be pinged, you can also test the ports, DNS availability, confirm SNMP strings are correct, file or folder existence on the network or free space available. Very handy indeed. With that, there is also an abundance of notification and trigger functionality. There is not only the common Windows dialog box pop-up and sound, but there is also SMS and e-mail functionality as well. There is also triggers as well that can run an application if something does change. The application can also minimize to your System Tray for full-time monitoring without cluttering your taskbar.

There is some other functionality as well. If configured properly (I was unable to do so in the time constraints of this review – There’s not much help on this process), you can also check out further information on a system such as registry, processes, installed applications and more (Much like the previously-reviewed network inventory applications). As well, there is the ability to send messages and turn on or off computers remotely (again, so long as you have privileges to do so on that system.)

A few notes I must make as well. First off, make sure you save. I closed from the application from the System Tray before I saved and found out that it did not save my map; It will save it if you close while the window is up however. As well, the interface (as mentioned previously) could be improved in ease of use and functionality/productivity. The interface is really quite unwieldly at times. The help files could also be a bit more helpful in setting up network actions and the network information portion of things; I could not do any of these on any of my systems at home.

Final Verdict

While the application does feel a bit clumsy at times, it does show some promise. While I likely would not want to tackle a network of conciderable size with this application, it wouldn’t be bad for larger home networks, small- or medium-sized businesses. There is a lot of functionality here to help make your life slightly easier than using some of the more complex monitoring solutions out there. That said, while free, if you have a use for it, you should pick it up and see if it suits your needs appropriately. As for paying $49.95, this would depend on how you feel about the application and its usefulness. For a home or small home business, this is likely to be too high of a price tag. Small to medium businesses may find a value in it for the monitoring functionality and easy-to-view maps; However, there may be better solutions out there, such as Spiceworks (Free – No mapping however) or SolarWinds Toolkits (Standard – $145, Engineer – $1390)

Posted by BladedThoth on Tuesday, July 10, 2007