Quick Ping Monitor 3.03

Quick Ping Monitor is just what the name says: a ping reply monitoring software. Although all it does is to use the ICMP protocol to send ping packets, it is full of useful features. The interface is user friendly and it takes only a couple of minutes to add monitoring rules and configure the alert options.

The software will run as a service and it offers the possibility to alert a user by e-mail, by running an executable file, by showing a message box or by sounding a very annoying beep. And when I say annoying, I mean really annoying; you can't miss it for the world. When I first used the software, because I didn't look through all the options, one of my network devices didn't answer to ping anymore: the computer speaker started to beep and scared me. So be careful to look through all the options before using this one or you might get a heart attack. Besides being dangerous for your health, alert options are also useful.

E-mail alert can be configured through a macro into sending a customized e-mail, depending on which device's state changed. E-mails are sent, through a external SMTP server, to all the users in the group that monitors the rule that changed. The parameters of the application being started as an alert can also be modified.

Monitoring of devices is done depending on either a counter that increases upon each timeout, or on a percentage which shows the ping loss rate. For easier monitoring, a log file is provided into which the software writes info about device state changes. Also if you want to save or load the list of devices being monitored you can do that from the File menu.

Pluses: Functionality.

Drawbacks / flaws: Buttons on the toolbar need improving because they don't look so nice.

In conclusion: A nifty utility that can come in handy if you need to monitor a computer network.

version reviewed: 3.03