Dartmouth Releases InterMapper 2.1

Dartmouth College has released version 2.1 of InterMapper, its versatile network management and troubleshooting tool for medium to large AppleTalk and IP networks, mentioned in Chris Pepper’s recent article about firewalls. InterMapper uses Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and other protocols to provide graphical network topology displays (with automatic discovery), warnings and alarms, active monitoring of servers and routers, and much more. Version 2.1 enhances InterMapper’s integrated Web server so network administrators can remotely access most of the network information available to InterMapper, serving images using speedy PNG graphics. (See “A Closer Look At Web Graphics” for more information about the PNG format.) InterMapper 2.1 is a free upgrade for owners of InterMapper 2.0; otherwise, InterMapper is available for $795 from Dartmouth College, with a 50 percent discount for educational institutions. A 2.1 MB demo version is available.

If InterMapper is overkill (or overpriced) for your network, check out Dartmouth’s recently released SNMP Watcher 1.0, which displays simple tables of SNMP information on AppleTalk and IP networks. You can use SNMP Watcher to monitor your network devices over time for errors and activity, and if your users install the optional SNMP software that ships with Mac OS 8.5, you can see what applications, extensions and other software are installed on a remote Mac, which is great for troubleshooting and technical support. SNMP Watcher 1.0 is available for $99, and there is a 280K demonstration version.