Network General's Reporter for Windows

*Network General's Reporter for Windows tool sniffs out network-activity reports. (PC Week Netweek)(Brief Article)
PC Week Sept 12, 1994 v11 n36 pN6(1)
PC Week Sept 12, 1994 v11 n36 pN6(1)

Network General's Reporter for Windows tool sniffs out
network-activity reports. (PC Week Netweek)(Brief Article)

by Blakeley, Michael

Full Text
Corporate sites already using Network General Corp.'s analysis tools can
generate automated reports using the $4,995 Reporter application for
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, which began shipping last month.

PC Week Labs found that, although its SQL-based reporting engine brings
new value to Network General's analysis tools, the Reporter's value is
limited.

Like many network-analysis tools, Reporter is a must-have for some,
but will be of little interest to most. Corporations that use Network
General's Sniffers, Distributed Sniffers, and Expert Sniffers, and have a
chronic need to generate reports of network activity, will leap on this
product.

The Reporter works by importing trace files from Expert Sniffer,
Distributed Sniffer, and other Network General products into a database.
Reports can then be run on the database for various network segments,
dates, and times of day.

Because Network General trace files don't take an easily parsed form,
it's been difficult to generate reports with spreadsheets or traditional
relational DBMS analysis tools.

Our copy of Reporter included templates for useful reports such as
network utilization, error trends, local vs. remote traffic, and protocol
distribution. Data from the reports can be saved to tab-delimited files,
and graphs can be saved to BMP files or copied to the clipboard. This
enables network administrators to create powerful "State of the
Network" presentations, come budgeting time.

We ran into some user-interface problems with Reporter 1.0. It was
often difficult to remember which data was recorded for which days,
and many reports simply returned cryptic error messages when we ran
them on blank days.

We also had some trouble importing trace files from a Network General
Sniffer running Release 4.0 of the Sniffer software. Network General
advised us that the Sniffer must be running 4.4 or better for trace-file
compatibility with Reporter.

Once we had our database up and running, we found several bugs in the
reporting features. We could generate graphs, but not tables, crippling
the product's usefulness. Network General quickly supplied us with a
patch to two of the DLL files, and we experienced no more problems.

Reporter 1.0 requires a 33MHz 486 or better and 4M bytes of RAM.
Windows 3.1 or better, VGA, and a mouse are also necessary. Because
you'll be generating large databases, Network General recommends 500G
bytes of disk space.

Network General, based in Menlo Park, Calif., can be reached at (800)
764-3337.

Type: Product Announcement

Company: Network General Corp.

Product: Network General Reporter for Windows (Network
management software)

Topic: Product Introduction
Network management software

Record# 16 241 486