Network Diagnostic Tool
Quickly diagnose and troubleshoot network fault, availability, and performance issues
Reduce network downtime
Network downtime can be caused by a variety of different issues. Without the right network diagnostic tools, it can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. SolarWinds® network monitoring software is a network diagnostic tool designed to continuously conduct latency tests and monitors fault, availability, and performance of network devices. Through the tool’s intelligent network alert system, you can create custom, predefined thresholds and receive notifications the moment those thresholds have been crossed. Access to this type of network diagnostic software ensures you’re the first to know when issues occur, empowering you to act and get your network up and running before it affects business performance.
Quickly resolve network connectivity issues
Accelerate time-to-resolution
Diagnose network issues and optimize performance
Get More on Network Diagnostics
How to Diagnose Network Issues
Diagnosing network issues requires you to collect and analyze relevant information about the devices and links on your network. First, you have to identify the source of the problem. Running a network diagnostic test correlates real-time and historical data, which helps you compare and analyze multiple metrics, including device status and key statistics. A detailed network visualization or data representation like a chart, graph, or topology map, will enable you to determine if the problem relates to an application, network connectivity, user access, storage, or a mix of resources and configurations. With the right information, it’s easier to diagnose the root cause and perform quick, pinpointed troubleshooting.
How does a network diagnostic tool work?
A network diagnostic tool uses in-depth packet analysis to collect and inspect the data being sent over a computer network. With probes installed on network devices, the tool can view and gather information for all the traffic across the network. The diagnostic tool can then register and display information like response times, data volume, and transactions to locate slowdowns and automatically flag any issues. These insights help admins determine if the application or the network is the cause of poor user experience. This packet-level information can also help create a hop-by-hop packet path map so admins can view and detect network bottleneck locations at a glance.
What is the purpose of network diagnostics?
Network diagnostics are critical to ensure optimal end-user experience. With effective diagnosis, admins can perform fast troubleshooting or even head off issues proactively. This means business colleagues never have to miss a beat due to downtime or other performance problems. Diagnostics can also safeguard your business against a security breach, highlighting unusual spikes in traffic that could indicate a cyberattacker at work.
What are the features of network diagnostic software?
Network diagnostic software offers robust features to boost business performance and protect against security breaches. Network diagnostic software typically includes a packet sniffer, mapping tool, and more. Within the web-based performance dashboard, charts and graphs display and categorize both real-time insights and historical data. Customizable, intelligent network alerts make it easy to stay apprised of network device health, performance issues, and suspicious spikes in traffic activity.
Why is network diagnostics important?
Network diagnostics play a vital role in business IT strategy. Through real-time alerts and interactive, data-driven dashboards, diagnostics help prevent against latency and connectivity issues before they bring business to a halt. These tools also offer an extra layer of protection against cyberattackers, notifying IT teams of any spikes in traffic indicating a potential security threat. With network diagnostics, admins have ongoing visibility into their network and can more quickly address any performance issues.
How do network diagnostics work in NPM?
NPM tools continuously conduct latency tests and monitor the fault, availability, and performance of network devices. Deep packet inspection tools within the software help identify root causes of performance issues. This network diagnostic software runs packet-level, hop-by-hop analysis along critical network paths, so you can easily view performance, traffic, and configuration details of devices and services. For greater visibility, NPM can integrate with networks that are on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid environments.
What other network tool features does NPM have?
NPM offers multi-vendor network monitoring, in-depth network insights for enhanced visibility, intelligent maps aggregating and visualizing raw data, advanced alerting, and beyond. These tools can be scaled for large environments, helping companies of all sizes boost performance, keep networks up and running, and protect against security breaches.
How to Diagnose Network Issues
Diagnosing network issues requires you to collect and analyze relevant information about the devices and links on your network. First, you have to identify the source of the problem. Running a network diagnostic test correlates real-time and historical data, which helps you compare and analyze multiple metrics, including device status and key statistics. A detailed network visualization or data representation like a chart, graph, or topology map, will enable you to determine if the problem relates to an application, network connectivity, user access, storage, or a mix of resources and configurations. With the right information, it’s easier to diagnose the root cause and perform quick, pinpointed troubleshooting.
"SolarWinds greatly helps users ensure that potential network issues are resolved before they affect service delivery which goes a long way to justifying the investment."
Phil Rogers
Head of Networks
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Network diagnositics and troubleshooting
Network Performance Monitor
- Multi-vendor fault monitoring system, performance, and availability monitoring with Network Performance Monitor.
- Visual representation of the health and performance of critical network gear.
- View contextual and graphical portrayals of an entity and its physical and logical relationships with auto-updating maps.
Starts at
NPM, an Orion module, is built on the SolarWinds Platform