IpMonitor, which costs $995 for 500 monitored elements and can run on various flavors of Windows (XP, 2000 and 2003), keeps watch over devices, applications, databases and servers.

It recognizes and monitors Windows servers (NT, 2000, XP, 2003), Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle database servers, Dell and HP physical servers, Cisco routers, Foundry Networks switches, APC back-up power-protection systems and even NetBotz environmental monitors.

The protocols it monitors are HTTP, Secure-HTTP, FTP, POP3, IMAP4, ICMP/ping, SNMP, HTML/ASP, SMTP, DNS, Lotus Notes, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, RADIUS, Telnet and SNPP.

IpMonitor won our Clear Choice Award for its ability to monitor systems on the network accurately. For servers, ipMonitor shows such metrics as uptime; bandwidth, CPU and memory use; and response times.

Click to see: ipMonitor screenshot

IpMonitor quickly and accurately scans a network to discover applications, servers, devices and services on part or all of a network. IpMonitor groups the results by IP address or domain name, and it helpfully suggests what to monitor more closely based on its findings during the scan.

While it keeps a close eye on all these network components, if your network is primarily Windows-based and you want to watch closely for client and server connectivity problems, Windows application issues and operating-system faults, ipMonitor is the tool of choice. It tracks Windows Services, event log entries, free disk space, Active Directory, and Kerberos and specific key files that you designate.

IpMonitor keeps tabs on Unix-based servers via ICMP/ping and via the network protocol streams emitted by the Unix-based servers. We'd like to see ipMonitor add Unix/Linux server resource-consumption monitoring to its repertoire. The tool also generates synthetic transactions to "tickle" Web, e-mail, directory and database servers to make sure their applications are running.

IpMonitor has an especially strong alerting feature. When the tool detects a QoS degradation, a particular pattern of network traffic, activity levels that exceed settable thresholds or a server or application failure, ipMonitor immediately lets you know via e-mail, pager, wireless device and network-message broadcast.

To fix problems automatically, ipMonitor can run an external program, reboot a server or restart a service for alerts you designate. The browser-based Web interface is a highly configurable, responsive and easy-to-navigate window into ipMonitor. Through it, tailoring alert thresholds or making other monitored-element changes is a breeze.