Add-On Consulting - Monitoring |
News From PaesslerWe Have a New Blog: Take a Look!Today, we have released our new blog! It has a new design, some interesting features and great content (there's more to come!). So go ahead and have a look! It now also has a comments section, so tell us what you think about it... :) From now on, new articles will be published only on the new blog. No Paper? Toner Empty? Printer Error? Bored of Grouching Users? Check Our 8 Tips for Better Printer ManagementCompanies need printers – that’s a fact. And as a systems administrator, you’re probably the one in charge of them. Are you monitoring your printers? If no, then you should read this article and learn why you should monitor, and how. And if you’re already monitoring your printers? Read it anyway, for valuable tips and hints you may not yet know… Why Prevention Is Key to Fighting Off Ransomware – and 5 More Tips to Protect Yourself Against Attacks Like WannaCryRansomware is not a new phenomenon, its origins go back to the healthcare industry in 1989. Known as the AIDS Trojan, the malware was spread via floppy disks that were sent to AIDS research organizations and encrypted files after a certain number of system reboots. Meanwhile, targets range from computers to smart TVs and the list gets longer every year. It is now a billion dollar business and all the shady people on the dark side of the Web want a piece of the action. 2016 was a highly successful year for ransomware and saw a massive surge, not only in the number of attacks, but also in their variety. This upward trend has continued on into 2017 with numerous large scale attacks including the WannaCry attack on May 12. This is the largest attack yet, affecting around 200,000 computers in 150 countries in industries ranging from healthcare to public transport. This attack really proves that ransomware has started to take on disturbing and very expensive dimensions. I only wanted a GeForce Titan and two curved screensI’ve been trying it again and again for the last 10 years, but I haven’t been successful [so far]: I wanted a cool gaming machine for my job as a writer and editor at Paessler, giving me a little advantage for our after work gaming sessions. As I was bringing our administrators close to a nervous breakdown with my regular requests, Nina from our IT-team finally came to me and explained our hard- and software deployment processes here at Paessler to me. And I must admit, it sounds somehow reasonable for me, although they don’t offer GeForce Titans and curved screens. Here is what Nina said: Ben’s Story: PRTG Saved My @ss So Often, I Ended Up Working for Paessler!Ben Day, a Senior Presales Engineer for Paessler in the US, describes his introduction to PRTG and how it saved his @ss quite a few times. He liked PRTG so much that he ended up working for Paessler, promoting a product that he knows he can really stand behind. Here’s Ben’s story, in his own words. PRTG 16.4.28/17.1.28: Please Update!If you’re running PRTG with a version between 16.4.28.x and 17.2.31.2018 your installation has a little problem: It will not tell you that a newer version of PRTG exists. And it cannot update itself. Our fault! We accidentally deactivated the auto update function. We apologize! 8 Out-Of-The-Box Exchange Sensors That Will Save Your @ssIn this, the first in a series of articles looking at how PRTG can help Exchange Admins to manage their systems, we look at the continued popularity of email as a corporate communications tool. We’ll also see how PRTG’s pre-defined Exchange sensors can provide a great overview of system health and performance. In subsequent articles, we’ll see how custom sensors can provide even deeper insight into the many components and sub-systems that make up an Exchange infrastructure. Paessler –The Eating Company Celebrating One Year of Our Own CafeteriaWe spend a ridiculous amount of time discussing food at the office. “Is it anyone’s birthday and did they bring cake?”, “Is the chocolate drawer filled up?” (yes, we have an official chocolate drawer) and most importantly “What’s for lunch?”. Never Lose Sight of the Hardware Infrastructure - and 9 More Tips You Need to Know About IoT MonitoringIt makes no difference whether your boss has only just heard about the Internet of Things and is now on the lookout for new business models, or your customer wants a fully-networked Smart Home with intelligent electrical outlets. At the end of the day, a feature-rich, high-performance Internet of Things will require IT administrators who understand their craft. So, here are ten tips that will help you get to grips with the challenges of network monitoring. A Tech Guy at the AWS Summit 2017 in BerlinA few of us from Paessler got to recently go to the AWS Summit in Berlin and here are a few things that we learned along with some notes from the trip. All About All Access: My Trip to Spiceworks’ UnconferenceI’m the Senior Technical Evangelist for Paessler and I spend a lot of time in various online communities, discussing PRTG and other monitoring stuff with IT professionals. Spiceworks is one of the most interesting and valuable forums I’m involved with, and I’ve been active as a “Green Guy” there for about a year. Spiceworks organizes two SpiceWorld conferences each year, one in Austin, Texas, and one in London, England. My US colleagues get to go to SpiceWorld Austin, and I was looking forward to going to the one in London this year. I was very (very!) disappointed to learn that Spiceworks had cancelled the London event. WHAT!?! Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one who was disappointed… So many Spiceheads complained that the Spiceworks organizers relented – and decided to organize an event in London after all. Why There Is No Better Browser Than Google Chrome [Bonus: 10 Best Extensions for Admins]Google Chrome has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 2008. Today, the web browser has over 1 billion users and accounts for 75.1% of global internet usage as of March 2017. This success can be chalked up in part to its highly customizable design, simple yet incredibly handy features, and synchronization capabilities. Let's go over some of the reasons why Chrome outshines the competition. Do You Know How Many Active VMs You Have?Using the standard VMware sensors in PRTG, you can integrate information from your VMware setup into your overall IT-monitoring. But, PRTG has no out-of-the-box feature to count the number of active virtual machines running on your servers. So, I wrote a script that works as an EXE/Script sensor in PRTG and that counts your active VMs. Your switch doesn't support flow? We show how you can monitor it anyway!Flow based monitoring (NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow, IPFIX...) is a powerful method to get detailed information about the traffic on your switches and firewalls. It not only delivers data about the sheer amount of traffic, but also what kind of traffic it is, where it comes from and where it goes to. Using flow monitoring you can get top lists of users, connections or protocols. However, not every switch, router, or firewall supports flow protocols. Most flow protocol supporting devices are expensive high-end series, while older devices or budget series don't support it. You can find more information about flow monitoring at the Paessler manual https://www.paessler.com/manuals/prtg/flow_monitoring. What's Better: Monitoring as a Service or on Premises?What is better, PRTG on premises or on demand? Watch this 2 minutes video to learn more about PRTG as a service. HOW IS PRTG DIFFERENT TO OTHER SAAS SOLUTIONS? WILL PRTG ON DEMAND REPLACE PRTG ON PREMISES? PRTG ON DEMAND OR PRTG ON PREMISES? |
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