Network Graph

A network administrator’s task is to keep an eye on every bit of information coming in, and leaving the network, secure it, and make sure nothing goes wrong. One of the basic ways of doing so is with applications like Network Graph, which neatly let you visualize and export analysis on network traffic.

One first advantage is the application skips you both the time, and effort of pressing a few Next buttons to make it functional on your PC. It can be stored, and used directly from a thumb drive, without having an impact on stability, since system registries don’t need to be modified.

Needless to say that nothing happens right away, but setting up network options to read and display takes about a few seconds. A drop-down menu is used to select the target IP address, which can also be of a different computer connected to the same network, given the host PC has administrator rights over all the others.

Although only one IP address can be selected from the list at a time, you can run more instances of the application to monitor more targets at a time. You can take the time to go through various settings in order to customize the visual design of the graph, whether to capture data via a web server, stop, or restart after a specific number of full pages, or automatically run with Windows for instant monitoring.

Pressing Start makes the application listen to the specified address. The graph is refreshed every second, and even though you can’t set rate, it’s enough to keep you updated with everything going on. You can switch to a 3D graph for an even better analysis, and even save current position and display to file, under one of several supported image formats.

To sum it up, Network Graph might look and feel a little rough around the edges, but with little time spent configuring capture options, and neat display of network traffic, you don’t need fancy visuals. More targets can be set at a time in different instances, while customization, display, and export options all add up to the neat practicality.