SiteScope User's Guide

NT Dial-up Monitor

The NT Dial-up Monitor (available only on the Windows NT version of SiteScope) uses the Windows NT Remote Access Service to connect to an Internet Service Provider or Remote Access server and optionally runs a user-defined set of monitors. The monitor confirms that the dial-up connection can be established, and measures the performance of the connection and of the network services using the dial-up connection.

Because the NT Dial-up Monitor uses Remote Access, which affects the entire machine's network connectivity when it established a connection, it should be used on a machine that is not used for accessing resources outside of the local network. For example, if you were using a Web browser on the machine where SiteScope was running a NT Dial-up Monitor, and the NT Dial-up Monitor had connected, all the requests by the browser out to the Internet would also use the dial-up connection, affecting the speed of the browser and the reading from the NT Dial-up Monitor. The NT Dial-up Monitor will ensure that none of the other SiteScope monitors (those not being run by this Dial-up Monitor) will run while the dial-up connection is established (they will be held up until the NT Dial-up Monitor is completed). No two NT Dial-up Monitors will run at the same time.

Currently the NT Dial-up Monitor will use the dial-up connection only for requests outside of the local network. Therefore, if you have monitors that access network resources on the local network, their readings will be the same as if the NT Dial-up Monitor wasn't used. However, monitors that access network resources outside the local network will use the dial-up connection. For example, if you ran two Ping monitors in the NT Dial-up Monitor, one of which was yourserver.com (on the local network), and the other of which was externalserver.com (on an external network), the yourserver.com Ping would be very fast, because it would use the LAN, while the externalserver.com Ping would take longer, because it would go through the dial-up connection.

To set up the Remote Access Service on a Windows NT machine, go to the Network Control Panel, and add the service. At that time you also have the option of adding one or more modems as Remote Access modems. At least one of the modems has to have dial out capability for this monitor to work.

Each time the NT Dial-up Monitor runs, it returns a reading and a status message and writes them in the monitoring log file.

Usage Guidelines

Why should I use this monitor?

You can use the NT Dial-up Monitor to measure the performance of your Internet applications from a dial-up user's perspective. The NT Dial-up Monitor can also be used to monitor the availability and performance of remote access servers.

What should I monitor?

If you're primarily interested in dial-up availability, then you can just have the NT Dial-up Monitor try to connect, and if successful, run one or two quick monitors to verify that the connection is operating properly. If you're more interested in the perspective of a dialup user, then running a suite of monitors that represent typical user tasks will give you more complete assessment.

How should I schedule my monitors?

Because the NT Dial-up Monitor stops other monitors from running while it's connected, take into account the number and kinds of monitors that will be running while the connection is established as well as the number of other monitors that are running. If SiteScope is running only NT Dial-up Monitors, then you can schedule them more frequently (every 5 or 10 minutes). However, if you are monitoring many other items, choose a large interval (hours), so that other monitoring is not disrupted.

Only one NT Dial-up Monitor can run at a time, so if you have more than one NT Dial-up Monitor, take that into account when scheduling the monitors.

Status

The reading is the current value returned by this monitor; for example, "5 of 5 monitors OK in 55 sec", or "The line was busy". The status is logged as either OK or warning.

For reports, the NT Dial-up Monitors saves the total time taken (to connect and run the monitors), the connect time (the time for the modem to establish a physical connection), the authorization time (the time after physical connection is established before the connection can actually be used), and the percentage of the monitors run that were "OK".

Completing the NT Dial-up Monitor Form

To display the NT Dial-up Monitor form, either click the edit link of an existing NT Dial-up Monitor in a monitor table, or click the "Add a new Monitor to this group" link on a group's detail page and choose the "Add NT Dial-up Monitor" link.

Complete the items on the NT Dial-up Monitor form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the Add Monitor button.

Phone Number: Type the phone number for the dial-up account, adding any extra modem digits or pauses that are required. For example, 9,4432266 includes a "9," for getting an outside line. Insert a comma wherever you need a short pause.
Account Login: The login name for the dial-up account.
Account Password: The password for the dial-up account.
Monitor(s) to Run: Select the group(s) and/or monitor(s) that you want to run while the dial-up connection is established. Monitors that will be used by NT Dial-up Monitors should not be scheduled to run by themselves (because then some of their data would be via the dial-up connection, and some of their data would be through the local connection)- make sure that the "Update Every" box for these monitors is blank.
Update every: Enter how frequently the dial-up session should be executed. The drop-down list to the right of the text box lets you specify time increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. You must specify a time increment of at least 15 seconds.
Title (Optional): Enter a name for this monitor. This name appears in the Name field on the monitor table when you open the group's detail page. If you don't enter a name, a default name will be created.

Advanced Options

The advanced options give you the ability to customize error and warning thresholds. If you choose not to set them, SiteScope will use preset defaults if available. If a default is not available, SiteScope will not be able to utilize the condition.

Timeout

The timeout limits the total time that the NT Dial-up Monitor takes to connect, authenticate, and run each of it's monitors. If the time ever exceeds this time, then the connection is hung up, and the monitor completes with a timeout error.

Disable

Check this box to temporarily disable this monitor and any associated alerts. To enable the monitor again, clear the box.

Schedule (Optional)

By default, SiteScope's monitors are enabled every day of the week. You may, however, schedule your monitors to run only on certain days or on a fixed schedule. Choose the Edit schedule link to create or edit a monitor schedule. For information about creating schedules, read these instructions.

Monitor Description (Optional)

Enter additional information about this monitor. The Monitor Description can include HTML tags such as the <BR> <HR>, and <B> tags to control display format and style. The description will appear on the Monitor Detail page.

Report Description (Optional)

Enter a description for this monitor that will make it easier to understand what this monitor does. The description will appear on Management Reports and on the info list for a monitor.

Depends On (Optional)

To make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor or monitor group, use the drop-down list to select the monitor or group on which this monitor is dependent. Select None to remove any dependency.

Depends Condition (Optional)

If you choose to make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor, choose the status condition that the other monitor or monitor group should have in order for the current monitor to run normally. The current monitor will be run normally as long as the monitor or group on which it depends reports the condition selected in this option.

List Order (Optional)

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

Verify Error

Check this box if you want SiteScope to automatically run this monitor again if it detects an error. When an error is detected, the monitor will immediately be scheduled to run again once.

Note: In order to change the run frequency of this monitor when an error is detected, use the Update every (on errors) option below.

Note: The status returned by the Verify Error run of the monitor will replace the status of the originally scheduled run that detected an error. This may cause the loss of important performance data if the data from the verify run is different than the initial error status.

Warning: Use of this option across many monitor instances may result in significant monitoring delays in the case that multiple monitors are rescheduled to verify errors at the same time.

Error if

By default, SiteScope reports an error status if this monitor returns anything other than an OK status. You may set other conditions for errors, such as total time, time to connect, or % monitors good. Enter the lowest value that should trigger an error status. Use the comparison value and comparison operator list to specify an error threshold such as: >= (greater than or equal to), != (not equal to), or < (less than).

Warning if

By default, SiteScope reports an warning status if one or more monitors run by this monitor returns and error status.. You may set other conditions for warnings, such as total time, time to connect, or % monitors good. Enter the lowest value that should trigger a warning status. The symbols in the comparison value list are the same as those for Error if.

Good if

You may Use this item to specify conditions that must be met in order for SiteScope to register an OK reading. For example, you may specify that all monitors must return an OK status; otherwise, SiteScope should generate an error status.