10-Strike Network Monitor FAQ

Monitoring Issues:

The program fails accessing a shared folder or getting the list of services or processes when it monitors another computer. But when I was configuring the monitoring check, I could access the remote folder and saw the list of services. What should I do?

Can I set an alert to go off only if the check fails 2 times in a row? I get a lot of false error messages from one machine. Your monitor says the machine is down but when I check, it is ok.

I cannot change the monitoring check type. The "Type" field is gray and the ICMP ping is selected in the list. How can I change it to TCP, for example?

Does the program support hierarchical alerting (dependencies)? By that I mean I don't need an alert for every item in a branch office if the firewall or VPN is down.

If a system will have a scheduled downtime for 2 days, I would like to put in maintenance so that alerts do not send for that specific device, instead of deleting it and re-adding it.

The program fails sending alerts via e-mail and SMS messages. How can I fix this or configure the program properly? What is the SMS server?

The program fails restarting and shutting down remote computers. What can I do to fix this?

The program scans my LAN for hosts very slowly or hangs when the "TCP ping" option is selected under Windows XP. Why is this?

Our network uses DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol). How can we ensure that the program pings the computers properly and displays the correct state for the computers?

I cannot configure the the WMI, Printer status, or Mapped drive checks. The lists are not filled. What am I doing wrong?

I have configured the monitoring checks on one computer and would like to move all the settings and checks to another PC. How can I do this?

 

SNMP Issues:

The program cannot connect to another computer via SNMP. The SNMP service is operating and the Community string is correct. What is wrong?

The program cannot connect to another host via SNMP and gather data from it. I get the SNMP error 40. What does it mean?

 

Other Questions:

Where does the program store stats, reports, and other data?

 

Monitoring Issues

Question: The program fails accessing a shared folder or getting the list of services or processes on another computer. But when I was configuring the monitoring check, I could access the folder and saw the list of services. What should I do?

Answer: This is because the program (the GUI part) is started under your current account, but the monitoring service (10-Strike Network Monitor Service) is started under the System account by default. Please perform the steps 1-6 below to fix this.

The steps 1-4 will force the monitoring service to start under your PC admin
account instead of the System account:

1. Open the Service Manager: "Start" -> "Run..." -> Type services.msc and click "OK".

2. Find the 10-Strike Network Monitor Service and open its properties via a double mouse click.

3. Move to the "Log On" tab.

4. Select the "This account" option. Click "Browse...", "Advanced...", and then "Find Now". Select a necessary admin account (it should have the admin rights on your computer). Click "OK" and "OK" again. Below, in the "Password" and "Confirm password" fields, enter the password of this account. Click "OK" and restart the service and the program.

5. In the "Service state", "Process existence", "File/folder existence", "File size", "Disk space", "MS SQL Server" (with Windows authorization) check properties, enable the "Authorization required" option and type login and password of a user that has can connect to the remote computer you want to monitor and has admin rights on that remote PC.

6. The remote computer should have the Classic access model selected. If you use a domain, the Classic model will be selected by default and you should not change it (otherwise, the Guest model will be used).

How to check or change the access model on your PC:

• Open the "Start" - "Control Panel" - "Administrative Tools" - "Local Security Policy" console on the remote PC.
• Open the "Local Policies" - "Security Options" (in Windows 7: "Security Settings" - "Local Policies" - "Security Options") item.
• Find the "Network Access: Sharing and security model for local accounts" in the right column.
• Open the item properties and select the "Classic - local users authenticate as themselves" access model setting. Apply the changes.

 

Question: Can I set an alert to go off only if the check fails 2 times in a row? I get a lot of false error messages from one machine. Your monitor says the machine is down but when I check, it is ok.

Answer: Yes, this is possible. On the window where you select the monitoring check type (the Step 1 of 3 of the Monitoring Settings Wizard), there are the Attempts and Delay parameters. Raise the Attempts setting to avoid the false alerts.

 

Question: I cannot change the monitoring check type. The field is gray and the ICMP ping is selected in the list. How can I change it to TCP, for example?

Answer: The program does not allow changing check types for existing checks. Add a new monitoring check and select any type you want for it.

 

Question: Does the program support hierarchical alerting (dependencies)? By that I mean I don't need an alert for every item in a branch office if the firewall or VPN is down.

Answer: The dependency is configured on the Step 2 of the Monitoring Settings Wizard. When you click Add, you will be able to select a monitoring check from the list of available checks (your current check being edited will depend on this check).

Make the remote hosts checks being dependent on the gateway's check. When the gateway is down, the program will not send notifications on the dependent checks' failures.

 

Question: If a system will have a scheduled downtime for 2 days, I would like to put in maintenance so that alerts do not send for that specific device, instead of deleting it and re-adding it.

Answer: To configure the scheduled downtime, bring up the "Edit Host..." window using the context menu and select the "Scheduled downtime" tab. You can also disable checks temporarily using the "Turn off Check" menu item.

 

Question: The program fails sending alerts via e-mail and SMS messages. How can I fix this or configure the program properly? What is the SMS server?

Answer: For sending e-mail alerts, you need to do the following:

1. In the E-mail section of the program settings, configure SMTP server address (for example, smtp.gmail.com), port (25 by default), login and password for sending e-mails. You also need to provide a subject line and sender's e-mail address. Some ISPs block the TCP port 25 so you cannot send e-mails using the standard SMTP port. In this case, you need to ask your e-mail provider (check their web site) whether they have alternative ports for connecting to their SMTP server (for example, 2525).

2. Select a host in the list. Select a monitoring check, bring up the context menu, click "Edit". Click "Next>>" until the Step 3 is displayed. Select the Show message, if condition is fulfilled option, and then select the Send e-mail message option. Specify the necessary e-mail address.

For sending SMS alerts, you need to do almost the same. Our program sends SMS via e-mail. The most of mobile operators have e-mail-to-SMS gateways. Ask your operator about it or search the Internet for "email to SMS gateways".

1. In the SMS section of the program settings, configure your operator's SMS gateway address (for example, sms.mygsmop.com). Enter your country code in the Prefix field. Select the Phone number in e-mail subject option if your operator's gateway requires this.

2. Configure the SMTP settings as described above for sending outgoing e-mails.

3. Select a host in the list. Select a monitoring check, bring up the context menu, click "Edit". Click "Next>>" until the Step 3 is displayed. Select the "Show message on passed (and/or failed) check" option, and then select the Send SMS message option. Specify your mobile phone number without a country code. The code will be added automatically from the program SMS settings (the Prefix field).

 

Question: The program fails restarting and shutting down remote computers. What can I do to fix this?

Answer: Please check the following items:

1) Your and a remote PC you are trying to shutdown should have the "Remote Procedure Call (RPC)" service running.

2) Check that the remote PC is online. Ping the PC or run another check.

3) The NetBios protocol should be enabled in the Firewall on both computers (ports 139 and 445).

4) If everything above is okay, you will probably need to switch the network access model in the Windows security settings on that remote PC to "Guest".

How to check or change the access model on your PC:

• Open the "Start" - "Control Panel" - "Administrative Tools" - "Local Security Policy" console on the remote PC.
• Open the "Local Policies" - "Security Options" (in Windows 7: "Security Settings" - "Local Policies" - "Security Options") item.
• Find the "Network Access: Sharing and security model for local accounts" in the right column.
• Open the item properties and select the "Guest" access model setting. Apply the changes.

Warning! The Guest access model decreases the security level of the system. Please learn more about this issue before enabling the guest access model.

 

Question: The program scans my LAN for hosts very slowly or hangs when the "TCP ping" option is selected under Windows XP. Why is this?

Answer: This is due to Windows limitations on number of allowed simultaneous outgoing half-open TCP connections in Windows XP SP2(x86,x64)/SP3, 2003 Server SP1(x86)/SP2(x86,x64), Vista without SP(x86,x64) and with SP1(x86,x64).

 

Question: Our network uses DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol). How can we ensure that the program pings the computers properly and displays the correct state for the computers?

Answer: When adding computers to the monitoring list, enter the computers' textual addresses (computer's network name or DNS name) in the "Host Address" property. Thus, before the host is checked, its textual address will be converted into an IP address first, and only after that the host will undergo the checks.

When adding computers to the list through scanning network neighborhood, the program will automatically add the computers' names to the address fields, and you will not have to take any extra actions.

When adding computers through scanning an IP range, the found host names can be converted from IP addresses automatically. On the final step 4 of the Network Scanning Wizard, choose to use DNS names for host addresses.

 

Question: I cannot configure the the WMI, Printer status, or Mapped drive checks. The lists are not filled. What am I doing wrong?

Answer: Please read the WMI troubleshooting guide topic in the help system. Check whether you have a proper Windows version for the remote WMI execution and check the security settings.

 

Question: I have configured the monitoring checks on one computer and would like to move all the settings and checks to another PC. How can I do this?

Answer: Use the backup and restore options. 1) On your old PC, select the "File - Backup Monitoring Settings" menu item. 2) Save settings to a folder. 3) Copy it to your new PC. 4) Install the program on the new PC. 5) On the new PC, select the "File - Restore Monitoring Settings" menu item and select the saved settings folder.

 

SNMP Issues

Question: The program cannot connect to another computer via SNMP. The SNMP service is operating and the Community string is correct. What is wrong?

Answer: Probably, the Windows Firewall is blocking the SNMP protocol on your and on the remote PC.
You can try disabling the Firewall and see if this helps. If the Firewall is blocking SNMP, you can add the SNMP service on the remote PC to the Exceptions
in the Windows Firewall settings. To do this, open the "Control Panel" -> "Windows Firewall". Move to the Exceptions tab. Click "Add Program" -> "Browse...". In the "Filename" field, enter the SNMP service path. For example, it can be C:\WINDOWS\System32\snmp.exe. You can see the correct path in the SNMP service properties.

On your local PC, you should also add our program c:\Program files\10-Strike Network Monitor\NetMonitor.exe and the monitoring service c:\Program files\10-Strike Network Monitor\NMsvc.exe to the Exception list of your Firewall.

 

Question: The program cannot connect to another host via SNMP and gather data from it. I get the SNMP error 40. What does it mean?

Answer: The error code 40 means that the data value cannot be gathered or SNMP agent is not started ("SNMP service fails or does not start"). The SNMP service needs to be started on the host or you need to provide the correct SNMP community string (password).

 

Other Questions

Question: Where does the program store stats, reports, and other data?

Answer: The monitoring database and stats are stored in the following folder

C:\ProgramData\10-Strike\Network Monitor\ (for Windows Vista, 7, etc.) or

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\10-Strike\Network Monitor\ (for Windows XP).

The database folder has the following directory structure:

• The RTStat subfolder contains the response time statistics. The stats files are stored in a proprietary format. You cannot read it using 3rd-party programs. If you need to export stats, please use the export to CSV file function. You can import CSV files to MS Excel, MS Access, and other software.
• The Logs subfolder contains the program operation log file (NetMonitor.log) and the monitoring log (NMAlerts.log).
• The Reports subfolder is a default folder for saving generated reports. You can save reports to another folder.
• The Saved subfolder contains backup copies of the statistics data. You can backup the stats data in the program manually.
• .Ini files contain the program's settings (NetMonitor.ini and NMAlerts.ini). The .ini files are stored in the text format.

 

Please send your questions to our technical support team.

 

 

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