Knowledge Center > Tips

ipMonitor 8 includes a wide range of new features and enhancements to help you quickly and easily monitor every aspect of your network.

While there are many compelling reasons to deploy ipMonitor 8 in your environment, this article highlights ten of the lesser-known features and enhancements that make ipMonitor 8 the ideal network monitoring solution:

1. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript) and XML keep your Status screens continually updated
2. Use the new font-scaling ability to fully resize the web interface
3. Format the content of your Custom Tags and Notes for maximum visual impact
4. Customize the Live Status screens to any degree
5. Hover your mouse cursor over text and icons to view additional information
6. Upload custom icons to differentiate between your Reports
7. Specify your Time Zone and Daylight Savings Time settings
8. Edit and fine-tune your Monitor Filters, or take advantage of preset Quick Filters
9. Edit a Note after it's been posted
10. Trace the communication route of an Email Report sent via the Report Browser

ipMonitor 8 uses Asynchronous JavaScript and XML behind-the-scenes to keep your Status screens continually updated.

The blinking squares located in the upper right corner indicate the time remaining until the next page refresh.

TIP Clicking on the right-most square forces an immediate update of your Status screen.

The entire ipMonitor interface has been upgraded to be pixel agnostic (relative size) rather than pixel sensitive (absolute size). ipMonitor 7.x required users to define a specific pixel width for the web interface. Now, the ipMonitor web interface can be scaled based on font size.

Increase or decrease your font size to make the interface more readable. Alternatively, try changing the size of your browser window and watch as the entire interface flows to match the new specifications.

TIP You can easily have two browser windows open, side-by-side, showing two separate ipMonitor installations. When resizing the browser windows, the ipMonitor web interfaces (including Status screens and Reports) will reflow accordingly.

Formatting the content of your Custom Tags and Notes is now easier than ever. The formatting tools have been enhanced, allowing you to quickly and easily add functionality or style to every post.

Formatting is now as simple as highlighting text and clicking the appropriate buttons to achieve the desired visual impact.

TIP Click the Preview button to view the formatting effects as you work. Enlarge the text box to fit the size of your text by clicking the blue arrow icon.

ipMonitor 8 allows you to customize the Details and NOC (Network Operations Center) Views, making it possible to fully control the name, size, order, and content of the columns being displayed. You can even add anchors to Monitor names, allowing you to quickly launch the appropriate Edit interface for any given Monitor.

This functionality is controlled on a per-Account basis, so it's always customized just for you.

TIP When editing a Monitor, the Monitor Status displayed at the top of the Edit screen can be customized by configuring the NOC Settings in the My Settings section of the software.

Do you sometimes have trouble reading the full name of a Monitor when it's particularly long? Do you wish you could find out additional information about the Status of a Monitor without navigating away from the Monitors List? Now you can.

Hovering over a textual field within the Status screens will display the full text within a tooltip.

TIP This is particularly useful when you've customized the screen to display a large number of columns, resulting in some of the text being abbreviated due to lack of rendering space.

Hovering over Status icons allows you to obtain additional information about a Monitor or a Group.

TIP This is particularly useful for viewing error messages without having to navigate away from the current screen.

ipMonitor 8 uses Report icons to differentiate between your saved Reports. Although ipMonitor includes a Report icon library, you can also upload your own images to further customize your Reports.

Simply add a Configurable Report via the Add Report Wizard, and click the Select button located next to the default icon during the last step (Step 4) of the wizard process. You'll be able to browse your image folders to locate the appropriate file, and then select a PNG, GIF or JPG image to upload.

TIP Uploaded Report icons are added to ipMonitor's icon library, making them available for use to any ipMonitor User or Administrator.

ipMonitor 8 supports Time Zone settings throughout the software. This makes it possible to specify a particular Time Zone while configuring Maintenance Schedules, for example.

ipMonitor 8 Reports now also properly articulate when "1AM happens twice", or when "2AM is skipped" due to Daylight Savings Time.

TIP You can verify the default ipMonitor Time Zone by clicking the Quick Links menu option, and selecting System Status. By default, ipMonitor will use the Time Zone specified in your Operating System settings.

In ipMonitor 8, it's now possible to return to a previously created Monitor Filter in order to edit and reorder the defined Filter rules.

In addition, a Preview button has been added, making it easy to test your changes while you fine-tune your settings.

TIP Preset Monitor Filters are now included by default with your ipMonitor installation. To access them, use the Previously Saved Filters option located in the Quick Filter drop-down box at the top of the Monitor List.

The ipMonitor 7.x Whiteboard feature has been renamed to Notes.

Previously, Users could only Add or Delete a Note. In ipMonitor 8, it is possible to Edit a Note after it's been posted, allowing you to customize the content of the message supplied to other ipMonitor Administrators and Users. Data posted on the Notes board often includes items such as configuration settings, policy information, problem resolution, tips & tricks, and other information that may need to be updated on occasion.

TIP The Notes board is now access controlled. Administrators have full control over whether Users can view and / or post messages. The Security / Accounts menu is used to configure Notes Permissions for User Accounts.

When sending Email Reports to a colleague or to a client, you may need to troubleshoot the reason for a missing Report.

ipMonitor 8 includes the Send Transaction Log feature within the Report Browser. When enabled, the sender of the Email Report will receive a communications trace that details the communication between ipMonitor and any SMTP / DNS servers.

TIP Ensure that your email address is specified in the Email Report From field in order to receive the transaction log. By default, this field will be populated with the email address entered in the ipMonitor Server Email Address field of Server Settings.

For information on other features and concepts related to those discussed in this article, refer to the following ipMonitor resources:

< Back

Last Updated: August 4, 2006 | What did you think of this topic?