Netasyst is not the end-all network analysis tool; in fact, it lacks functionality that some midsize businesses may require. Alhough gigabit link analysis (fiber or copper) and wide-area technologies, such as ATM, are not widely used by SMBs, if you do use them, note that Netasyst does not support them. Other Sniffer products do. NAI says it will add these features as they become more prevalent in SMB networks.
SMBs will find this tool useful for more than troubleshooting network problems. For example, Netasyst analysis results can be used to justify capital expenditures, such as purchasing network bandwidth or upgrading your network infrastructure. They can also help recognize and eliminate nonbusiness-related applications on your networks, like streaming video, music and instant messaging, letting you free up bandwidth and possibly postpone purchases. Additionally, Netasyst can validate that security devices such as firewalls and VPNs are actually securing the data they are assigned to secure. Virus and worm infections will be more easily traced and eliminated as well.
Perhaps to justify its pricing, the Netasyst products use the same code base, developer resources, customer training resources and support technicians as all of the Sniffer products. This is a great advantage for SMBs because NAI has invested a lot of time and research in those products.
Christopher T. Beers is a Unix systems engineer at Syracuse University. Write to him at [email protected].
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