Hardware-Based, Wire-Speed, Full-Duplex Gigabit Advanced Probes

Hardware-based Probes are specific to administrators that require wire-speed, full-duplex gigabit capture, analysis, trending and statistics. Software-based Probes are appropriate for network speeds up to 100 MB (Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI and 802.11b Wireless) and are a good solution for monitoring low utilization gigabit networks via a tap port on a switch.
Gigabit Observer Probes comes in two formats - the Gigabit Probe Kit and the 19" rack-mountable complete Probe. Each option has been designed to give the administrator flexibility in implementation and performance. Both Probes functionality include full-duplex, wire-speed gigabit analysis for optical (fiber) SX or LX and copper gigabit networks.

Hardware-Based WAN Advanced Probes

Hardware-based WAN Probes are designed to passively monitor and capture WAN traffic and provide a direct link into the data stream, offering an independent and trusted view of network WAN traffic. A complete range of WAN Probe configurations are availible to accommodate almost any WAN circuit.
WAN Probes offer complete inline monitoring, decode and statistics for WAN traffic, as well as all payload data, at links up to DS3/T3/E3 speeds. As with all Network Instruments’ Probes, WAN Probes report to any Expert Observer or Observer Suite console.

Software-Based, Remote Advanced or RMON Data Collection for the Observer Console

Observer's console can be upgraded to monitor remote LANs, WLANs or WANs by adding either software-based Advanced or RMON Probes, or Hardware-Based Advanced Probes for wire-speed, full-duplex gigabit analysis. Software-based Probes are installed on a remote LAN, WLAN, segment or switch to collect data and report back to the Observer console, and are appropriate for analysis speeds up to 100Mbit, or for low utilization gigabit networks via a tap port on a switch.

Observer's software-based Probes can operate in one of two modes: Advanced or RMON, and any Probe can be installed as either. The Advanced Probe offers a superset of RMON for administrators who will only be using the Observer console. The RMON Probe is an industry-standard RMON2 (including full RMON 1 and RMON 2) compliant Probe application. Observer's Probes convert a standard PC into a complete remote network monitoring data collection device.