Observer® Expert: Real-Time and Post Capture Expert Event Identification, Expert Analysis and Modeling of Network Traffic Data

A complete toolbox for troubleshooting and maintaining your network.
   • Convert your PC or laptop into a powerful protocol
      analyzer and troubleshooting expert tool
   • Pinpoint difficult problems through real-time or post
     capture expert analysis
   • Obtain instant expert explanation online for each
     event and item
   • Grade LAN data & WAN/Internet traffic differently
   • Track errors, events, slow response and slow
     connection
   • Predict network bandwidth and response time
     impact with Expert's "What If" modeling
   • Monitor all ports on a switch
   • Track application response times and total/failed application transactions
   • Collect long-term trending statistics on your LAN for proactive decision-making
   • View multi-segment LANs/WANs by adding Probes

Observer Expert Identifies Problems and Provides Expert Information in Plain English.

Observer® Expert: A cost-effective, software-only, Microsoft Windows-based network monitor and LAN/802.11/WAN troubleshooting tool. Expert Observer can monitor single-segment LANs/802.11 networks and, with the addition of Probes, Observer Expert can monitor multi-segment networks.

Observer Expert includes all functionality of Observer and offers multiple expert modes to help identify different network problems.

Observer Expert Q&A:
Example problems Observer Expert can help isolate:

What's causing the slowdown?
The Expert Analysis, real-time or upon completion of capture, will provide a summary of conclusions about any problems and possible causes in plain English.

Why has the company's main database become so slow?
Observer Expert will identify the client/server relationships automatically and display expert analysis statistics, including slow response times, busy network or server problems and retransmissions.

Will moving to Gigabit increase my network response time?
Observer Expert's What-If Analysis lets you create unlimited scenario analysis based on your captured data. This allows you to accurately determine the impact of changing variables such as network bandwidth, response time and number of users and latency.

How can I isolate intermittent problems?
Observer Expert's Time Interval Analysis of data transmissions is displayed as a "drill down" from any problem identified in the IP/TCP/UDP, IPX/SPX, NetBios/NetBEUI, SQL, Oracle and 802.11 Experts. Viewing errors by time periods will show whether a problem is sporadic or consistent throughout the day.

Why can't I log in?
Packet Capture can display login negotiations, retransmissions and response times to determine where the problem is.

Implementing VoIP, and need a tool to verify performance and check compliance?
Observer Expert's complete decode of H.323, including VoIP, insures you will have the tools you need when voice and data problems arise.

At what point will the added VoIP traffic critically impact the quality of network communication?
VoIP Expert displays jitter and percentage of lost packets for each VoIP pair, and both the amount of network utilization the conversation is consuming and the total VoIP utilization on the network. With both utilization and jitter data, problems can be easily pinpointed, and predictions of future capacity can be made.

Can I get more detail about a particular conversation?
Observer Expert's connection Dynamics allows you to analyze and graphically view any conversation's behavior displaying inter-packet timing between stations (who is waiting on who) and conversational events, highlighting retransmissions and lost packets in red.

Unique Features of Observer Expert:
Online help is available for each event and item to provide additional expert explanation instantly.

Expert Summary Problem Analysis
		Shows error events in a single, concise display. For connection-orientated problems, a simple double-click drills down for further analysis. Expert problem identification is displayed for TCP/UDP/ICMP, Wireless 802.11 a/b/g, IPX/SPX, NetBIOS/NetBEUI, SQL and WAN. For better identifaction of problems with respect to time, all summary events are graphed along a timeline.
TCP/UDP/ICMP, Wireless, IPX/SPX, and NetBIOS/NetBEUI Expert Event Identification
		Displays protocol-based and application-based problems in real-time. Local traffic is judged using different criteria than WAN/Internet traffic to help make certain no false readings are provided. All port-based services are tracked, slow response/no response and slow connect/no connect are flagged and sorted by severity. A generic TCP conditions expert tracks all port-based protocols for slow response or connection characteristics.
Time Interval Analysis
		Any conversation's timeline can be displayed as a "drill-down" from any problem identified in the Event Experts. Time Interval Analysis shows network errors organized by time periods to identify whether a problem is sporadic or consistent throughout the day. This information is critical in determining if a problem is spread throughout a period of hours, or if it localized to a specific time span. Network utilization within the Interval Analysis is displayed to help match slow responses with heavy network load.
Connection Dynamics
		Provides a graphical view of system conversations. Packet-to-packet delay times are shown visually, allowing instant identification of long latency and response times. Retransmissions and lost packets are flagged in red for quick identification. Should a particular packet require further investigation, its decode is only a click away.
Server Analysis
		Displays a server's response times charted against the number of simultaneous requests asked of that server. Response times are charted for recorded request sets, and plotted for predicted response times as request loads increase.
"What If" Modeling
		What-If analysis starts with measurements based on actual client/server conversations, or peer-to-peer conversations and plots possible response time, utilization and packet flow scenarios. This allows you to predict network bandwidth and response-time impact for topology changes (e.g. 100MB to Gigabit) or by changes in variables such as average packet size, send-to-receive packet ratio, latency, server load, number of users. This "live-modeling" lets you assess the impact of possible network or application changes.
Voice over IP Expert (VoIP)
		The VoIP Expert displays H.323/SIP conversational data in three separate graphs. Each display is designed to help identify why a connection may be experiencing problems, or at what level of network load are H.323 conversations exhibiting acceptable quality behavior. Displays include jitter and lost packets (%) for each direction of the conversation, total RTP/RTCP bandwidth utilization, total utilization and each conversations % of total utilization.
WAN Delay Analysis
		The compare capture feature offers time synchronization technology to troubleshoot WAN or network delay. Observer Expert (and a remote Probe) can capture both ends of a conversation across a link and determine response time measurements across that link. This feature quantifies transaction time between PC and server using a Network Instruments exclusive method of synchronizing captures. Useful primarily to large companies, or WAN network consultants who troubleshoot multiple WAN links, which prior to this would have needed extremely expensive time synchronization equipment. An application example would be a large retail firm needing to track and analyze transaction times between each system and its server.
Application Analysis
		Application Analysis brings troubleshooting to the next level by monitoring user experience metrics and being able to view applications across the entire network. Historically network administrators had to purchase separate tools to monitor applications and monitor the traffic. Observer now offers both sets of functionality in one tool. Application Analysis tracks application session flows, provides statistics on errors, monitors response time and total / failed transactions. Additionally, key protocol-based metrics are displayed to provide an up-to-the-minute view of application performance. Automatic server and application discovery simplifies setup. Once a problem is found, Connection Dynamics lets you drill down and see the session by session communications. Support applications include: DNS, FTP, HTTP, POP3, VoIP, SQL (TDS), TELNET, SMTP, SNMP and Oracle (TNS).

Observer Expert Requirements:
System Requirements Minimum: Windows 2000 or later, a supported network adapter, a mouse, and a color monitor running at 1024x768 resolution. Recommended: A color monitor running at 1280x1024 or greater resolution.