MyMonitor help and manual page

· Overview
· Installation
· Main window
· Configure measurement window
· Configure time control window
· Configure statistics window
· Statistics window
· Info window
· About window
· Questions and answers?
· System requirements
· Disclaimer and licence terms

Overview

MyMonitor is an easy to use program that will supervise chosen net elements and (optionally) collect statistics data. MyMonitor also includes a statistics processing unit that will present your data graphically or in text in an easy to read manner. The current version of the program use ICMP echo (ping) only. Below is a list of key features:

· Check up to 64 hosts at any moment.
· Separate configuration for every host (alarms, intervals, timeouts etc).
· Collect statistics data for availablity (uptime) calculations.
· View collected data text based or graphically.

This help file will present and explain the properties of the program windows and the use of the controls. There is also a questions and answers section. Any questions regarding this program (please check the QA section before sending any questions) and bug reports may be sent to the author to the following address:

Mail : mymonitor[-at-]timewind.se
Web: http://www.timewind.se/mymonitor/

Please read the disclaimer before using this program.

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Installation

MyMonitor is delivered as a zip file including the executable plus the html help and manual page. Unzip the files to a directory of your choice and run MyMonitor.exe. Your system may lack some necessary dll and ocx files. Install the missing files into your system directory (probably c:\windows\system\ or c:\winnt\system32\):

· Download and install VB6 runtimes (SP6) from microsoft.com: VB Runtimes
· Download and install Regsvr32.exe from microsoft.com: Regsvr32
· Download and install DLL and OCX files from timewind.se: Dll and Ocx files

MyMonitor should now be installed and ready to use on your system.

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Main Window

The main window is the most important form of the MyMonitor program. This is where the hosts to monitor are chosen and this is where the results are presented momentarialy. Below is a picture of the main window.

The main window may easily be resized to accommodate between 2 and 16 (default) measurements. Use the scrollbar to the right or associated keyboard buttons (see the controls section below) to view additional hidden measurements. A maximum of 64 measurements may be configured and running at the same time.

The controls:

To the left are the Enable check boxes. For every measurement this checkbox must be checked to enable the chosen measurement and start all chosen functions. To stop the monitoring of one host there is no need to stop all measurements. Just uncheck the enable checkbox. To start it again just click once more. The enable checkbox will be disabled if the automatic time control function is activated in the configure time control window for the corresponding measurement.

The Address textboxes are the most important user input fields. This is were the user will set the IP-address of the chosen host. This textbox accepts an (dot decimal) IP-address only during an activated measurement. You may use the address field to resolve a DNS hostname, but any text in this textbox that cannot be translated to an IP-address will be removed if the box looses focus. The text in the textbox will become red if an alarm is activated for this measurement. The following additional keyboard functions are supported:

· Use "uparrow" to go to the previous address field.
· Use "downarrow" to go the next address field.
· Use "pageup" to go to the next "page".
· Use "pagedown" to go to the next "page".
· Use "homebutton" to go to the first "page".
· Use "endbutton" to go to the last "page".
· Use "shift + rightarrow" or "TAB" to go to the comment field.
· Use "shift + leftarrow" to go back to the previous comment field.
· Use "shift + downarrow" to automatically fill the next address field with the next IP-address.
· Use "shift + double click" to open the configure measurement window.
· Use "shift + enter" to obtain the ip-address of a hostname or reverse lookup of an IP-address in the address field.

Use the Comment textfield to write a comment of the monitored host. This comment may be up to 127 characters and is used for resolving IP-addresses and for user convenience. The text in the textbox will become red if an alarm is activated for this host. The following additional keyboard functions are supported:

· Use "uparrow" to go to the previous comment field.
· Use "downarrow" to go the next comment field.
· Use "pageup" to go to the previous "page".
· Use "pagedown" to go to the next "page".
· Use "homebutton" to go to the first "page".
· Use "endbutton" to go to the last "page".
· Use "shift + rightarrow" or "TAB" to go to the next address field.
· Use "shift + leftarrow" to go back to the address field.
· Use "shift + double click" to open the configure measurement window.
· Use "shift + enter" to obtain the ip-address of a hostname or reverse lookup of an IP-address in the comment field.

The Result textfield and the virtual LED show the user the result of the last check. The LED will light green if the check suceeded and red on failure. Double click on the form to momentarily clear the LED:s.

The scrollbar to the right is used to scroll down or up to hidden measurements. You way also use the "downarrow", "uparrow, "pagedown" and "pageup" buttons to scroll whole pages (i.e the number of measurements visible in the main window.

At the lower part of the form is a row of buttons. Hit the Start button to start the testing of all enabled hosts. Hit the Stop button to stop all measurements. Hit the Configure button to open the configure measurement window and set the properties to the active (yellow background) measurement. The configure button will only be enabled if there are a correct (dotted decimal) IP-address present in the address textfield. Hit the Statistics button to open the statistics Window to show the stats for the active measurement. The statistics button will only be enabled if there are saved statistics data for the active measurement in the data folder. Hit the Exit button to terminate the application. All measurements must be stopped before the application can be terminated.

The main window statusbar present:

· The current state of the measurement process (running or idle).
· The last IP-address checked.
· Actions taken by the user.
· Messages from the application.

Please note!

All IP-addresses checked and messages may not be shown if the time between measurements or between messages and actions taken are less than one second.

The menus:

The File menu contains five options:

· New erases the current measurement configuration and restore the default values.
· Load a measurement configuration from a cfg file on disk.
· Save the current measurement configuration to disk with the current filename.
· Save as saves the current measurement configuration to disk with a filename free of choice.
· Delete removes the datafiles associated with the active measurement.
· Exit will terminate the application. All measurements must be stopped before the application can be terminated.

The Edit menu contains the following options:

· Configure opens the configure measurement window.
· Time control opens the configure time control window.
· Cut selected row copies the current measurement configuration into temporary memory and clears the row.
· Copy selected row copies the current measurement configuration into temporary memory.
· Paste into selected row copies the temporary memory configuration into the current row.
· Clear selected row will erase the marked measurement and set default values on all properties.
· Delete selected row deletes the marked measurement and all following rows will be moved upwards.
· Insert empty row will insert an empty row with default properties before the marked measurement.
· Set smtp server opens an inputbox where the user can set outgoing smtp mailserver(s) and port(s).
· Set reply address opens an inputbox where the user can set the email reply (sender) address (should exist).
· Alarmlog (if checked) will enable logging of alarm system events to a file "MyMonitor.log" (default disabled).
· Maillog (if checked) will enable logging of email system events a file "MyMonitor.log" (default disabled).
· Autoresolve (if checked) performs a dns lookup when the adress field focus is lost (default enabled).
· Autosave (if checked) automatically saves the configuration every five minutes (default disabled).
· Autostart (if checked) starts the measurement process automatically on application start (default disabled).
· Show buttons (if checked) show a row of buttons in the lower part of the form (default enabled).
· Minimize to tray (if checked) allows the main window to be minimized to the systemtray (default enabled).

The Run menu contains the following options:

· Start and stop menus have the same function as the buttons with the same name.
· Enable toggles the enable check box which enable (or disable) the active measurement .
· Sort on address sorts the measurements with the lowest figures first. Click again to reverse the sorting.
· Sort on comment sorts the measurements in alphabetical order. Click again to reverse the sorting.
· Clear active alarm clears the activated alarm for the active measurement. The alarm function is NOT disabled.
· Clear all alarms clears all activated alarms. The alarm function is NOT disabled.
· Clear email queue removes all unsent email messages in the mail queue.
· Disable all alarms will disable all alarm functions until the menu is unchecked or the application is restarted.
· Disable all sounds will disable all audio functions until the menu is unchecked or the application is restarted.
· View logfile will open the logfile in notepad. This function is disabled if notepad or the logfile is unavailable.
· Perform dns lookup will try to find the IP-address (or hostname) of a hostname (or ip-address).

The Statistics menu contains two options:

· Open Statistics opens the statistics window. This menu will only be enabled if there are statistics data available.
· Configure statistics will open then configure statistics window.

The Help menu contains three options:

· Contents will open this help page in the default browser.
· Info will open the info window which show the user some important application data.
· About will open the about window.

Drag and drop:

The MyMonitor main window support limited drag and drop functions.

A stored configuration (measurement information) may be loaded by dragging the desired Configuration file (extension .cfg) from a file manager and drop it on main window background. This is only possible if the application is in idle mode.

An unused measurement datafile (extension .txt) may be loaded by dropping it into an empty measurement textbox. The datafile dropped into a textbox will be copied to the current datafolder if located anywhere else. The measurement configuration is in default mode after this operation and may be changed in the configure measurement window

The systemtray:

The MyMonitor program may be minimized to the system tray (and run in the background) if desired. Activate "Minimize to tray" in the edit menu and click on the minimize button in the upper right corner of the window. Double click on the tray icon to restore the program window. Right click to show a popup menu. The following options are available:

· Restore and minimize menus will show and minimize the main window.
· Start and stop menus have the same function as the form buttons with the same name.
· Cancel will close the popup menu without any other action.
· Exit will terminate the application. All measurements must be stopped before the application can be terminated.

The tray icon is blue if the program is idle, green if the program is running and red if any alarm is triggered. Only the main window can be minimized. A right click on the tray icon when another MyMonitor window is active will give the user two options in the popup menu:

· Close will close the active window. Any unsaved configuration changes will be lost.
· Cancel will close the popup menu without any other action.

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Configure Measurement Window

In the configure measurement window the user can set the properties of any monitored host separately. This is where the alarm settings for each monitored host are configured. Below is a picture of the main configure window:

The controls:

There are three textboxes in the Settings section

The ICMP payload is the lenght of a random content payload attached to each ICMP packet. A payload size between 0 and 1500 characters (bytes) may be added to simulate UDP and TCP size packets.

The Interval time sets the time between the pollings (in seconds). Every measurement may use different measurement intervals. Please note that if there are many measurements with long "timeout" settings the actual interval time may be longer than expected. The interval setting will become red if the combined "timeout" time of all active measurements is larger than the chosen interval time. Maximum interval is about 9 hours.

The Timeout time is the lenght of time (in milliseconds) before the program considers the packet lost and diplay a timeout sign. Maximum timeout time is about 32 seconds. Please note that very long timeout times may slow the measurements down considerably.

Please note! If the combined timeout time of all measurements is equal to or larger then the shortest interval time there may be inaccurate or even erroneous results returned from the application.

MyMonitor have a comprehensive Alarm section. An alarm counter starts counting immediately if a monitored host does not answer in a proper way. Click the "Activate alarm after.." checkbox to enable the alarm section. To the right of the checkbox is an now enabled textbox which holds the time (in seconds) before the alarm is activated. Below is the checkboxes which activate the alarm actions. There is options available to play a wavefile, run external programs and send emails on alarm start. Up to eight programs may be added by holding down the shift button while adding programs with the "findfile" button or manually write the paths (separated by a ";" character) into the textbox. A double click on the textbox will open an inputbox for easier manual editing. Up to eight email addresses may also be added. A click or "setfocus" on a nonempty textbox (with correct data) will change the "findfile" button to a testbutton for about four seconds. Click the "testbutton" to test your configuration (the program will play the chosen sound, start the chosen program(s) or send email(s). All configured SMTP servers will be tested. Click the "deactivate alarm after.." checkbox to automatically deactivate the alarm if the monitored host starts responding again. Set the delay before the alarm is deactivated and play a wavefile, run program(s) and send email(s) if needed.

The status section contains the checkbox Inverse trigger. This function inverts the action of the measurement. This implies that the status LED will light green on a "request time out" and red on a "success". The alarm is also triggered on received packets. This function may be used to monitor a firewall response.

The logging and statistics section contains the checkbox Enable data collection. If this checkbox is checked the program will collect data from this measurement to memory and later to the disk for statsitics purposes.

The Copy and Paste buttons are used to copy the active configuration and use it in more than one measurement configuration. Click on the paste button to paste all copied data into the current measurement. Click on the OK button to set the current configuration. Click on the Cancel button to close the configuration window and discard any changes in the configuration.

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Configure Time Control Window

In the configure time control window the user can set a time interval when the measurement will be active. This function may be used to automatically exclude nighttime and/or weekends from the uptime measurements. Each of the measurements may have an individual time control configuration. Below is a picture of the configure time control window:

The controls:

There Activate time control checkbox in the Settings section enables the automatic time control of start and stop events for the current measurement. The Invert time control checkbox inverts the response from the time control function. The implies that the measurement is "off" in the chosen interval. Normal behaviour is "on". The Use the same interval for all days of the week checkbox disables the tuesday to sunday textboxes and uses the monday values for all weekdays when checked.

The Day of the week section includes the begin and end textboxes. Each day of the week can have a begin and end time configured. At the given time the measurement will be automatically started or stopped. The time is recognized in the "hh:mm" format (see the picture to the left). The text in the textboxes will be red if any unknown timeformat or unrealizable interval is given. No action is taken if a textbox is left blank.

Please note! MyMonitor uses the system clock for the time control functions. No time syncronization functions to ensure the integrity of the system clock are included in MyMonitor. This must be done with external software.

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Configure Statistics Window

In the configure statistics window the global statistics properties can be set . This is where the statistics data folder, concentrate functions and global alarms are configured. This configuration window is common to all measurements. Below is a picture of the statistics configure window:

The controls:

First there is the Data folder section. The stored data folder path is shown in the textbox. Write a new path into the textbox if the current path should be changed. Hit the (now enabled) Use button to apply your changes and create the new folder if it does not already exist. The text will become red if the new datafolder cannot be created.

Please note! The datafolder path cannot be changed if the measurement process is running. Press the Cancel button to return to the main window, stop the current measurement process and try again.

Next there is the "Limit disk space use" checkbox which activates a storage limit of the active files in the datafolder. Put a desired value (in MegaBytes) into the textbox to the right. A "save data" error will occur if there is no folder space left.

If the "Remove unused datafiles" textbox is checked all old datafiles associated with a specific measurement will be removed automatically if the measurement is deleted. This is the recommended setting (to avoid confusion or conflicts with old measurements) but any data files are lost forever if the IP-address of a measurement is changed. Use with caution.

Next is the Concentrate section. The concentrate function concentrates (aggregates) the existing data to a day average which is written to a new file. The old data is deleted if the concentration process is succesful. This may be a necessity if the program is used over long periods of time. An application modal window is shown during the concentration process to inform the user of actions taken.

There are four choices how and when to concentrate the collected data:

· "After time span" starts the process if the timespan in the datafile is over a specified value (in days).
· "If file size larger than" starts the process if the size of a datafile is over the specified value (in MBytes).
· "If folder size larger than" starts the process if the size of the datafolder is over the specified value (in MBytes).
· "Manual concentration" is used if no concentration are needed at all or to do it manually when needed.

Please note!

· The concentration process may take a rather long time on slow computers.
· The concentration process (once started) cannot be aborted.
· Collected information older than the last day is deleted if the concentration process is successful.
· The statistics (and alarm) window must be closed for the concentration process to commence.
· If the process fails more than four times there will be no further attempts until the application is restarted.
· A manual concentration process cannot be started immediately if the path to the datafolder has been changed.

The Alarms section handles alarms which affect the whole application. Click on the "On save data" checkbox to activate the global alarm if the program is unable to write statistics data to disk

. Click on the "On low diskspace" checkbox to activate the global alarm if the available diskspace is less than a given value (in MegaBytes) in the textbox to the right. There are four checkboxes that when checked plays a wavefile, run programs and send emails on alarm start and alarm acknowledge. Up to eight programs may be added by holding down the shift button while adding programs with the "findfile" button or manually write the paths (separated by a ";") into the textboxes. A double click on the textbox will open an inputbox for easier manual editing. Up to eight email addresses may also be added. A click or "setfocus" on a nonempty textbox (with correct data) will change the "findfile" button to a testbutton for about four seconds. Click the "testbutton" to test your configuration (the program will play the chosen sound, start the chosen program(s) or send email(s). All configured SMTP servers will be tested. The global alarm displays a red flashing application modal window at the centre of the screen with information of the actual error. There is an "OK" button on the alarm window that will acknowledge the alarms. All alarms will then be disabled until re-enabled in the main window run menu.

Click on the OK button to set the current configuration. Click on the Cancel button to close the configuration window and discard any changes in the configuration.

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Statistics Window

The statistics window is opened from the main window statistics button or from the menu Statistics. These controls are only enabled if there are stored data for the active measurement. The statistics functions have two main modes:

· Text mode
· Graphics mode

The text mode shows the stored information in figures and the graphic mode shows a curve, bar or dot chart. Examples of these modes are shown below:

Text mode

Graphics mode

The controls:

In the top left corner of the form is the IP-address & filename section. These boxes are not user changeable and is for information only. The boxes show the current IP-address and the filename from which the data is loaded.

Next on the right are the Calculate and show between section. When the window opens the top row of boxes show the first date and time stamp (year month day - hour minute second) stored on the disk and the lower the last. These textboxes are user changeable and any date and time between the first and the last timestamps may be written into the boxes. This may be used to calculate statistics and show graphics on a specific interval of time. Double-click on (or press space in) one of the textboxes to reset the textbox content value to "00" (hour, minute and second), "01" (month or day) and "0000" (year). This is only possible if the resulting date and time is later than the first measurement timestamp. You may also use shift + "uparrow" to increase (and shift + "downarrow" to decrease) the numerical value in the active checkbox (if possible).

To the right are the Actions section. There are three different statistics methods which have a button here:

At the lower part of the form is a row of buttons. Hit the Compute button to start the data processing. During the calculation the Abort button will be enabled. Hit this button to stop the data processing at any time. The Reload button reloads all measurement data from disk and the timeboxes will be restored to the original values. Next is the Mode button. If the stat window is in text mode the caption of this button will read "Graphics" and if in graphics mode the caption will read "Text". Click on this button to switch between graphics mode and text mode. Click on the Close button to close the stat window.

In the middle of the form is the main graphics window. On the first start it will be in text mode and if the datafile is loaded succeessfully there will be a "READY" printed in the upper left corner. If "view alarm events" mode is enabled the grapics window will show the date and time of the recorded alarm events. Only the last 50 events will be shown even if there are more events available. If "view lost packet and delay statistics" is enabled the graphics window will show important information based on the recorded data. The following parameters are displayed:

· IP-address: The IP-address of then current measurement.
· Filename: The filename from which the data is loaded.
· Begin: Date and time at the beginning of the chosen interval.
· End: Date and time at the end of the chosen interval.
· Number of measurements: The total number of measurements found in the datafile.
· Number of lost packets: The total number of measurements found with a "timeout".
· Number of alarm packets: The total number of measuremets recorded during an activated alarm.
· Minimum delay: The minimum recorded delay, the time of the last occurrence and number of occurrences.
· Maximum delay: The maximum recorded delay, time and number of occurrences. Timeouts are not included.
· Average delay: The average delay of recorded measurements. Timeouts are not included.
· Service availablilty: Total amonut of time during activated alarms divided with total recorded time.

If the "view start/stop event statistics" mode is enabled the graphics window will show the date and time of recorded start and stop events. Only the last 50 events will be shown even if there are more events available.

When the mode is changed to graphics there vill be a X and a Y axis drawn in the graphics window. In both modes there are the possibilty to zoom closer to a specific moment by entering the start and stop time into the "calculate and show between" textboxes. In the graphics mode there is an easier way. Use the mouse pointer and the left mousebutton to specify the desired timespan. The first click sets the startpoint and the second click sets the stoppoint and starts the calculations. The cursor will form a cross when the zoomfunction is available. If no second click has been made in 10 seconds the zoom function is disabled and a new start point has to be set. In the "lost packet and delay statistics mode" it is also possible to zoom on the y-axis. Enable the "Zoom on Y-axis function (in the edit menu) and click once at the graphics window and the area between zero and the specified point at the y-axis will be magnified.

The statistcs window statusbar present:

· The current state of the statistics process (running or idle).
· Actions taken by the user.
· Messages from the application.

Please note!

All IP-addresses checked and messages may not be shown if the time between messages and actions taken are less than one second.

The menus:

The File menu contains three options:

· Print report sends the current text or graphics to a printer.
· Save report/graph saves a report to a textfile (txt) or a graph to a bitmap (bmp) file.
· Close window closes the statistics window.

The Edit menu contains several options:

· View alarm events show the time and duration of an alarm event.
· View lost packet and delay statistics show the network statistics information.
· View start/stop event statistics show when the measurement have been active.
· Numeric cursor position activates a numeric representation of the current cursor position on the XY plane.
· Zoom on Y-axis activates zooming on the y-axis. Click again to deactivate.
· Auto compute (if checked) updates the graphics (or text) automatically when a parameter is changed.
· Smooth graph smooths the fast changes in the curves which makes it easier to analyse long term changes.
· Colours let the user change the colours of the foreground (text), background etc.
· Style let the user change the appearance of the graphics mode (bar, dot and line graph styles available).
· Timespan let the user view predefined timespans (all records, last 24 hours or last 60 minutes).
· Show buttons (if checked) show a row of buttons in the lower part of the form (default enabled).

The Run menu contains five options:

· Compute, Abort and Reload menus mimics the action of the buttons with the same name.
· Back and forward menus are used to undo and redo changes and zoompoints in the stat window.

The Show menu contains three options:

· Graphics menu activates the graphics mode.
· Text menu activates the text mode.
· Concentrate changes mode to view data in concentrated files (if any).

The Help menu contains one option:

· Contents will open this help page in the default browser.

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Info Window

The Info window let the user view the current values of the most important parameters in the MyMonitor application. Only the OK button is enabled for user interaction in this window. Below is a picture of the info window:

The controls:

The Application uptime section shows the elapsed time (days : hours : minutes : seconds) since the application was started. This textbox is updated every second.

There are three parameters available in the Disk utilization section: The "data folder drive" informs the user of the drive where statistics data are currently stored. The "Used data folder space" informs the user of the diskspace currently used by statistics data and the "Remaining folder space" tell the user how much space there are left of the allocated folder space or total drive space depending on the current configuration. These values are uppdated every 15 seconds.

The Memory utilization section informs the user of the currently used locations in memory space.

The Additional info section informs the user of the current number of enabled measurements, the number of active alarms, the number of emails in the mail queue, the total number of alarms and the total number of packets sent since the application was started

Click the OK button to return to the parent window.

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About Window

The About window will show the user the current version of the program and the disclaimer text. The window also contain clickable links to the program webpage and to the author mail address. These links will open the default web browser and email client respectively.

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Questions And Answers?

· How do I change the folder to store my collected data?

Open the configure statistics window (from the statistics menu in the main window) and manually write a new path into the top textbox in the data folder section. Then hit the (now enabled) "use" button to create the new path.

· How do I configure the program to notify me of an alarm?

The measurement alarms are configured in the configure measurement window and the global alarms are configured in the configure statistics window. There are three actions available to notify the user of an alarm. First the user may configure the program to play a wavefile. The measurement alarm will play the wavefile once and the global alarms will repeat the wavefile until the alarm is acknowledged. Second the user may configure the program to start an external application (an exe, com or bat file) when the alarm is activated. The external application must then be configured to take the needed actions to notify the administrators. The third option is to configure the program to send an email. Before the mail function can be used, an existing smtp (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server (IP-address:port) and an existing reply (sender) address must be set in the Main window edit menu. MyMonitor will use the default smtp port (25) if the port value is omitted. The smtp server must accept to send the email without user authentication. MyMonitor can store two smtp servers to increase the availability of the alarm email transmissions. The application will automatically reconfigure itself to use the second server if the first server is unavailable. Write the server IP-adresses (or hostnames) separated by a semicolon ";" into the inputbox.

· How do I delete a no longer needed measurement?

Click on the no longer needed measurement (it will get a yellow background) and use the Edit -> Clear selected row menu to clear the measurement. All configuration is also restored to deault values. If the "Remove unused textfiles automatically" function (see the configure statistics window) is enabled any stored statistics data are also deleted. Use Edit -> Delete selected row menu to completely delete the selected row. All following measurements will be moved upwards.

· How do I enable the statistics function?

Open the configure measurement window and click "enable data collection" in the logging and statistics section.

· How do I start the application minimized?

Add the switch "-minimize" to the application shortcut commandline.

· How do I start the measurements with my operating system?

Configure the host on which MyMonitor is installed to logon automatically. Put a link to the MyMonitor application in the startup folder and click on the run -> autostart menu (it will be checked). Save the configuration. You may also add the switch "-autostart" to the application shortcut. The command line switch overrides any previous setting in the configuration file. MyMonitor does not (yet) run as a Windows service.

· How do I start to monitor if my server is alive?

Add the IP-address of the server into the address field in the main window. A comment in the comment field may also be helpful but not needed. Open the configure measurement window and configure the timeout, interval and (if desired) alarms. Click on the enable checkbox and start the measurement process with the startbutton.

· How do I use a hostname instead of an IP-address in the address field?

You cannot do this directly. You can however, write your hostname into the address or comment field and press "shift + enter" (or use the menu Run -> Perform dns lookup). MyMonitor will then try to resolve the IP-address and write the result into the address field if the operation suceeds. This function requires a working dns server configured in your system. You may also find the hostname of an ip-address. Write your ip-address into the address field and press "shift + enter" (or use the menu Run -> Perform dns lookup). The hostname will be written inte the comment field if the operation suceeds.

Note! The dns lookup function will not work if the active measurement is running.

· How do I use MyMonitor to check if my firewall filter is working?

The current version of MyMonitor can only check the firewall with ICMP. Configure your firewall to block ICMP packets (but disable any logging) from the MyMonitor host. Open the configure measurement window, configure your alarms and click (mark) the "inverse trigger" in the status section. The program will now start an alarm if the firewall starts responding to the ICMP packets.

· How do I use TCP to poll my machines?

This feature is not present in the current version of MyMonitor . It may be available in a later version.

· How do I use the collected statsitics data?

The statistics data may be used in many ways: A couple of examples follow below:

- To check the network load (the delay will probably rise and maybe timeout on heavy use of the network).
- To view alarm events.
- To view availablilty (uptime) records.

The statistcs data can be viewed graphically or in a textbox in the statistics window.

· How is the service availability determined?

The service availability (see the statistics window - text mode) is determined by subtracting the total time during activated measurement alarms from the total running time. This value is then divided by the total running time and multiplicated by 100 to obtain a result in percent. To correctly calculate the service availability parameter you need to follow some simple rules:

- Activate the alarm function (see the configure measurement window).
- Use the same value (in seconds) for the "Activate alarm after" and the "Deactivate alarm after" parameter.
- Do not clear activated alarms.

You can disable the alarm actions (see the main window -> Run menu -> Disable all alarms) without impact on the availablilty statistics

· Is it possible to activate more the one external program when an alarm is triggered?

Activate the chosen alarm and hold down the shift button while adding programs. You may also type (or copy/paste) the paths directly into the associated textbox. The semicolon character ";" is used to separate the program paths. An example is shown below:

C:\Program\MyAlarm\MyAlarmProgram.exe -start; C:\Program\Test\Testprogram

The limitations are a maximum of eight programs or a maximum string lenght (all paths combined including the semicolons) of 260 characters. The foreground (text) colour of the textbox will become (and remain) red if any of these limits are exceeded.

· Is it possible to pass information to a program triggered by MyMonitor?

There are three kind of information available to the external program. This program must be able to grab information sent to it by "switches". MyMonitor use the minus sign "-" as switch separator. The triggered program must understand this. The following strings can be used:

-%alarm_host% will be translated to the ip-addess of the monitored host that triggered the alarm.
-%alarm_time% will be translated to the actual time of the trigger based on the host systemclock.
-%alarm_text% will be translated to an errorcode or other available information.

The switches themselves are not checked by the MyMonitor application so please check your spelling. Do not forget the "%" character before and after the special strings. An example of the data transfer method is shown below:

C:\Program\MyAlarm\MyAlarmProgram.exe -i%alarm_host% -t%alarm_time% -m%alarm_message%

may be translated to:

C:\Program\MyAlarm\MyAlarmProgram.exe -i192.168.0.1 -t2002-09-01 20:00:00 -mrequest timed out

which is then available to the external program. Up to eight switches may be passed to an external application.

· Why do the program refuse to change the path to the datafolder?

There may be several reasons why the path cannot be changed:

- The measurement process is running.
- The entered path is on a non existing (or disconnected) drive.
- The drive may lack the necessary diskspace.
- User permissions may be insufficient to create the datafolder.

Please verify that the desired path can be created.

· Why do the program refuse to send emails?

Before you can use the email functions an appropriate smtp (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server (IP-address:port) and reply (sender) email address must be set in the Main window edit menu. MyMonitor will use the default smtp port (25) if the port value is omitted. The smtp server must accept to send the email without user authentication. MyMonitor can store two smtp servers to increase the availability of the alarm email transmissions. The application will automatically reconfigure itself to use the second server if the first server is unavailable. Write the server IP-adresses (or hostnames) separated by a semicolon ";" into the inputbox.

· Why do the program restore the IP-address in the address textbox when I want to clear it?

The program checks if the IP-address is correct (dot decimal) when the textbox loses focus or the return key is pressed. An empty textbox is interpreted as a bad IP-address. Use the edit -> clear selected row to clear the measurement.

· Why do the program seem to lockup sometimes during measurements?

If a measurement have a very long timeout setting the program may seem to lock if the monitored machine does not respond or if a packet is lost. This is normal and is a result of Windows winsock and limitations in the ICMP protocol. Use shorter timeout settings if this behaviour is a problem.

The same behaviour may occur if the DNS lookup process fails. Just wait a couple of seconds and program will start to respond again. Uncheck the "Autoresolve" function in the Main window edit menu if no dns server is available.

· Why do the program tell me that my collected data cannot be loaded when I start the statistics window?

The datafile may be temporary open for read/write by a MyMonitor background process (writing data from memory to disk, index creation etc). Just wait a couple of seconds and try again. The datafile may also be corrupted in some way. The datafiles are in clear ascii-text and may be edited by the user. Each stored measurement use 32 bytes (characters) plus a 2 byte return character.

· Why do the program warn me of exe and ini file mismatch on startup?

MyMonitor has encountered an ini-file (global configuration file) created by a different (probably earlier) version of the application. Press the OK button to load the configuration anyway (may cause trouble). Press Cancel to start with the default settings.

· Why do the program warn me of writeprotected files on startup?

All configuration and datafiles are set to readonly on application startup. There are two reasons for this action:

1. To prevent an user or another application from removing datafiles during operation.
2. To check if another instance of MyMonitor is using the same config or datafiles.

All files are set to normal state when the application is shut down normally. The readonly attribute will probably not be restored on a program or system crash during operation. MyMonitor will then show this warning message in the statusbar on the next startup.

· Why is the concentrate menu disabled in the statistics window?

Probably because no concentrated data exists in the datafolder.

· Why is one or more enable checkboxes disabled in the main window?

The enable checkbox will not be user changeable if the time control function is enabled in the configure time control window for the the corresponding measurement. Disable automatic time control to restore the manual control of the enable checkbox.

· Why is the statistics button disabled in the main window?

Probably because no statistics data exists in the datafolder. Check the path to the datafolder.

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System requirements

MyMonitor does not require the lastest and fastest processor to perform the supervision of network elements and alarm functions. The graphical statistics display however, do require a reasonably fast CPU to compute the statstics data fast enough. The disk space required for the program, help, support and configuration files is less than 10 MB.

Minimum requirements:

· A Microsoft Windows 9x, Me, NT4, 200x or XP operating system and VB6 runtimes.
· An Intel Pentium (or equivalent and compatible AMD, VIA etc) CPU@200 MHz (>500 MHz recommended).
· 10 MegaBytes of diskspace for program and support files. Additional diskspace for data may also be required.
· 32 MegaBytes RAM for Win9x. More is obviously required for Me, NT4, 200x and XP.
· 800x600 display resolution with 8-bit colour depth (1024x768 and 16-bit recommended).
· TCP/IP and Winsock2 installed and a Network Interface Card or Dialup connection.

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Disclaimer and licence terms

Please read this chapter carefully before using MyMonitor.

MyMonitor is Freeware. This gives any user the right to use MyMonitor free of charge. Companies and commericial organizations who find this application useful should consider making a small donation to the author. This will help and inspire the author to continue the development and improvement of MyMonitor.

MyMonitor is unsupported. Any questions regarding this program is answered when there is time available. Relevant questions will be added to the questions and answers section in future releases of this document.

MyMonitor cannot be included in any commercial (shareware) CDROM:s or sold as a part of any commercial computer system without written permission from the author. MyMonitor should only be redistributed as the original archive. No files should be added or removed from the zip file. Any reverse engineering or modification of the included files is strictly prohibited.

Some basic knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol is probably necessary to use this program. It is assumed that the user is familiar with the terms and properties of the TCP/IP and computer networking. Please do not ask any questions solely related to TCP/IP and networking.

Please note: If you use MyMonitor, you do so at your own risk. The author cannot be held responsible for anything that results from the use of this application.

All brand names in this help and manual page are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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MyMonitor help and manual page v1.13 � 2007-05-15 by Stefan Sundberg (mymonitor[-at-]timewind.se)