Fluke Networks Etherscope vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor

Likelihood to Recommend

We used ours mainly to test the wireless. Wireless could be several different things so the preconfigured tests on this device allowed us to quickly eliminate certain areas and allowed us to focus on the real problem. It’s easy enough a PC Technician could use it.

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Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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For a network admin or security team, NCM can be very useful in keeping config parameters standardized, this can mean anything from ensuring the timezone setting is standard to ensuring SNMP or logging is set up as you want it. The alerting is good if you want a record of findings for audit purposes so that you can show that you are monitoring configurations, you are alerting when a config goes out of compliance, and a ticket is created to drive remediation. Alternatively one can choose to automate remediation by running a configuration change script but that scares me so we never used it, this is a me-problem and not a tool problem. Where it falls down is in the data storage architecture as we had constant problems with our server running out of disk, this seems to be because it does a lot of basic monitoring of the devices along with storing many, many copies of the configurations. This may have been a user-side issue, though NCM runs under the Orion app which is where the storage issues come from I think.

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holt archer

senior security engineer

infobipTelecommunications, 1001-5000 employees

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Pros

The Fluke Networks Etherscope can test network speed performance on copper and fiber networks
The Fluke Networks Etherscope can detect network switches and also available and active ports.
The Fluke Networks Etherscope can check for bandwidth between two points quick and easy.

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Garry Bowers

Network System Administrator

La Porte Community School Corp.Education Management, 501-1000 employees

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Real time performance details and historical data.
View the specific nodes very easily and get the information.
NetPath features help to analyze traffic paths whether it is hosted on premised or cloud.
Customize alert and reporting tools to get performance information.

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Verified User

Engineer in Quality Assurance

Information Technology & Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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Cons

Battery life
Touch screen is slow to respond.
Operating System is slow.

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Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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More security put into the product, the Orion hack was not good news.
More frequent releases to address small bugs rather than big releases that are rare.
More IPv6 related features to make it easier for people familiar with IPv4 to learn IPv6.
Ability to edit dashboards using JSON or another similar language.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Financial Services Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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Alternatives Considered

We briefly tested a NetAlly LSPRNTR-300 LinkSprinter 300 Network Tester with WIFI and Distance to Cable Fault Indication and it was a worthy testing unit it but we quickly discovered that it did not offer the large range of testing in both the copper and fiber network drops, nor was it as complete with regard to wireless testing. But in it's defense it was not quite as pricy as the Fluke.

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Garry Bowers

Network System Administrator

La Porte Community School Corp.Education Management, 501-1000 employees

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MS is meant for windows monitoring and up/down for mostly everything else. Moved away from MS System Center. Now we have better visibility and management can get reports. The other teams have added Linux to Solarwinds and also see improvements in monitoring. Whether you use snmp (v3), wmi or some other credentials to connect to you system, Solarwinds will more than likely be able to manage and monitor it.

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Hospital & Health Care Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Return on Investment

Very expensive for small business or school districts.
Battery Life is terrible not able to use it for an entire day.

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Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Reduced site visits and recurring issues by 25 to 35%
Enables proactive warning, thereby reducing downtime caused by unforeseen issues
Provides a central panel for monitoring the entire network at a glance
Allows for SLA management thereby increasing accountability by 50%
Reduced time to repair by 35% as techs are more informed of root cause

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Jesse Bridgelal

Network Architect

MOHGovernment Administration, 501-1000 employees

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Fluke Networks Etherscope vs SolarWinds Network Device Monitor