Item: PingPlotter
Rating: 8
Author: Fraser Clark

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

PingPlotter was purchased to fix a simple problem, we wanted to live traceroute data and latency watching. The main issue it addresses is being able to tell us current latency and alert on this if necessary. It can also give historical data which is very useful troubleshooting issues that may have occurred in the past at some point.
We currently only run PingPlotter on one machine as this is all we currently need and it is in IT where it is used.

Pros and Cons

Latency monitoring
Traceroute
Alerting
It's lightweight

User-interface
Performance of the application
Documentation

Return on Investment

Ability to work out where the network was degrading, reduced time spent arguing about where issues lie.
Always able to see the latency of certain links.
Very cheap for a lifetime license, it definitely has given us value for the money.

Alternatives Considered

PRTG Network Monitor

I have tried a few free products and some paid ones but never really did what I wanted. I just needed a simple, always-on link monitor specifically with a traceroute element and this is what PingPlotter delivers. The others were either overly complex or too expensive, some just didn't have what I needed. PingPlotter fills a niche and it does it well.

Support Rating

I have not had much contact with the PingPlotter support, only one time have I went to them and it was a positive experience. The questions I had were answered quickly and professionally. I have no issue with the experience I had with the Support team. This was from before and after the purchase of the product.

Key Insights

Do you think PingPlotter delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with PingPlotter's feature set?

Yes

Did PingPlotter live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of PingPlotter go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy PingPlotter again?

Yes

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Netflow Traffic Analyzer, Splunk Cloud

Likelihood to Recommend

PingPlotter is great if all you need is a simple latency monitoring tool and the ability to see specifically where packets are being dropped in a nice graphical interface. This can be done with things like WinMTR but what sets it aside from tools like this is it can be run as a service so constant monitoring is available. The alerting is also very useful and flexible.
However, when you need detailed monitoring this is obviously not the correct tool.

PingPlotter - a product for a specific problem

Overall Satisfaction with PingPlotter