Optimize your network performance
with PRTG
Monitor the performance
of your entire network
Receive a prompt alert if performance levels drop
Identify bottlenecks
Upgrade your network to meet your own specific needs
Network performance monitoring with PRTG
Jump to the topic of your choice
- Why is network performance so important?
- PRTG is a centralized, all-in-one network performance monitoring tool
- Network performance monitor: The entire network is important
- Be the first to know if network performance is down
- Monitor network performance with predefined or custom sensors
- Performance monitoring: A comparison of WMI, SNMP, packet sniffing, and NetFlow
- Network performance test / Ethernet test
- Want to learn more? Please do!
Why is network performance so important?
The goal: 100% uptime
An important initial goal when setting up monitoring is to provide your network with a level of uptime that is as close to 100% as possible. But even perfect availability does little good if your network suffers from poor performance. Performance problems such as low bandwidth, overloaded servers, or sluggish virtual machines can not only frustrate company employees, but also interrupt business processes and lead to losses in sales.
With a high-performance network, the whole company will work with maximum efficiency. The PRTG Performance Monitoring Tool allows you to prevent performance bottlenecks, and ensure all computers, server and programs run as smoothly as possible.
Optimize resource planning
IT infrastructure planning
PRTG provides you with a constant overview of the performance levels of each and every component in your network. This overview is particularly helpful when it comes time to organize your IT infrastructure. It will allow you, for example, to expand your server room in such a way that saves your company money. You may also discover potential savings in individual network components.
PRTG is a centralized, all-in-one network performance monitoring tool
Easy-to-read presentation of all performance data
Performance plays a major role in the various layers of an IT infrastructure. Monitoring network components, applications, and services manually has little to no effect at all – especially if your network has already expanded beyond a manageable size.
PRTG collects all the performance data of your network, and displays it on easy-to-read dashboards. You can personalize the look and feel of your monitoring data, and use the PRTG custom maps to create your own individual dashboards.
Thanks to PRTG, network performance monitoring has never
been easier!
Keep a constant eye on your network – even while on the go
PRTG is set up in a matter of minutes and can be used on a wide variety of mobile devices.
Network performance monitor: The entire network is important
Bandwidth is measured as the amount of data that can be transferred from one point to another within a network in a specific amount of time. Typically, bandwidth is expressed as a bitrate and measured in bits per second (bps). It refers to the transmission capacity of a connection and is an important factor when determining the quality and speed of a network.
Read more
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a vital factor when it comes to measuring network performance. PRTG displays performance metrics such as download and upload speeds in real time. The tool also records the speed of local connections. Data traffic can be read directly on your router to provide you with a quick and simple overview of your bandwidth consumption, and the corresponding volume of data that has been transmitted.
Low bandwidth is a typical cause of network disruptions. For problems such as sluggish applications, interruptions during automatic backups and slow data transmissions, the culprit is often insufficient bandwidth. PRTG monitors bandwidth and keeps you constantly informed of the goings-on of your network. You’ll see exactly how much bandwidth your services and devices are using, and how this usage evolves over time. As a result, you can quickly get to the root of problems, eliminate bandwidth hogs, or perform required upgrades to your network.
Virtual machines
At many companies, virtualization is an important part of the IT infrastructure. Virtualization allows for both the effective use of resources and the flexible distribution of capacities, all the while reducing the need for network maintenance. These benefits, however, can only be enjoyed if all the virtualized elements perform at a peak level. PRTG monitors the performance of your virtualized infrastructure on many different levels. Its neatly-arranged dashboards display all you need to know about your hosts and virtual machines, and the operating systems and applications running on them.
If the performance of your VMs is below par, PRTG will sound the alarm so you can take appropriate action at once. PRTG is compatible with all popular virtualization software, including VMware, Citrix and HyperV
Application performance
Countless applications run on the computers and servers of any IT environment. These applications must operate at an uncompromisingly high level of performance, especially if they are used for business-critical purposes. Manual monitoring is not recommended, for you can quickly lose sight of the values you need most.
PRTG automatically monitors the network performance of all your processes and applications, and presents data on a centralized, easy-to-read dashboard. You will see at a glance which applications are using which resources, and how your traffic is dispersed. PRTG promptly informs you before capacity-related problems can arise, allowing you to intervene swiftly and prevent your network from crashing.
Server performance
As your company grows, your processors will be put under greater strain due to the increasing number of users accessing the applications, files, and other contents on your servers. Programs and services slow down, and overall network performance suffers. Thanks to PRTG, you can spot bottlenecks at once, and immediately see if your servers are on the brink of overloading.
PRTG alerts you before your servers become overstrained and your colleagues are unable to continue working. You’ll be able to determine which parts of your server room need upgrading, and where you can save on resources.
Windows performance counters
With its performance counters Microsoft Windows has created a service that measure the performance of software applications. The Windows-specific Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe) presents performance counter data as graphs, but does not allow users to customize data or arrange data in an easy-to-read fashion. The Windows Performance Monitor, moreover, does not include an alarm feature.
PRTG fills these gaps by letting you read all the performance counters of your Windows-systems, and by displaying the corresponding data on a neatly-arranged dashboard. You’ll see the evolution of performance values, and can quickly determine where bottlenecks lie (and what has caused them). You’re free to set limits for individual counters, and will immediately be notified in the event these thresholds are exceeded.
PRTG also creates automated reports for past time periods, which is the perfect way to keep your coworkers or managers abreast of the performance of your network.
“The support we received from Paessler AG was extremely reassuring. Their reaction time, know-how, and solutions were outstanding in every department.”
Andreas Reimann, Senior Networking Communication Architect at Zürich Airport. Zürich Airport uses more than 4,500 sensors for its monitoring
Trusted by 500,000 users and recognized
by industry analysts as a leader
“Fantastic network and infrastructure monitoring solution that is easy to deploy and easier still to use. Simply the best available.”
“Software is absolutely perfect, Support is superior. Meets all needs and requirements, this is a must have solution if you are needing any form of monitoring.”
“The tool excels at its primary focus of being a unified infrastructure management and network monitoring service.”
“In all, when it comes to on-premises monitoring solutions, PRTG Network Monitor is very hard to beat. It provides a terrific range of sensor options for both local devices and cloud services, along with plenty of monitoring facilities, yet it’s easy to manage, and comes with a simple, affordable pricing scheme that’s perfect for SMBs.”
Be the first to know if network performance is down
How PRTG defines sensors
In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, e.g. the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, the free space of a disk drive. On average you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.
PRTG notifies you at the first sign of a dip in performance
As performance problems can lead to disruptions in the day-to-day operations of your company, it is crucial that you take action at once. Thanks to the PRTG alarm system, you’ll immediately be notified in the event of bottlenecks or drops in performance. Most of the time, you’ll be able to fix the problem before your coworkers or customers have time to notice something is wrong, which means your boss will likely thank you for it!
Customizing sensors
Each sensor can be customized with your own personal threshold value. If this value is exceeded, you'll immediately receive an alarm – by your choice of email, SMS, or push notification.
Network performance analysis
Use PRTG to monitor and analyze your network performance over longer periods of time. Long-term monitoring helps you get to the root of problems which arise at certain times of the day or month, thus allowing you to improve the performance of your network!
Monitor network performance with predefined or custom sensors
PRTG comes with multiple predefined sensors for monitoring the various performance data in your network.
Check out the full array of PRTG sensors in our sensor list. Some of these include:
Citrix XenServer Host sensor:
Use the Citrix XenServer Host sensor to monitor the host server of your Citrix-virtualization. By doing so, you’ll keep a constant eye on performance metrics such as CPU load, memory capacity, and network utilization.
Packet Sniffer sensor
The Packet Sniffer sensor analyzes the headers of all the data packets in your network and determines the amount of traffic that is generated by individual services.
Find out more about packet sniffing here.
Windows CPU Load sensor
The Windows CPU Load sensor uses WMI or Windows performance counters to measure the CPU load of a computer.
You can also write your own sensors and incorporate them into PRTG.
PRTG makes your job easier
Our monitoring software frees you to focus on other tasks by promptly notifying you of potential issues.
Save effort
PRTG gives you one central monitoring tool for your servers and entire network. Enjoy a quick overview of your whole infrastructure via our dashboard and app.
Save time
Getting started with PRTG is a breeze. Setting up or switching from another network monitoring tool is easy thanks to the auto-discovery and pre-configured device templates.
Save money
80% of our customers report substantial cost savings with network monitoring. Your costs of licenses will likely pay for themselves within weeks.
Performance Monitoring: a comparison of WMI, SNMP, packet sniffing, and NetFlow
How would you like to implement your bandwidth monitoring? In addition to WMI, PRTG offers SNMP monitoring and
monitoring of NetFlow, sFlow/jFlow and IPFIX. Each of these options has its pros and cons. For a summary:
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| WMI | SNMP | Packet Sniffer | Flow (IPFIX, NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow) |
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| Setup | Medium | Easy | Easy to complex (depending on filter rules used) | Can be complex (e.g., the switch must be configured) |
| Traffic can be filtered |  |
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| Differentiate bandwidth usage by protocol or IPs |
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| PRTG can show Toplists (Top Talker, Top Connections, Top Protocols, custom) |
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| Filter bandwidth usage by IP |
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| Filter bandwidth usage by MAC address |
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| Filter bandwidth usage by physical network port |
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| Monitor network parameters other than bandwidth usage |
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| CPU load on the machine running PRTG | Medium | Low | Higher, depends on the amount of traffic | Higher, depends on the amount of traffic |
| Excess bandwidth usage of monitoring | Small | Small | None (except when monitoring switch ports are used) | Depends on the traffic |
Network performance test / Ethernet test
Network performance test
The PRTG Ping Sensor is perfect for measuring network performance. This sensor monitors the availability of all your network devices. During setup, a range of IP addresses is pinged, and basic initial monitoring is configured. If the ping fails, you’ll be notified at once.
Ethernet test
Company workstations are usually connected to the network via Ethernet, as Ethernet cables are more stable than Wi-Fi. As a result, many administrators wonder if and how they can monitor and test the performance of their LANs. A special ethernet testing software is available. PRTG is a network monitoring tool that also monitors local networks – in particular, distributed networks.
More on LAN monitoring with PRTG
We asked: would you recommend PRTG?
Over 95% of our customers say yes!
Paessler AG conducted trials in over 600 IT departments worldwide to tune its network monitoring software closer to the needs of sysadmins.
The result of the survey: over 95% of the participants would recommend PRTG – or already have.
Create innovative solutions with Paessler’s IT partners
Partnering with innovative IT vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.
UVnetworks
UVexplorer integrates tightly with PRTG to bring fast and accurate network discovery, detailed device inventory, and automatic network mapping to the PRTG platform.
Want to learn more? Please do!
Improving the performance of Windows Server
PRTG uses WMI, performance counters, and SNMP for Windows monitoring. Windows Event Log monitoring and Windows security monitoring are also available.
SQL Server Performance
PRTG offers comprehensive database monitoring. With PRTG, you can monitor all your SQL software.
Website performance
PRTG monitors website availability, load times, and processes – from locations all over the world.
Server performance monitoring
Whether you’re dealing with a database server, mail server, or web server…as an administrator, it’s your job to make sure the network runs smoothly. With PRTG, you’ll keep a constant eye on all your servers – and be promptly notified in the event of malfunctions.
Packet capture
PRTG analyzes data packets and displays the data packet loss rate. In the event a critical value is exceeded, you’ll automatically receive an alert.
CDN monitoring
PRTG offers you an overview of traffic distribution between international DN nodes, as well as information on traffic strength, response times, and potential weak spots.
Network management
PRTG keeps a constant eye on your networks, devices, systems, and applications. This helps you get started with network management.
Click here to find other pages about performance monitoring.
“Easy to implement and configure with good technical support.”
R. v. S., ICT Manager at Heinen & Hopman Eng BV
Still not convinced?
More than 500,000 sysadmins love PRTG
Paessler PRTG is used by companies of all sizes. Sysadmins love PRTG because it makes their job a whole lot easier.
Still not convinced?
Monitor your entire IT infrastructure
Bandwidth, servers, virtual environments, websites, VoIP services – PRTG keeps an eye on your entire network.
Try Paessler PRTG for free
Everyone has different monitoring needs. That’s why we let you try PRTG for free. Start now with your trial.
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PRTG |
Network Monitoring Software - Version 23.3.88.1393 (September 20th, 2023) |
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Hosting |
Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available |
Languages |
English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese |
Pricing |
Up to 100 sensors for free (Price List) |
Unified Monitoring |
Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more |
Supported Vendors & Applications |
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