Nagios is an open source network monitoring tool. Nagios goes absolutely free, it is powerful and flexible open source software. It can be tricky to learn and implement, but can reduce enormously the amount of time required to keep track of how your organization's IT infrastructure is performing.

Nagios tools go by the generic name of network management software, and all share the capability to:

1. Keep track of all the services and machines running in the infrastructure;
2. Raise alerts before small problems become large ones;
3. Run from a central location to reduce the need to physically go to each machine; and,
4. Provide a visual representation of system-wide status, outstanding problems, etc.

Two main problems keep network management software from being more widely used:

• It tends to be extremely expensive; and,
• It requires significant work to configure for a given environment.

Nagios is an open source network management tool that solves the first problem. It too, requires a fair amount of configuration.

The Nagios application runs on Linux or Unix servers. Each piece of hardware that must be monitored runs a Nagios daemon that communicates with the central server. Depending on the instructions in the configuration files the central server reads, it will "reach out and touch" the remote daemon to instruct it to run a necessary check. While the application must run on Linux or Unix, the remote machines may be any piece of hardware that may be communicated with.

Depending upon the response from the remote machine, Nagios will then respond with an appropriate action, again, according to its configuration. Depending upon what remote test needs to be performed, Nagios will perform the test via a native machine capability (e.g., test to see if a file exists) or will run a custom test program (called a plugin) to test something more specific (e.g., check to see if a particular set of values has been placed into a database). If a check return value is not correct, Nagios will raise an alert via one or several methods -- again, according to how it has been configured.

Nagios frankly speaking is not very good but it's better than most of the alternatives. After all, you could spend tons of bucks on HP OpenView or Tivoli and still be faced with the same amount of work to customize it into a useful state. I can recommend free network monitoring by Dotcom Monitor. They offers free, 30-day trial and paid subscription. And you don't need special skills to configure your server. Support works 24 hours per day.

When it comes to your broadband connection Google wants you to know that it has your back. The Internet giant is developing a suite of tools to help broadband users identify traffic discrimination by their Internet service providers. "We're trying to develop tools, software tools...that allow people to detect what's happening with their broadband connections, so they can let (ISPs) know that they're not happy with what they're getting--that they think certain services are being tampered with," Google Senior Policy Director Richard Whitt said Friday morning during a panel discussion at the Innovation '08 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. "If the broadband providers aren't going to tell you exactly what's happening on their networks, we want to give users the power to find out for themselves."

Whitt argues that innovation among application developers will stagnate without neutral networks, and he wants to see consumers join an "arms race" for Net neutrality--the idea that network operators shouldn't be allowed to discriminate against content or applications or charge extra fees.

"The forces aligned against us are real. They've been there for decades. Their pockets are deep. Their connections are strong with those in Washington," he said. "Maybe we can turn this into an arms race on the application software side rather a political game."

Whitt would not say when the tools will be available or how they would work, but did indicate that Google engineers had been working on them for a while.

The issue came to a head last August when TorrentFreak reported that Comcast was surreptitiously interfering with file transfers by posing as one party and then, essentially, hanging up the phone. Comcast denied the allegation, but tests conducted by the Associated Press showed Comcast was actively interfering with peer-to-peer networks even if relatively small files were being transferred.

In response, the Federal Communications Commission announced it would investigate the charges, and in May, a bill was re-introduced into Congress that would rewrite U.S. antitrust law to prohibit network operators like AT&T and Comcast from blocking, impairing, or discriminating against "lawful" Internet content, applications, and services or from charging extra fees for "prioritization or enhanced quality of service."

Google has long argued that it's necessary to enact new regulations barring such activity, while broadband operators like AT&T and Comcast counter that the market will solve any perceived problems.