Overview

• Monitoring of network services (SMTP
  Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
  Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is an Internet standard for electronic mail transmission across Internet Protocol networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 , and last updated by RFC 5321 which includes the extended SMTP additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today...
  
  , POP3
  Post Office Protocol
  In computing, the Post Office Protocol is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern...
  
  , HTTP
  Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....
  
  , ICMP
  Internet Control Message Protocol
  The Internet Control Message Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. It is chiefly used by the operating systems of networked computers to send error messages indicating, for example, that a requested service is not available or that a host or router could not be...
  
   (ping)
• Limited monitoring of host resources (processor
  Central processing unit
  The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
  
   load, disk
  Hard disk
  A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
  
   usage) on a majority of network operating system
  Network operating system
  A networking operating system , also referred to as the Dialoguer, is the software that runs on a server and enables the server to manage data, users, groups, security, applications, and other networking functions...
  
  s, including Microsoft Windows
  Microsoft Windows
  Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
  
   and Linux
  Linux
  Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
  
   through agent-based testing
• Plugin design that allows users to easily develop their own service checks depending on needs, by using PHP
  PHP
  PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
  
   (or other languages or scripts wrapped in PHP
  PHP
  PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
  
  )
• Some ability to define network host hierarchy using "master" nodes allowing link failures to suspend monitoring
• Event-based system allowing failure notifications to be sent in customised email (suitable for email-to-SMS) or to utilise third-party notification scripts via a plug-in
• Ability to define event handlers to be run during service or host events for proactive problem resolution
• Automatic data retention cleanups
• Full web-interface for management and monitoring
• Ability to "publish" views and graphs within third-party web pages

External links

• purplepixie.org/freenats, official website
• FreeNATS Wiki
• Support Forum for FreeNATS
• NetworkWorld.com Article on FreeNATS
• PC Quest Article on FreeNATS