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Is it possible to monitor devices that do not have a configured IP address?

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Dear all,

I am currently facing an issue. We have some problems with our network at a foreign location and I would like to monitor how many bytes are going in and out. Problem is, the switch in common does not have an configured IP address.

I've searched over the forums but couldn't find anyone that has the same problem. I can reach our firewall, computers etc. at this location. But not the switch, since it has no configured IP address.

I hope someone could help out.

Thanks, Dave

prtg snmp-traffic traffic

Created on Dec 4, 2018 12:07:47 PM



5 Replies

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Is the switch managed, i.e. could you configure it to have an IP address? Or is it an unmanaged switch?

PRTG Scheduler | PRTGapi | Feature Requests | WMI Issues | SNMP Issues

Kind regards,
Stephan Linke, Tech Support Team

Created on Dec 4, 2018 1:29:49 PM by Stephan Linke [Paessler Support]



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Dear Stephan,

The switch in common is an unmanaged switch. I cannot give the switch an IP address at all.

Created on Dec 4, 2018 2:40:51 PM



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Then, other than ping, you can't monitor it I'm afraid :(

PRTG Scheduler | PRTGapi | Feature Requests | WMI Issues | SNMP Issues

Kind regards,
Stephan Linke, Tech Support Team

Created on Dec 4, 2018 2:48:29 PM by Stephan Linke [Paessler Support]



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0

Dear Stephan,

Thanks for your help! You can close this topic.

Created on Dec 5, 2018 1:05:18 PM



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This all depends a bit on what kind of issues you experience and then what you assume as source and possible want to monitor to proof the theory.

An unmanaged is what it is - no managed and therefor will not give you any data itself. This is something I would exchange if possible, especially in a remote/foreign location.

Having said this - you hopefully monitor the FW already in detail. What you could do now is install remote probes on e.g. one or even all computers connected to this network and gather their data - especially their NIC data since you seem to be after that...

Then you can have this one or multiple remote-probes watch PING and JITTER other network devices that might only be available per PING.

The firewall hopefully can send you NETFLOW information and you can possibly gather data there for who is too chatty on the firewall/internet - assuming that would matter.

Still - the unmanaged switch is like a curse in this case - those are often cheap switches that might even be the root cause of any issues you see - and even if not - they block you off quite a bit therefor and don't help providing necessary security layers especially in a foreign country - what in theory makes you more vulnerable in you CAN (corporate network).

From what you write I am not sure where to point you - this probably even goes beyond the purpose of this forum here - but I normally try to help where I can...

Regards

Florian Rossmark

www.it-admins.com

Created on Dec 5, 2018 2:50:08 PM




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