H323 network monitoring devices

[machuky]

Hello to all,

my company is currently using numerous network devices (Cisco firewalls, routers, switches, encrypters, data compressors, and so on... ).
We have several local networks, linked between them by an international network (fiber, and other... ).
I'm facing network issues on a regular basis, and the problem is, network people have difficulties to spot where the problems are coming from, due to the numerous equipments involved in between sites. Plus H323 can be subject to problems that other protocols are not facing at all.
So my question is, is someone aware of some commercial hardware or software specifically dedicated to H323 network monitoring ?
I tried the 'Beacon Software', but it is very far indeed from the quality of the monitoring tools I saw used by our network engineers.
Any advice and/or link would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you to all by advance,

Machuky

[ChuckF]

Since the advent of VoIP there have been a ton of monitoring tools developed for IP networks. However, IMO there are only a small handfull of products on the market today that are actually applicable for IP Video Networks. The company I work for (AGT) have encountered so many issues in Video IP migrations and deployments that we developed our own Network Monitoring tool - its called Fathom. See Link below. Let me know if this helps.

http://www.appliedglobal.com/content/technologies/fathom.html

Let me add that as an engineer I almost always recommend a good sniffer - What's up Gold, or Ethereal (free)- and always have one whenever I go onsite. These tools, plus Fathom, have always helped me troubleshoot problematic segments.

[machuky]

Thanks for your response ChuckF. Regarding the sniffers, we have a lot of them running on our network (although I must confess that I did not have the opportunity to use them, but I will as soon as the number of conferences will decrease ), but event with packet shapers, and monitoring with sniffers we still have issues (due to the size of our network I guess ).
So your tool, Fathom, looks like it well could be the solution to my problems. The only thing now is to convince some people in here about the quality improvements that we could get with such a tool.
Anyway, thank you very much for the link, and one final question, have you got some distributors in Europe ? (France, more specifically )
If so feel free to PM me anytime.
If someone knows about a similar type of software, just drop a line, I can't believe ther is only one solution on the market... But I well could be wrong....

[Gary Miyakawa]

There are other products being developed. They are a few months off but will be avalable. Maybe not as in depth at Fathom but then, not the price of that product either..


Gary Miyakawa

[machuky]

Okay, thanx for the information Gary, Ill try to dig on the dev. side of this matter.
Oh, and keep on the good work, this site's in a class of it's own !

[robertk]

If someone knows about a similar type of software, just drop a line, I can't believe ther is only one solution on the market... But I well could be wrong....

I haven't tested this, but it might be worth a test... the price is right though :^)

http://www.osc.edu/oarnet/itecohio.net/beacon/index.html


//Robert