SMTPing is finally released! (News & notices)

by acaballero , Friday, February 15, 2013, 00:02 (4297 days ago)
edited by acaballero, Friday, February 15, 2013, 00:13

A foreword from SMTPing's author, Alejandro Caballero

More than four months ago I started working on a network monitoring tool made in PHP to help my team and I detect issues over a client's WAN.

What started being a simple tool became a very nice thing. When I implemented some charts showing the falls in the network connection, I decided to take some steps forward and created more complex charts and some reports.

But every respectable monitoring tool, even the free ones, do that.

What I wanted to achieve was simple: to keep all the relevant nodes of the company's WAN at first sight on a single HD flat panel, easy to read from the other wall of the room. That's how SMTPing became what it is: a single-shot display of nodes, like those displays of LEDs used to monitor switch nodes in a NOC. No scrolling, no fancy maps wasting pixels, no irrelevant information... only the basic: Is it up or is it down?

'----------------------------------- SMTPing Dashboard with the "Basic" theme ----------------------------------'

But I decided to go further than that, based on one premise: Why network monitoring tools are so flat? and then I defined the methodology in SMTPing templates to make them fully themable with jQuery UI.

'------------------------------------------ SMTPing UI Scheme selector -----------------------------------------'

SMTPing was made using LAVA Softworks' resources and time, off-hours, working over the nights and weekends. That's why it took almost 4 months to be completed.

I've added a lot of stuff to the original tiny network monitor. I've built a WASP frame around it and made the installer for everyone to check it out, use it for free on small environments and show a bit of appreciation to the time I've invested on it by purchasing a license upgrade for a small fee.

Feel free to check it out! You'll find it on the Downloads page. And if you get any problem, don't hesitate on posting a Help Request here at the forum!

There's a lot to do with SMTPing. You can be sure there will be updates really soon!

Regards,

Alejandro Caballero