Scrutinizer v7.6 has been released with several best at NetFlow improvements for network traffic analysis. You will find the upgrade available for download now.

New Features include:

+ Flow View now has a Date Selector
+ Users can name their templates exported from flow devices
+ Time frames for 3, 7, and 30 days have been added to the date selector
+ Volume reports have an option to toggle rate vs. totals
+ A new LDAP wizard has been added to simplify LDAP and LDAPS configuration
+ More definition labels have been added for ICMP Traffic
+ NBAR descriptions will no longer be blank if no template has been received
+ Fixed issue when performing an SNMP update for a PC with nprobe installed
+ Users can now configure thresholds based on a per row or report total basis
+ A new report type of IP Next Hop has been added to the status tab
+ Users who are part of an administrator group can copy myview tabs
+ A new report filter has been added for SUBNET TO SUBNET
+ The interface instance column is wider for high interface numbers
+ A Plixer Tools icon will now be visible when Plixer Tools is installed
+ Users can now add very long community strings
+ Added the ability in mapping to filter Denika reports for Denika connections
+ For new installs, users will automatically be licensed for 30 days
+ Updated the Japanese Translation
+ Improved IPFIX support in the NetFlow and sFlow collector
- Dozens of bug fixes

We are very excited about this new release of our network traffic analyzer. Contact us if you have any questions.

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

We had a customer approach us the other day with an nprobe issue. Apparently, he could see the NetFlow v9 data in Flow View of Scrutinizer, but he couldn’t report on the data. How come?

He sent us a Wireshark packet capture and brought up Flow View. Flow View is a way to see the raw flows (inclusive of all columns) being exported by a device.

Anyway, in Flow View everything looked normal, but then one of our developers spotted the word ‘post’ in front of a couple of import column names. We (and Scrutinizer) expect to see ‘octetDeltaCount’ and instead, the customer had configured nProbe to kick out ‘postOctetDeltaCount’.

Read more »

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

Plixer International, your team of friendly neighborhood NetFlow specialists, has just released the newest version of Flowalyzer, our NetFlow and sFlow configuration tool. In addition to some performance and usability enhancements, version 2.0 adds a new tab to the Flowalyzer interface.

Flowalyzer version 2.0 introduces The Trender

The latest addition to the Flowalyzer tool is the Trender tab, which creates graphs for critical Windows resources, all done in real-time (a configurable update period that defaults to once every second). The Trender uses SNMP information gathered from your compliant gear to measure metrics from interface utilization to CPU or memory consumption. There is no limit to the number of metrics you can trend simultaneously (aside from the obvious limitation of screen real estate).

Read more »

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

Most people collecting NetFlow use it in a very traditional fashion (i.e. NetFlow v5 with ingress flows). Ingress flow means that only inbound (i.e. received) traffic is collected and exported in NetFlow datagrams. This may sound like you won’t know what is going ‘out’ an interface, but have no fear. There is any easy way to calculate outbound traffic using ingress NetFlow.

Above, out bound utilization on interface 1 is determined by looking at the flows from interfaces 2,3 & 4 that are destined for interface 1. Since an ingress flow contains the source and destination interface (i.e. port of the router). Out bound traffic is determined by using ingress flows from the other interfaces. For this reason, it is important to enable NetFlow on all interfaces of the switch or router. This trick is common practice in all NetFlow reporting tools. But, what about NetFlow v9 and its support for ‘Egress’ NetFlow (i.e. traffic going out an interface)?

Read more »

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

NetFlow analyzers vs. packet analyzers - are really complementary technologies. For years NetFlow has been a valuable tool used to suppliment the use of packet analysis; and to a certain extent that is still the case. With the adoption of Flexible NetFlow and the new release of Scrutinizer 7.5, the value that NetFlow analysis brings to packet analysis becomes even more significant.

Read more »

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

If you missed the NetFlow training webinars Plixer offered over the last three days, then feel free to watch the recording we made of Thursday’s presentation. The webinar, which covered Cisco ASA and NBAR NetFlow reporting, was presented by Scrutinizer NetFlow & sFlow Analyzer Product Manager, Michael Patterson.

As always, keep an eye out for emails from Plixer for future webinar invitations. We also try to post many of these signups on our blog. Thanks for watching!

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

Join one of our upcoming webinars on Cisco ASA and NBAR NetFlow Reporting. Agenda - Cisco NetFlow: Intro and how to report on it. - Cisco ASA NetFlow exports and how to interpret the data. - Cisco NBAR reporting for layer 7 application reports (e.g. who is using: Skype, kazaa2, RTP, etc.). Register for one of the times below » Tuesday, Dec. 15 @ 11am EST » Wednesday, Dec. 16 @ 9am EST » Thursday, Dec. 17 @ 1pm EST

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

The holiday’s are nearly upon us, and in the spirit of giving, Mix Master Mitch has graced us with his latest rap video. This time around, Mitch decided to focus on setting up NetFlow on a Cisco Catalyst 6509 switch. Take a look.

Read the lyrics

Mix Master Mitch was also kind enough to give Systrax an exclusive interview. It was hard to pull him away from his legion of screaming fans, but he managed to sneak off for a few minutes to give us his insight on his latest creation.

Read more »

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

Plixer International, developers of a market leading NetFlow and sFlow analysis tool set, today released Scrutinizer NetFlow & sFlow Analyzer version 7.3, bringing network traffic analysis software to the next level.

With the latest release of their NetFlow analyzer, Plixer has introduced several new report types, including NBAR reports. Cisco’s NBAR technology does deep packet inspection into the traffic moving through the router to identify the applications being used by hosts. For example; H323, Telnet, RTP, Exchange and Skype are identified and exported in NetFlow.

“We feel, and have felt for some time, that Flexible NetFlow has the potential to expand greatly on the level of information that can be reported on by standard NetFlow,” says Plixer CTO, Marc Bilodeau. “With Scrutinizer NetFlow & sFlow Analyzer version 7.3, Plixer is leading the pack in not only the adoption of Flexible NetFlow, but in the implementation of its key advantages over other versions of NetFlow.”

Read more »

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter

We get a lot of questions on this topic. Personally, I generally deflect to some of the stuff we have posted on YouTube. Even though this webcast was recorded using Scrutinizer v6.X, I think the content is still very informative, if you have questions regarding the differences between sFlow and NetFlow collection for network traffic analysis.

 

Read more »

Jon Mills
Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Follow Me On Twitter