/ˈnɛtwɜrk ˈmɑnɪtərɪŋ/
noun — "watching your network like a hawk, so problems don’t sneak up on you."
Network Monitoring is the practice of continuously observing a network for performance, availability, and security issues. It involves collecting and analyzing data from devices like routers, switches, servers, and endpoints to detect latency, packet loss, bandwidth usage, and abnormal activity. Effective network monitoring helps IT teams maintain reliable operations, prevent downtime, and quickly troubleshoot issues before they impact users.
Technically, Network Monitoring involves:
- Performance metrics — tracking latency, throughput, and bandwidth utilization.
- Fault detection — identifying device failures, misconfigurations, or packet loss.
- Security monitoring — detecting intrusions, unusual traffic patterns, or anomalies in network behavior.
- Alerting and reporting — notifying administrators in real time and logging events for analysis.
Examples of Network Monitoring include:
- Using MTR or Ping to check connectivity and detect high-latency hops.
- Monitoring server health and traffic through SNMP-enabled devices.
- Analyzing firewall logs to detect unusual inbound or outbound activity.
Conceptually, Network Monitoring is the digital equivalent of surveillance cameras for IT infrastructure: it continuously watches, records, and reports to ensure everything runs smoothly. Proper monitoring allows proactive maintenance, early detection of issues, and improved network reliability.
In practice, Network Monitoring uses tools and platforms that collect metrics, visualize performance, generate alerts, and integrate with logging and anomaly detection systems for comprehensive network management.
See Latency, Packet Loss, MTR, Logging, Anomaly Detection.