Check out our White Paper Series!
A complete library of helpful advice and survival guides for every aspect of system monitoring and control.
1-800-693-0351
Have a specific question? Ask our team of expert engineers and get a specific answer!
Sign up for the next DPS Factory Training!
Whether you're new to our equipment or you've used it for years, DPS factory training is the best way to get more from your monitoring.
Reserve Your Seat Today
Your T/Mon system is a powerful tool for safeguarding your network's reliability - but are you using this tool to the fullest? Here are four key features of the T/Mon that will can immediately improve your network reliability. If you're not using them, you're missing out on improved uptime and increased revenue.
T/Windows brings the power of the T/Mon to the Windows desktop. With T/Windows, any PC anywhere on your network can become a complete T/Mon monitoring station, with the full power of monitoring and acknowledging alarms, operating control relays, and generating reports for in-depth analysis of network events.
Windows interface refinements make the T/Mon even easier and efficient. You can view Standing Alarms just by double-clicking an alarm window in the Alarm Summary screen. You'll have handy right-click access to view Standing and COS alarms, acknowledge alarms, and view site performance and protocol debug data.
T/Windows will simplify and shorten your training. Technicians can be quickly brought up to speed with T/Windows' familiar, easy to understand and use Windows interface. You can rest assured that your system operators know how to use the system to effectively protect your network.
An easy interface means your technicians will have faster access to the many user-friendly features of the standard T/Mon interface - logically organized alarm windows, clear English descriptions of alarm conditions, detailed text messages giving specific instructions for correcting each alarm event. All this means faster response to network threats, letting your staff take rapid action against all network problems.
Plus, with T/Windows, you'll be able to use your T/Mon monitoring data anywhere in your network. Your monitoring isn't tied to your NOC - instead, any computer becomes your NOC. Alarms can go directly to technicians in local offices. Administrators have immediate access to alarm data for analysis. And T/Windows is perfect for monitoring when the NOC is closed or with staff at different locations.
Too many companies depend on human intervention to provide intelligent analysis of alarm data. The T/Mon's root cause analysis features let you automate the process, so your newest, least experienced technician can identify and eliminate network threats with the same skill as a 30-year veteran.
It's often difficult to diagnose the cause of network failures. For example, different switches at different remote sites may report a connection loss. Are these separate failures on separate lines, or a single failure on a line connecting the two?
If your network monitoring these sites separately, it may take hours of patient testing to find the real cause. Experienced technicians may be able to diagnose the problem faster, but not everyone has access to experienced technicians.
The T/Mon takes the guesswork out of root cause analysis. First, the T/Mon brings the separate pieces of your network into one coordinated platform, so you have an eagle-eye view of every alarm. Second, the T/Mon's derived alarms features correlate alarms by logical formulas, automatically identifying the single cause behind apparently unconnected alarms.
You can create a derived alarm formula for any repeatable conjunction of events. The combined knowledge of your most experienced staff can be captured in a software format. And when that conjunction of events reoccurs, your monitoring technicians won't see a meaningless collection of alarms, but a straightforward identification of the real problem.
It's incredible how many companies rely on embedded scan points and meaningless summary alarms to monitor their vital, revenue-generating equipment. A summary alarm can tell you there's a problem - some problem, somewhere - but it can't help you identify or correct it.
You could be looking at hours of testing and troubleshooting before you find the problem. And those are hours that cost - in technician man-hours, in network downtime, and in lost revenue.
But there's a richer source of information right there in front of you. Your equipment can output ASCII alarm reports that contain detailed information about the problem. The only trouble is, you have to somehow extract the meaningful data from a mass of raw text.
Here's where the T/Mon can help. The T/Mon's ASCII Processing Software Module can automatically parse ASCII text, extract the alarm data or convert cryptic codes into meaningful messages, and convert the information to a standard T/Mon alarm that inherits all of the T/Mon's powerful alarm processing and notification features.
Instead of struggling to identify the network threat, you can find it, correct it, and get your network back on line fast.
Think about how long it takes to send repair requests to maintenance. Think of the time passing, and the revenue lost, while the NOC staff dispatches technicians. Now you can forget about it, because the T/Mon eliminates the lag. With automatic pager and e-mail notifications, the T/Mon sends alarm notifications directly to the people who need them as soon as a problem occurs.
Maintenance technicians need network visibility in the field to rapidly respond to network integrity threats. The T/Mon's pager notifications bring up-to-the-minute information about network problems directly to the maintenance personnel who can immediately correct them. The T/Mon includes full support for alphanumeric paging, so you can automatically send detailed notifications and instructions to alphanumeric pagers, cell phones, and PDAs.
The T/Mon's automatic escalation feature will make sure the page is acknowledged. If the first technician paged does not acknowledge the alarm within a user-specified time, a backup technician will be paged. If neither technician responds, a supervisor will be called. You don't have to worry that alarms are piling up unnoticed.
Senior supervisors don't have the time to monitor alarms from the NOC, but they need to stay informed of network events. E-mail notification lets busy managers know what's going on with their networks and provides an easily accessible alarm record. The familiar e-mail interface provides network visibility to everyone without the need for specialized training. And with e-mail notifications, alarms can be acknowledged simply by sending a reply e-mail.
Read More Newsletter Articles ...
Secure Your Network with the New T/Mon LNX
If you want to protect your network against the dangers of service outages and equipment loss, check out the new T/Mon-6. It's 2-6 times faster than the T/Mon-5 and fully compatible with your existing T/Mon/TMonXM software and database.
