IPNetMonitorX is a network troubleshooting toolkit for debugging Internet service problems and optimizing performance. Featuring 23 integrated tools, IPNetMonitorX is designed to help you quickly locate where the problem is and gather data which can be used to solve the problem either directly or through your Internet Service Provider.

IPNetMonitorX combines an intuitive Macintosh user interface with deep Mac OS X knowledge to provide essential problem solving details from a single convenient application.  If you've ever struggled with why some Internet feature isn't working, or just want to explore and understand better, IPNetMonitorX is here to help.  The built-in description for each tool clarifies underlying network concepts as it guides you to answer real world questions about how your Internet is working.

Key Benefits:

• A complete Internet Toolkit.  Consistent, integrated design affords speed and efficiency.
• A floating tool palette allows you to see and access the tools you need quickly.  The layout of each tool is optimized for the task at hand.
• Comprehensive displays show TCP/IP in action, perfect for tuning network performance.
• Fast, asynchronous, multithreaded design allows you to see network behavior as it happens.
• Open and use multiple tools or instances of the same tool simultaneously from a single application.
• Input fields support recent targets or history, auto-completion, and drag-and-drop. Automatically transfers data from one tool to another.
• No need to login as root.

Please see the chart below for a comparison of the tools in OS X Network Utilities. IPNetMonitorX is the most complete general purpose network debugging toolkit available for Mac OS X.

System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 or later.

Pricing: $70.00
($35 or $17.50 upgrade for previously registered users).

IPNetMonitorX features a fully functional 21-day trial period so you can try before you buy.

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While UNIX provides an abundance of command line networking tools, IPNetMonitorX starts by adding an intuitive Macintosh user interface, integrates them, and then extends these tools beyond what UNIX has previously offered.

New Capabilities

Address Scan ("Look Around") provides a quick list of active nodes on each attached LAN. Ping Look Around Scan shows the Bonjour (Rendezvous) name, Ethernet HW address, and device manufacturer for locally attached (ARP reachable) devices. Can specify TCP or UDP service scan.

DHCP Lease tool shows lease parameters including Name Servers and allows manual Release and Rebind across multiple DHCP configured interfaces.

A unique DHCP Test tool allows you to look at the DHCP conversation without sitting down with a raw packet dump and the RFCs. It's well suited for debugging DHCP Service problems or locating rogue DHCP Servers (often a sign of a misconfigured network or unauthorized access point).

A DNS RBL tool can help you identify spam blacklisting problems.

The Interface Info tool also shows your public IP address and host name.

The Link Rate Tool now calculates RTT, Bandwidth-Delay Product, and One Second Window Size for better insight into TCP/IP tuning and shows suggested targets (router address and name server address) in the recent targets popup.

The Monitor and TCP Info tools plot transmit and receive data separately using a logarithmic (or linear) scale and can be viewed as miniaturized Dock windows. You can open multiple Monitor windows to monitor more than one interface at a time. Monitor windows can plot IP traffic, or all traffic including AppleTalk and ARP. The TCP Info window shows duplicate, retransmit, and control packets.

Ping includes options for "do not fragment" for checking path MTU, and playing sounds for checking patch panel connections.

Server Scan allows you to check one or more servers at regular intervals to verify whether they are available, log when they are unavailable, and notify an appropriate administrator if desired. It can also provide automatic failover by selecting a different network location when services become unavailable.

The SNMPd Config tool makes it easy to enable and work with the Net-SNMP agent supplied with Mac OS X client.

Trace Route includes a "TCP Trace" and "UDP Port Trace" feature for identifying the firewall device that blocks a specific port or connection request.

TCP Flow allows you to see the TCP messages exchanged between a client and server.

Whois provides an option to omit standard "boiler plate" text and collect multiple results in a convenient form.

GUI Features

Fast, asynchronous, multi-threaded design allows you to see network behavior as it happens. There's no need to wait for serialized, one-line-at-a-time output. IPNetMonitorX displays any results it sees as they occur. If a name lookup is slow, you only wait for names to appear.

You can open and use multiple tools or instances of the same tool simultaneously from a single convenient application.

A floating tool palette allows you to see and access the tools you need quickly. The layout of each tool is optimized for the task at hand.

When you invoke one window from another, the corresponding data is automatically transferred.

Input fields support recent targets or history, suggested targets, auto-completion, and drag-and-drop. "See and select" versus "remember or guess if you can". Automatically remembers your settings between launches.

No need to login as root.

Implementation

Name Server Query, Whois, Finger, and TCP Dump are graphic front ends that run the underlying UNIX tool and display the results in the corresponding window.

Address Scan, Bonjour Scan, Connection List, DHCP Lease, DHCP Test, Interface Info, Link Rate, Lookup, Monitor, Ping, Port Scan, Server Scan, Subnet Calculator, TCP Info, and Trace Route have been completely rewritten by company founder Peter Sichel to make the tools more responsive, intuitive, and visually easier to work with, as well as perform functions that could not be performed by the corresponding UNIX tools.

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Mac and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

For the Classic-only version of IPNetMonitor, click here.

Mac Guild Review October 2006 (4.5 out of 5 Mice).

Macworld Review August 2004 (3.5 out of 5 Mice).

Not just another GUI front end: while there is some overlap with Apple's Network Utility (~25%) IPNetMonitorX goes way beyond other similar looking tools.