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With the latest Version 4 of PRTG Traffic Grapher brings its own internal web server to provide remote access to the monitoring results using a web browser. Although having an internal web server has many advantages, some users may still want to use another web server software to publish the web pages. This article describes how this can be done.

Once you have the necessary OIDs, you can go and use these values to set up custom sensors in PRTG. Setting up custom sensors in PRTG Traffic Grapher is easy, once you have the necessary OID values.
First, select to add a new sensor by pressing the “Add Sensor” button in the top-left corner of PRTG Traffic Grapher. Follow the setup wizard’s instructions and, when asked which type of sensor you would like to set up, select “SNMP Custom Sensor”. On the next screen, enter a name for the device, the IP address / DNS name for the server upon which the device is to be found, the SNMP community string, as well as the SNMP port. On the next screen, you will be asked to enter an OID. Please enter the number ascertained above (or any applicable OID) and press “Test this OID” – a value should be returned.
If everything went smoothly, select “Next” and continue to set up the sensor, as desired. Once you are finished, the sensor should automatically generate a graph and start graphing.
Keep in mind that many sensor values are already included in the accompanying Paessler libraries – not every sensor that you configure requires you to set up a custom sensor and input a respective OID. Also notice that you can install the additional Paessler SNMP Helper library, in order to increase available devices.

Here is a short list of features:
• Monitors network and bandwidth usage as well as other readings (e.g. CPU loads, disk usage, temperatures)
• Supports data acquisition using SNMP, packet sniffing or Cisco Netflow
• Via SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol):
• Monitoring of network interface traffic counters (for bandwidth usage monitoring)
• Monitoring of common OIDs, e.g. CPU load, disk usage, temperatures etc. (an extensive OID library is already included)
• Monitoring of custom OIDs
• Via Packet Sniffing:
• Monitoring of all network traffic passing through one or more network cards of the computer running PRTG
• Data packets can be differentiated by network protocol
• Data packets can be filtered by IP addresses, MAC addresses
• Note: Only data packets passing the local machine’s network card can be analyzed. For cross-network monitoring in switched networks the use of switches with so-called “monitoring ports” is necessary.
• Via Cisco Netflow protocol:
• Analyzing Netflow packets sent by Cisco switches to the machine running PRTG
• Traffic can be differentiated by network protocol
• Traffic can be filtered by IP addresses, MAC addresses
• Easy installation with a few clicks on Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003
• Fully multithreaded monitoring engine that can monitor hundreds and even thousands of sensors without excessive CPU load
• Intuitive Windows user interface for data retrieval and configuration
• Internal web server with an attractive web interface for remote access to the monitoring data (no external web server necessary)
• Shows the monitoring results in various graphs and tables
• live data for last 5-60 minutes
• x minute average for up to 48h
• hourly averages for up to 60 days
• daily averages for up to 365 days
• or any other combination (using the report feature)
• Layout and content of graphs and tables can easily be edited (one or more sensors per graph, selectable report periods, colors, vertical axes, etc.)
• All graphs are always generated on-the-fly for always up-to-date reporting
• Fully skinnable web interface (using templates)
• Web server supports access restrictions for one or more users with different data sets and logins
• Internal database system for efficient storage of historic data (also offers automatic database backup mechanism)
• Monitoring results are stored down to each single request
• Optional export of monitoring results into CSV files
• Notification option that sends emails when a monitored device is not reachable or when predefined thresholds are reached
• Daily or monthly email reports
• Runs as a "nt service" on Windows 2000/XP/2003 to ensure that monitoring runs all the time (you do not have to be logged into your machine to keep monitoring running)
• x% percentile calculation for any percentile value, any interval, and any time frame
• MRTG configuration file import
• includes "Paessler SNMP Helper" library for easy access to performance data on Windows based machines via SNMP
• Various SNMP parameters (e.g. port, timeout) can be set by the user
• Monitors any value that is accessible by SNMP (i.e. any given OID Object ID)
• Contains a list of common OIDs for various devices

PRTG (Paessler Router Traffic Grapher) is an easy to use software that monitors bandwidth usage and many other network parameters via SNMP. It allows you to quickly and easily set up and run a monitoring station for networks. With just a few mouse clicks you can log the amount of data flowing through routers and leased lines, monitor CPU utilization, or check disk space usage.
The most common usage is monitoring the bandwidth usage of leased lines, routers, and firewalls via SNMP, packet sniffing or NetFlow. But you can also monitor many other aspects of servers, managed switches, printers, and other network components as long as they are SNMP enabled.
PRTG Traffic Grapher can be set up to run on a Windows machine for 24 hours every day and constantly record the network usage parameters. The recorded data is stored in an internal database for later reference