General

The essential network services monitor, WatchDog can monitor a virtually unlimited number of services on your TCP/IP network and notify of alarm conditions — anytime, anywhere. If you're the person responsible for an ISP, a local Intranet or just a user who wants evidence to show how well or badly the system is working, then you need WatchDog monitoring your services 24 hours a day. When your Internet/Intranet services (web, email, POP, news, FTP, telnet) stop responding WatchDog will let you know first (it can even page you). No more worrying that a service can go down on your system and you won't know about it until your users tell you. Watch Dog's Reports will pin point any problem for you so that you don't waste time trouble shooting, any problem can be fixed efficiently with minimal downtime and inconvenience for your users or loss to your company. Watch Dog is not just a great, low cost, easy to use utility, its one you can't afford to be without.

Features

• WatchDog can test web pages, email services, FTP, SMTP, POP, echo, proxy, news etc...
• Provides a regular report to show your boss or customers
• Now - Web page reports !
• Gives TCP/IP logs showing the cause of any problem
• Calls your pager or phone to let you know what's wrong
• New - Alpha-Numeric pager support (version 3.4, beta)
• Plays sounds and gives visual display of a problem
• Tests can be scheduled at any frequency required
• Fast and efficient support
• How to purchase?
• Year 2000 Compliance Certificate
• Uninstall Instructions
• Beta Versions and Updates

IWatchDog allows you to test almost any TCP/IP based service. WatchDog opens a connection to the specified host and port and then sends a command, it then waits for a specified response, if the response is not correct or the host cannot be reached, then the 'action' is initiated for that test.

For each test you can define any of several actions, see Actions WatchDog can perform

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Because WatchDog is monitoring your system 24 hours a day it can provide email reports showing useful statistics on all services. NOW with versions 3.3 upwards WatchDog can also produce its reports as a fully customisable Web Page.

You may know that your service runs 99.98% of the time, but do your users know that? does your boss? do they believe you? With WatchDog you can have regular reports showing how well the system is running, this may be the most valuable feature of WatchDog.

Alternatively, maybe your company has web pages and an email address on the internet, but how do you know if they are really available and working 24 hours a day. You need to know if the web service that hosts your pages is reliable, it will make your company look very bad if your web pages keep disappearing!!!

Here is an example of an email report from WatchDog:

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1970 16:08:40
Host:Port             Bad  Good  Delay Best Worst Uptime
---------             ---  ----  ----- ---- ----- ------
167.29.2.5:SMTP        23  2440    4.4   0   49     99.07%
167.29.2.5:POP             2489    0.1   0   17    100.00%
167.29.2.5:EMAIL        5   43    19.1   3  367     89.58%
 Times of last five failures:
   Thu 31-Oct 12:59:54 3
   Thu 31-Oct 14:39:57 3
   Thu 31-Oct 14:41:58 3
   Thu 31-Oct 15:47:21 3
   Tue 05-Nov 15:54:43 3

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Web Page Reports - NEW

WatchDog can also produce a web page version of the report from a fully customisable template (version 3.3 upwards).

Click here to see an example web page version of a report.

You simply provide WatchDog with an HTML template file, similar to the ones used by NetWin's WebMail and it will create an HTML version of the report whenever it generates a report email.

The WatchDog help file provides a list of variables and simple commands which you can put in your template file . As WatchDog creates the HTML version of the report it replaces the variables as per the command instructions with the required data.

An example template file is provided for you to use as is or to quickly modify to get the look that you need to impress your audience!

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When an error occurs WatchDog can perform any of the following actions:

• Bring the WatchDog window to the top
• Play any specified sound
• Send an email message
• Phone a pager or normal phone.

  New - Alpha-Numeric pager support with version 3.4 (beta)

• Run any command or batch file

Additionally, when a previously failing test works, it can also call your pager with a different code or send a different email message to let you know the problem is solved.

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Now with version 3.4 (beta) you can also send both failure and fixed notification messages to your Alpha-Numeric pager.

The ability to run commands actually allows WatchDog to repair some problems, on Windows NT you might restart a service using the command:

        net start smtp

All you need is a standard PC with a standard modem. A mini page beeper that can display a different numeric code for each service will typically cost approx. $10 a month to operate (this will vary depending on your local telecom service)

For Alpha-Numeric paging, you need a pager capable of receiving text messages rather than one which only displays preset messages. You will also need to know the access telephone number to your paging system for a modem using the TAPI (also known as IXO) standard.

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If a problem does occur you can quickly display a detailed log of the TCP/IP transaction, WatchDog retrieves the relevant section of the log for you. You can also re-test the problem service and watch an updating log screen as the connection is made so you can see the cause of the problem quickly.

Test details from every test are logged in one overall log file. You can control the maximum size of the log with a configuration setting. On reaching this setting WatchDog will rotate the logs for you, always saving the last 4. You then have plenty of time to move the previous log files if they need to be stored for future reference(version 3.1b upwards).

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WatchDog lets you schedule each test at different time intervals, for example you can run tests:

• Every minute
• Every 3 minutes
• Every hour
• Every 3 days
• Every month
• At 10:20a.m.
• At 5:00a.m.

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Fast and efficient support

Like all of NetWin's products, WatchDog comes with fast and efficient email support from our expert team.

Simply email: support-watchdog@netwinsite.com

To get the problem resolved faster you might like to send us the following files with your initial question, if they exist on your machine. They are all reasonably small.

from the WatchDog directory:
wdog.itm
wdog.rec
wdog.log, wdog1.log ... etc.
wdog.snd (not often there)

from the system directory ( i.e. \winnt or \windows):
wdog.ini

If you want to point out a specific problem then it helps if you can catch it in the log file. To achieve this you may find that one of the two methods detailed below might suit the problem that you are experiencing.

Do the test or action that results in the problem and then, shutdown WatchDog straight away so that the log is closed ready to send to us or copy the log to another file before WatchDog has had a chance to add something else to it.

If you are not sure what action causes the problem then try setting the log rotate size in the 'Config' dialog to something large like 1 Mbyte and then run WatchDog for a while (like 5-10mins) doing different tests etc so that there is a good chance of getting a useful log.

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How to purchase?

WatchDog costs US$97, this includes free updates and support by email for 12 months.

There are 2 easy ways to purchase:

1. After you have installed the WatchDog product, run it and then use the 'REGISTER' button on the main dialogue window. This creates a registration file called register.txt from the answers that you provide and places it in WatchDog's working directory. It also copies itself to the clipboard for easy pasting into an email message.

Then Email the registration file, register.txt to sales@netwinsite.com OR your WatchDog Reseller.

OR

2. You can go to our order page and register there.

Either way you will receive an email reply (typically within 24 hours) confirming your registration and your license. The confirmation will also include your registration key which will allow the software to continue to be used.

Note - License life time:

Your WatchDog license allows you to continue using your version of the software forever, it does not expire. However if you wish to update to new versions released after the support period then you must purchase a new license.

Payment

Payment is normally made by Credit Card. We can accept payment via Visa, Master Card and American Express. Simply enter the name as it is specified on the card, the card number and expiry date into the Registration Form. This data is encrypted for protection. However if you prefer you can FAX your details to us on +64 9 6300 689.

If you will be paying by cheque or bank transfer please note this in the comments section of the registration form.

Cheques should be made payable to "NetWin LTD" and posted to; NetWin LTD, PO Box 27574, Mount Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand. (Use this Currency Converter to calculate the amount owed in your own currency for cheques. Then use the back button on your browser to return to this page )

A bank transfer may be the most economical method of payment. Please email sales@netwinsite.com for our Bank Account details.

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Uninstall Instructions

To uninstall WatchDog click on 'Config' then 'Delete Service', then simply delete the one WatchDog directory and the wdog.ini file from your system directory.

On Windows 95 all you need do is remove the shortcut from the startup folder and delete the one WatchDog directory, along with the wdog.ini file from your system directory (eg: c:\windows).

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Beta Versions and Updates

NetWin Ltd encourages the development of excellent internet products through your feedback. If you wish to try one of our beta versions of WatchDog on a free 3 week trial then please do so, let us know what you think :-). Note that you do so at your own risk. Also, Alpha versions have an extra 'a' added to the end of their filename.

Link to our beta directory.

Please read the Updates page to see what bug fixes or new features have been added to each version.

Note: Updating should not affect your settings.

If you unzip an update into your WatchDog directory only the .exe, .hlp, etc. files will be updated and consequently all your settings will remain unaffected.

It is always recommended to make a copy of the executable so that you can go back to your old version if necessary/desired by simply copying it back into the WatchDog directory and restarting. If it is critical that your settings are not changed, you should also make a copy of the WatchDog directory first as well as the ini file, wdog.ini from the system directory (eg: \winnt or c:\windows).

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