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NetGuardian 2.5 Improves Provisioning Speed and Ease of Use

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Version 2.5 of the NetGuardian, the remote telemetry unit made popular by its versatility and ability to mediate legacy gear to LAN, has just been released. This latest release brings some new monitoring tools and controls to both the web browser interface and the TTY interface, in addition to some platform enhancements that significantly speed up memory access, boot-up, and NVRAM capacity.

NetGuardian 832A
NetGuardian 2.5: New platform
enhancements significantly speed
up memory access, boot-up, and
NVRAM capacity of the NetGuardian.

The first new feature that current users will notice is the ability to view communication traffic on each of the data ports from the web interface or the TTY interface. Simply select the desired port and whether you want to view transmit or receive activity for that port, and you can monitor live serial communication, making it much easier to diagnose troublesome communication problems. Different data port types have also been added. The first type is Craft, which gives you the ability to make any port function as the front panel craft port, enabling intelligent connected equipment to "walk" the NetGuardian configuration menus. The next new data port type is called Channel. If you're having a serial communication problem between two devices, the Channel mode becomes a powerful troubleshooting tool. Insert the NetGuardian in the communication path between the two devices and the NetGuardian will channel communication traffic across the two ports. This is transparent to the two devices while allowing you to view exactly what is happening across the communication, therefore isolating the communication problem - no more guess work.

Another useful new feature is alarm point echoing. This allows any alarm point that the NetGuardian monitors, including system alarms, ping alarms, and analog thresholds, to be turned into a relay closure or opening. Each of the eight controls can be set to directly echo the state of another alarm point.

Version 2.5 also adds control over discrete alarm detection time. The de-bounce timer can be set anywhere from 3 to 1000 milliseconds (1 second). Higher settings eliminate detection of transitory alarms while lower ones reveal even the most fleeting alarm conditions.Web interface users will want to take note of the new Base URL feature. This turns each alarm point in the monitoring window into a unique hyperlink, derived from the Base URL. This gives you the powerful ability to link to documents or web pages on your corporate intranet or the Internet. This could be used to give technicians clear, documented troubleshooting procedures to follow, or to link to any information concerning that alarm point.

This new release adds support for an expanded memory card as well. The NVRAM expansion board increases memory capacity eight fold. The first area to take advantage of the new memory is alarm point descriptions. They have been more than doubled to 48 characters, giving you plenty of room for more descriptive alarm point definitions.

The NetGuardian continues to add tools that make it a more valuable and useful network management tool. All of these new features have been developed in conjunction with DPS partners who use them out in the field every day. The NetGuardian itself was created in the same way - not in a sterile development lab, but out in the field where the real-world network management needs are. If you would like to take advantage of the new capabilities in version 2.5, call us today.

Do you have questions about the NetGuardian?
Give us a call at our toll-free number and talk to one of our specialists. They'll help answer any questions you may have.

Sales: 1-800-693-0351 • Support: 559-454-1600 • Fax: 559-454-1688