Program Menu

The program menu allows you to configure the client GUI itself, and configure the network monitoring and reporting process; to print HTML reports, register the product, access local help pages and online resources.

The program menu has six standard items: File, Edit, View, Tools, Alerting, and Help.

File

The following actions are available from the File menu item:

New Monitor - opens a wizard allowing to create a new monitor. A shortcut for creating a new monitor is Ctrl+M.
New Host - allows creating a new host. When you create a new host, this dialog allows you to choose a host group and to define how to poll (access) the host - either using a DNS host name (you enter the host name) or its IP address (you enter the IP address). If you select a host group, host or monitor in the By Host view, the dialog will automatically choose the host group to be the same as the host group of the selected item but you can always change it. A shortcut for creating a new host is Ctrl+H.
New Host Group - allows creating a new host group. When you create a new host group, you enter its name in a dialog. A shortcut for creating a new host group is Ctrl+G.

Note: once you define a host group, host or monitor and press OK, it is added to the system and its default properties are loaded to the Property Editor. In case the default properties are not sufficient (for instance, you need to check a particular HTTP URL on the server or need custom alerts for this monitor), you should go to the property editor and correct the settings there.
Discover Network - displays Discovery Wizard. The network discovery process is described here.
Print - displays a standard Print dialog that allows you to print a current report from the Report View panel. A shortcut for printing is Ctrl+P.
Exit - closes the client. A shortcut for exiting is Alt+X.

Edit

This section has the following items: Rename, Delete, Copy, Find and Filter. You can only copy, rename and delete hosts and monitors. If anything else is selected in the Tree View, the Copy, Rename and Delete items become disabled.

Rename - allows renaming a host group, host or monitor. A dialog appears where the old name is selected and you type a new name. In case the new host group / host name is not unique across the system or the new monitor name is not unique with regard to its host, an error message will be displayed and the renaming won't take an effect.

Delete - allows deleting a host group, host or monitor.

A confirmation dialog is displayed. You cannot delete one of the pre-defined host groups (Servers, Network Equipment, Desktops and Notebooks, Printers and UPS, Miscellaneous). When you delete a custom host group that has one or more hosts, a dialog appears that allows you to either delete these hosts or move them to a different host group. When you delete a host, all of its monitors also get deleted.
This operation permanently removes all relevant information (both configuration data and monitoring results) from the database so it should be used with care. If you just want to avoid polling a particular monitor or all monitors on some host, you can stop them instead of deleting.

Copy - creates a copy of current host or monitor. When copying a monitor, you select a host for the copy (it may differ from host of the original) in a dialog. When copying a host, you select a host group and a way to poll (access) the copied host - using an IP address or a DNS name, and enter this address or name. The dialog that appears when copying a host is similar to the New Host dialog. A host is copied with all its monitors, and all them are initially stopped. Dependencies and alerts are also correctly preserved or copied.
Find - displays a search string in a Tree View that allows finding hosts and monitors by name. A shortcut for this action is Ctrl+F.
Filter - displays a Monitors State Filter window that allows showing and hiding monitors in particular state in a Tree View. A shortcut for this action is Ctrl+R.

View

View This standard menu item allows showing and hiding the components of the user interface: dockable windows (Tree View, Property Editor, Log View and Report View), the Standard toolbar, the Monitor Control toolbar and the Status bar. When the checkbox for a menu item is checked, the corresponding GUI component is shown.

When you click the Reset Layout menu item, visual appearance of all dockable windows, toolbars, and the status bar as well as width and presense of columns in a tree view is reset to be the same as when the product is just installed. This can prove helpful if you make unwanted window rearrangements and would like to undo them.

Tools

This menu section provides access to various utilities. Its items are described below.

Discover Network - displays Discovery Wizard. The network discovery process is described here.
SNMP Browser - launches SNMP Browser, described here. The following configuration window appears when you select this menu item; it allows to use settings of a particular SNMP monitor or SNMP SET action when launching the browser as well as to specify custom settings.
Start Monitoring Service - starts the monitoring service described in Software Components section. The service is what actually performs data collection (monitors polling).
Stop Monitoring Service - allows to stop monitoring service, thus ceasing all the monitoring activity.
Settings - shows the Global Settings dialog. The dialog displays and allows changing administrator account settings, system settings such as application paths and port numbers, global lists of reusable alerts and alerting rules, the global maintenance table, various monitoring and reporting settings, and discovery parameters.

Alerting

This menu section provides access to alerting serttings.

Alerts - this is a shortcut to Alerts global settings section.
Alerting rules - this is a shortcut to Alerting rules global settings section.

See section Alerting and Actions for more information about defining IPHost monitor reaction on state changes.

Help

This item provides access to the local help file, the Tip of The Day window, online support form, purchasing instructions, registration form, and the about box.

Help topics - displays this help file. F1 is a standard hotkey for this.
The Tip of The Day - displays the Tip of The Day window. You can navigate tips in both directions and tell the client application whether they should be shown on the next client run or not using the checkbox near the bottom of the Tip of The Day window.

Hyperlinks in the tip window usually open matching sections in this help file you are now reading.
Contact support - opens a support form on the IPHost Network Monitor web site where you can submit bug reports, questions and requests. Make sure you are connected to the Internet.
How to buy... - opens an order page on the IPHost Network Monitor web site where detailed purchasing instructions are provided.
Enter your registration key... - opens a registration form where you can enter a registration key that will be e-mailed to you after purchasing the IPHost Network Monitor. This menu item allows to registed the product, to upgrade your license when you purchase additional features and to renew your maintenance and support when you prolongate it.
About IPHost Network Monitor - displays the standard About dialog. The dialog contains essential information that you will need when filling in the online support form or sending the e-mail messages to support@iphostmonitor.com: product version and build number. This information should help us provide you with prompt and proper support. The dialog also shows features allowed by your license and the maintenance expiration date. When you are using a trial version, the dialog displays number of days left till the trial will expire.