MyVitalAgent software for home network diagnostics

MyVitalAgent network monitoring software  link

Lucent Worldwide Services link

Score: 3 out of 3

Reviewer: Chris Kaminski 

Date: Apr 26, 2001

Price: Free download!!

A couple of years ago, when I first got my cable modem, I downloaded a program called Net.Medic. This program allowed me to see what kind of traffic was going over my cable modem – graphically. I ran the software for quite a while on my main computer, fascinated by the real time kbps readings.

Last week, I went looking for Net.Medic of software – I was curious if it had survived these last couple years. In that time Lucent seems to have purchased Net.Medic, renamed it MyVitalAgent, made a bunch of improvements, and made it freeware! The old Net.Medic charged a ‘fee’ to unlock some feature but this new version is fully functional and completely free.

MyVitalAgent integrates itself deeply in the TCP/IP stack. Every bit of data traveling through TCP/IP shows up on the its screens. Graphic and text readouts display instant and average performance for specific internet application categories like Mail, Web, FTP and DNS.

In addition to benchmarking your connection, this software tries to diagnose connection problems. It logs all failed connections – like when a web page does not come up – and tries to explain the problem. I found that it was pretty good determining where problems were in the connection. It at least lets you know if it is your problem, something on the internet, or the destination server.

MyVitalAgent software for home network diagnostics