Hewlett-Packard Co has announced two new network probes, one for switched Ethernet environments, and the other for Token Ring networks. The new products are designed for use with HP’s NetMetrix distributed network monitoring system, which manages the probes and aggregates the performance information they provide. NetMetrix is also designed to cut down the amount of probe-generated data transmitted, by filtering out unnecesary traffic before it is sent. Both of the new probes are SNMP-manageable, and HP says they will be RMON2-compliant once the standard has been ratified by the IETF. They also incorporate private Management Information Base extensions supporting NetMetrix Internetwork Response Manager, zoom correlation, and internetwork monitor applications. The HP J3457A Quad Ethernet LanProbe has up to four monitoring ports (each with an RJ-45 or AUI interface) and a telemetry interface. It has 16Mb of RAM, and will cost $5,995 when it ships next month. The new 4985B Token Ring LanProbe has 8Mb of RAM, and will cost $3,035. It is also due to ship in September.
