The Simplest Network Device Monitoring Tool
Quick, clear, and simple SNMP Monitoring to troubleshoot internal device issues in minutes.
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Your Go-To Tool for Stress-Free
SNMP Device Monitoring
Obkio Offers Streamlined SNMP Monitoring for Faster Troubleshooting
We’ve revolutionized network monitoring because, let’s face it, the traditional methods just don’t cut it anymore. For too long, monitoring has relied on SNMP polling to track infrastructure metrics like temperature, CPU, and memory usage, generating endless alerts whenever thresholds are exceeded.
The result? Alert fatigue. Thousands of alerts pile up—mostly false positives—leaving you overwhelmed and desensitized. Important alerts go unnoticed, making it impossible to be proactive when network performance issues actually happen.
Enter Obkio. We’ve built a solution that focuses on network performance as a whole. Using Network Performance Monitoring and synthetic monitoring, Obkio generates proactive alerts only when actual problems occur. This means fewer distractions and more insights that matters.
With Obkio, performance is no longer about raw infrastructure metrics; it's based on network quality (latency, jitter, packet loss). SNMP Device Monitoring remains a key tool for isolating and troubleshooting equipment issues, so you can quickly identify and resolve problems - no matter where they happen in your network.
How Obkio’s Network Device Monitoring Tool Works
The bottom line: we’ve redefined device monitoring to be smarter, simpler, and more effective—helping you focus on what truly matters.
Network Device Monitoring is the practice of monitoring the resources, usage states and availability of networking devices such as firewalls, routers, switches and wifi access points. It is a crucial part of Network Monitoring and helps you understand the root cause of performance issues in your network.
The biggest problem with the traditional network device monitoring tools, which many of us have been using forever, is their overwhelming alert systems.
The Obkio Approach: Unlike traditional tools, Obkio's modern Network Performance and Device Monitoring software takes a smarter approach. By leveraging Network Performance Monitoring features, Obkio alerts you about network and device problems as soon as performance starts to degrade—so you only get alerts that matter, when they matter. It provides a fast and simple way to gather detailed insights into the performance of your core network devices, helping you quickly and proactively identify and resolve issues like congestion, high CPU usage, and interface errors.
What About SNMP?: SNMP monitors and manages network devices connected over an IP address. With Obkio, SNMP is still essential—not as an alerting tool but as a troubleshooting resource. For example, if you experience packet loss, Obkio uses ultra-fast SNMP polling (every 5 seconds) to monitor device metrics and help identify whether the issue originates from your network equipment. This ensures you don’t waste time opening service tickets with your provider for internal problems.
Types of Network Devices You Can Monitor With Obkio
Using Ultra-Fast SNMP Polling, monitor your most important network devices and collect performance metrics.
Firewalls
Routers
Switches
WiFi APs
Any SNMP-Enabled Devices
No Matter Your Network Issue
We've Got the Solution For You
Obkio's solution is designed to be the easiest network performance and network device monitoring tool on the market, making it the ideal choice for businesses of all sizes, from IT professionals working from home to managing the complexities of large-scale corporate networks.
- 14-Day Proof Of Concept
- Single and home offices
- SMEs with less than 3 locations
- Mid to large multisite networks
- MSPs & large businesses
- Non-Profit Organizations
- Colleges and Universities
Check out our plans, all available with a free 14-day trial, no credit card required!
Deploy Obkio’s Network Device Monitoring Tool In Minutes
Start your free trial. Deploy in 10 minutes. Start monitoring network device performance.
With a 14-day free trial of all premium features—no credit card required—you can quickly deploy Obkio and immediately begin monitoring your network devices with ease.
Obkio’s simple onboarding wizard guides you step-by-step, making the process fast and intuitive, even for those with limited technical expertise. This ensures you can focus on monitoring performance, not struggling with setup.
- Identify Issues Faster: Detect device problems like high CPU usage or interface errors before they impact users.
- Streamline Troubleshooting: Pinpoint whether performance issues originate from your devices or the network itself.
- Reduce Downtime: Address potential issues early to avoid service interruptions and ensure a reliable network experience.
Take the first step – Start Your Free Trial with Obkio now!
1.2. How to Configure Obkio's Network Device Monitoring Solution
Before you can monitor network devices, you’ll need to deploy at least one Monitoring Agent.
What Are Monitoring Agents? Monitoring Agents are Obkio’s unique software tools designed to monitor network performance in key locations like data centers, branch offices, or cloud environments. These agents exchange synthetic traffic to measure performance metrics and detect issues in your network.
Add Your Network Devices: Once your agents are installed, you can add your network devices to the Obkio app and start monitoring their performance using SNMP. To monitor a network device, a Monitoring Agent must communicate directly with it. We recommend using the agent closest to the device for accurate results.
No SNMP Expertise Required: Obkio simplifies the process, so no technical expertise in SNMP or OID detection is needed. The tool adapts to any type of equipment you add.
SNMP Requirements: Ensure your devices support SNMP (Obkio is compatible with SNMP v1, v2c, and v3) and have read-only access enabled.
Start monitoring with confidence and gain immediate insights into your network device performance.
Collect Network Device Metrics & Performance Data
Once you’ve deployed your Monitoring Agents and added your devices, Obkio’s Network Device Monitoring Tool takes care of the rest.
Obkio begins monitoring your network and device performance instantly—no complex configurations are required. Obkio’s Monitoring Agents handle all SNMP polling locally, directly within your network.
Eliminates VPN Complexity: No need to manage VPN connections or open external tunnels for monitoring. Obkio monitors from inside the network for a hassle-free setup.
Ultra-Fast Polling: Each agent performs local polling, allowing Obkio to collect data every 30 seconds—compared to the industry-standard 5-minute intervals. This high-frequency polling captures spikes in CPU, bandwidth, and other metrics that traditional methods might average out and miss.
By polling devices more frequently, Obkio provides real-time, granular insights into network performance, helping you detect sudden surges or bottlenecks with unmatched accuracy.
2.1. Measure Key Network Device Metrics with SNMP Polling
Obkio's Network Performance Monitoring tool uses SNMP polling to gather essential performance metrics from network devices.
- CPU Usage: Tracks the processing power being used by the device.
- Bandwidth Utilization: Measures how much bandwidth is being consumed on the network.
- Device Availability: Indicates whether the device is online and responsive.
- CRC Errors: Monitors data integrity issues caused by transmission errors.
- Interface Errors: Detects problems with the device’s network interfaces, like dropped packets.
In addition, Obkio’s NPM features monitor core network performance metrics like latency, which measures the time it takes for data to travel across the network; jitter, which tracks variations in data packet delivery times; packet loss, indicating the percentage of data packets lost during transmission; and throughput, representing the actual data transfer rate achieved across the network.
Is It A Network Device Issue?
Analyze the Data and Identify Device or Network Issues
Once you’ve collected real-time and historical data, it’s time to analyze to identify any network device issues or performance issues elsewhere in your network. If there are no alerts or signs of trouble, you’re good to go! Only dive deeper if an alert or abnormality is detected.
It looks like you have a Network Device issue
If you see a network issue happening on a single network session toward a specific Internet destination, it points to a localized problem between your network and that destination, possibly due to congestion, faulty devices, or misconfigurations in your network. Check metrics like CPU and bandwidth utilization to confirm. If abnormalities are found, address them internally to resolve the issue.
It's not a Device issue, but may still be a network issue.
If the data shows no device-related problems—such as normal CPU and bandwidth usage during an issue—it's likely that the root cause lies outside your network. If you notice the problem affecting multiple network sessions, it’s more likely to be an Internet or Service Provider issue. In such cases, use Obkio’s core NPM features to keep monitoring and analyzing, and share the monitoring data collected by Obkio with your provider to help them pinpoint and resolve the problem.
First: Use SNMP Device Monitoring as a troubleshooting tool
Determine whether the issue stems from your network device. If it does, the problem is on your end, provided you manage the device. Note that SNMP monitoring is only applicable to the equipment you control.
This is why SNMP polling is so important—if an issue is caused by your equipment, you need to know. It helps you avoid wasting time opening a service call with your service provider for problems that are actually on your end. With SNMP polling, you can quickly identify, isolate, and troubleshoot internal issues, saving time and effort.
Second: Is It A Network Device Resource Issue?
Use the information from Obkio’s Device Monitoring graphs and alerts to check if metrics like CPU usage, memory utilization, or bandwidth have surpassed their thresholds.
High CPU usage, memory utilization, or bandwidth saturation could be causing the problem. Address the resource limitations by optimizing device configurations, upgrading hardware, or reducing network load. Focus on resolving the resource bottleneck to restore performance.
Leverage Obkio’s Network Device Monitoring to Identify the Source of Performance Issues
Pinpoint where the problem is happening —whether it’s from your network device or beyond.
On Your End: By analyzing the data collected through Obkio's Device Monitoring feature, you can assess if the issue is happening internally. This can help you identify if any specific devices or segments of your network are experiencing issues.
If Obkio identifies the issue as originating from one of your devices, you now have the precise information you need, including the device, interface port, and relevant metrics. It's like finding the needle in a haystack—you're no longer guessing.
Beyond Your Devices:
If the problem persists and Obkio’s Device Monitoring shows no signs of a device-related issue, it’s time to look further. The problem may be happening towards a specific location over the Internet, indicating that the issue is localized and impacting only the communication between your network and that particular site.
Continue monitoring your network with Obkio’s core Network Performance Monitoring features and use Obkio Vision for deeper insights into external factors, such as issues within your Service Provider's network or along the Internet path.
Obkio’s Network and Device Monitoring tool ensures that no stone is left unturned in identifying and addressing network performance issues.
Troubleshoot Internal Device Issues or External ISP Issues
Once you've identified whether the issue is internal or external, it's time to take action and troubleshoot fast.
Internal Device Issues
Use Obkio’s Device Monitoring graphs and alerts to pinpoint when device metrics surpassed thresholds for even greater accuracy. If the issue is internal, and you've detected it using SNMP polling, you can:
- Log into the device to access detailed logs.
- Review resource metrics like CPU usage, bandwidth, and memory utilization to identify bottlenecks or misconfigurations.
- Identify resources issues affecting network devices like high CPU usage, bandwidth congestion, memory overload, interface errors, power instability, and overheating.
- Take corrective action to resolve the issue promptly, such as optimizing configurations or addressing resource limitations.
5.1. Troubleshooting External ISP Issues
If the problem lies beyond your network:
- Continue troubleshooting with Obkio’s Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) features and Vision Traceroutes to isolate the issue.
- Engage your ISP by opening a service ticket. Provide comprehensive details, including incident times, affected sessions, and metrics collected. Use data from Obkio, like packet loss metrics and historical performance reports, to substantiate your case.
With clear evidence from Obkio, you can escalate the issue effectively, ensuring your ISP resolves the problem in their network promptly.
Identify the Causes of Network Device Issues
When a performance issue happens, one of the first things people think is “Why is this happening?” Well, Obkio’s Network Device Monitoring tool gets to the bottom of this.
As we mentioned earlier, network device monitoring is essential for troubleshooting internal issues, and helping you pinpoint the root cause of problems. provides detailed metrics to help you identify the exact cause of network device issues, so you can troubleshoot before they cause havoc in your network.
Bandwidth Issues or Network Congestion
Insufficient bandwidth or excessive traffic can result in bottlenecks, causing delays, dropped packets, and poor network performance. Congestion often occurs during peak usage periods or when networks are not optimized to handle the current load.
Buffer Overflows and Configuration Errors
When devices experience excessive traffic, their data buffers can become overwhelmed, leading to dropped packets. Similarly, incorrect or suboptimal configurations, like misaligned VLANs or routing errors, can create inefficiencies and network disruptions.
Hardware Limitations and Faulty Cabling
Aging hardware may struggle to keep up with modern network demands, while damaged or poorly connected cables can cause intermittent connectivity issues, degraded signal quality, and packet loss.
Software or Firmware Bugs
Outdated or malfunctioning software or firmware can lead to unexpected device behaviour, instability, or crashes. Keeping software updated is critical for optimal device performance.
CPU Issues
High CPU usage occurs when devices are overloaded with tasks, often due to too much traffic or inefficient configurations. This can slow down processing speeds, causing delays in network operations and device responsiveness.
Continuous Network Performance and Network Device Monitoring
Continuous monitoring doesn’t just keep your network healthy; it also means you catch issues before they become disasters. Nobody wants to discover their network problems the same way they discover a missing umbrella—right in the middle of a storm.
Continuous Network & SNMP Monitoring
Continuous monitoring isn’t just about keeping an eye on your devices—it’s about understanding your entire network’s performance and quality from end to end. Obkio integrates SNMP polling seamlessly into this process, offering detailed insights into device metrics like CPU usage and bandwidth utilization. By combining device monitoring with end-to-end performance tracking, Obkio ensures no problem slips through the cracks. Think of it as having your network’s pulse at your fingertips—minus the stethoscope.
Smart Alerts Based on What Matters
Say goodbye to alert fatigue! Unlike traditional network device monitoring tools that bombard your IT team with alerts for every hiccup, Obkio takes a smarter approach. With Obkio, you only get alerts that matter—no more sifting through thousands of notifications for “problems” like an overworked coffee machine in the server room. We keep it simple, so your IT team can focus on real issues. It’s like having a spam filter for your network alerts—only the important stuff gets through!
Conquering Network Issues with
Expert Insights and Effective Strategies
Welcome to our blog, where we address the common challenge of identifying network issues and provide you with effective solutions. At times, network problems can be elusive, causing disruptions, performance bottlenecks, and frustration. But fret not, because we are here to help. Our team of experts has extensive experience in tackling network issues head-on, and we are excited to share our knowledge and insights with you.
