Network Inventory Advisor

Network Inventory Advisor is a user-friendly network monitoring and analysis tool.

Network Inventory Advisor is a powerful and sophisticated network analysis tool that manages to be user-friendly despite all its underlying complexities. This is the kind of tool you’d expect a network administrator to use, and this program is certainly suitable for that in, for instance, a small-business environment. It can also be a valuable tool to have at home. As home networks grow larger, this program provides a handy way to maintain your network and check the status of computers you may not use every day.

When you run Network Inventory Advisor, it will scan your local network and itemize the computers and other devices connected to it. It places each network asset on its own tab, and from this tab, you’ll have access to a broad range of information about the device, including the software installed on it. Network Inventory Advisor will also provide you with alerts and other notifications, such as when a machine has its antivirus or local firewall disabled.

One of the great things the program does is provide links to features that are relevant to the particular device you’re currently looking at. Scans can be scheduled, and there are a number of ways you can receive alerts from these unattended scans. Network Inventory Advisor also has excellent logging and reporting capabilities, and it actually updates reports on the fly according to your preferences. This lets you view, print or email a current network report quickly and with ease.

The UI is professional and well-organized, and that’s what makes a potentially complex program so simple to learn and use. The UI is created in the older Windows ribbon style. That does make it look a little outdated, and an update to the current Windows aesthetic would be great, but the UI is so excellent in every other facet that it’s easy to overlook this complaint.

Perhaps the biggest issue with Network Inventory Advisor is that if focuses exclusively on Windows. Support for non-Windows devices isn’t good. It can usually recognize them, but it won’t be able to provide you with any useful information other than they exist and are connected. Even home networks are becomingly increasingly diverse, so this may be a deal-breaker for some users.

Pros

• Network monitoring and analysis
• Professional UI makes it easy to navigate

Cons

• Support for non-Windows devices isn’t great