User Guide

For version 0.5, January 2011

Download the latest version from jnetmap.sourceforge.net

Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................2
Quick Start...........................................................................................................2
Opening and saving files.....................................................................................3
Passwords........................................................................................................3
Editing a map......................................................................................................3
Undo & Redo....................................................................................................3
Using the mouse..............................................................................................3
Using tools.......................................................................................................4
Properties.........................................................................................................6
Plugins.................................................................................................................8
Context Menu..................................................................................................8
Notifications.....................................................................................................8
Sidebar.............................................................................................................9
Preferences........................................................................................................10
Contact..............................................................................................................11
Submit a bug.................................................................................................11
Request a feature..........................................................................................11
Write me directly:..........................................................................................11
Introduction
jNetMap helps you to keep an eye on you network. You can draw a graphical
representation of your network, and jNetMap will periodically check if the
devices are still up and or a service is still running. You can also set up E-mail
notifications or let jNetMap execute a script when a device goes down or comes
up again. Additionally, you may attach notes to a device, initiate an
RDP/VNC/SSH connection to a device and much more.

Quick Start
• Create a new file (Menu: File > New).
• Scan your network for devices (Menu: Tools > Network Scanner).
• The Network Scanner will automatically use the IP-Range of your first active
network-connection. Change IP/Subnet if necessary.
(Hint: Use CIDR-Notation in the first field and hit enter).
• Click “Scan”, wait for a moment, then click “Add”.
• jNetMap will magically find the best ping-method, name and other settings
for the devices and add them to the map.
• Drag the devices to an appropriate position on the map.
• Done

jNetMap User Guide Quick Start Page 1

Opening and saving files
jNetMap can save and open network-files (.jnm). The File-Menu works as one
would expect and you will be prompted to save your map when you quit.

Passwords
You might want to keep the internal structure of your network a secret. For that
purpose you may encrypt the entire map with a password. You will find a
password-field in the open- and save-dialogs. I would recommend you encrypt
every map you create, especially if you use Mail-Notifiers, because otherwise
your account-details will be stored in plain-text.

Editing a map
Undo & Redo
In case of a mishap, use the Edit-Menu, the Toolbar or Ctrl+Z & Ctrl+Y to
undo/redo an action.

Using the mouse

The mouse can operate in three modes. To
change the mode, go to the Edit-Menu and
select a new mode. Alternatively you can use
the buttons in the Toolbar.

Selection Mode

On a device
• Left-Click: Selects the device. Relevant information will appear in the Sidebar.
• Left-Drag: Moves the device.
• Right-Click: Opens the context menu in order to delete the device, change its
properties or connect to the device with plugins.

On a connection
• Left-Click: Selects the connection.
• Right-Click: Opens the context menu in order to delete the connection,
change its properties.

jNetMap User Guide Editing a map Page 2

Outside
• Left-Drag: Select all devices within the rectangle
• Right-Click: Opens the context menu in order to add a new device.

Editing Mode
• Left-Click: Adds a new device, opens its properties window.
• Left-Drag: Creates a new connection between two devices.

Transforming Mode
• Left-Drag: Moves the display.
• Shift+Left-Drag: Rotates the display.
• Ctrl+Left-Drag: Shears the display.

All Modes
• ScrollWheel: Zoom in / Zoom out.

Using tools
Network Scanner
Discovers alive hosts on a given subnet
using a variate of techniques (In the
following order: Java Ping, Native Ping, Port
Scans on commonly open Ports:
22,135,139,445,80,161*,21,53). The Network
Scanner will automatically fill in IP-Address of
the first active network connection on the
computer. You may of course change this.
Note that this first field accepts CIDR-
Notation and will automatically fill in the
subnet mask field if it is empty. You can also
force this by pressing enter.
Now you can press the “Scan”-button. If you
scan a large network (bigger than /24) you
might want to get a coffee or something, it
might take a while even tough the Scanner is
Multi-Threaded. All responding machines will
appear in the list where you may uncheck
them if you don't want to add them to the
map. If an address is already on the map it
will be grayed out.

jNetMap User Guide Editing a map Page 3

Finally, press the “Add”-button to add the devices to the map. jNetMap will try
to get as much information from those new devices as possible, such as the
hostname or even the MAC-Address and interface-speed, provided that SNMP is
running on said device. Note that all new devices will be added at [0,0] on the
map, so you will want to drag them to an appropriate location or apply an
automatic layout (in planning).

* if a custom SNMP-Port was defined, it will be used instead.

Port Scanner
This tool is best used when setting up a new device that should check a TCP-
Port to determine if the device is up so you can see what ports are open, but it
can also be used in stand-alone mode or from the information-panel in the
sidebar. You can select the range of ports that should be scanned, then hit
“Scan”. I've been told that Windows-Machines are very slow at this for some
reason, so if you are using Windows, please be patient or try adjusting the
“portscan.timeout” value in the properties file (results will be less accurate
when using lower values).

jNetMap User Guide Editing a map Page 4

Properties
Device
Here you can set the type, name,
description, location, vendor and
model of the device. Most of these
values have a purely informational
character, except for the type: All
Switches/Hubs will default to
“transparent” mode when adding
connections to them, i.e. they will
not have an address; all other
types need an address by default
(You can change this in the
“Interface/Connection Properties”).
You can also edit and remove the
network interfaces using the list in
the lower half of the dialog.

Interface
Here you can set the (internal)
name of the network interface as
well as the address and the ping-
method.
Some interfaces do not have an
address, such as switches and
hubs. You can change this by
checking/unchecking “Address”.

Ping Modes
Ping Modes describe the way
jNetMap will determine whether
the device is up or not.

Java Ping
This is the default way Java tries to see if an address is reachable. However, it
has certain problems, especially on Windows (no ICMP-Pings). There's a good
article on bordet.blogspot.com about it if you're interested.

System Ping
This implementation will execute the ping-command of your OS and look at the

jNetMap User Guide Editing a map Page 5

result. This should guarantee that real ICMP-Pings are sent. It is slightly slower
than the default but a good alternative, especially on Windows.

TCP Port
This mode will try to establish a connection to a port (running service) of a
device. This is useful if you intend to monitor a web-server or a system that
blocks pings (firewall). If you are not sure what ports are open on that device,
you can use the “Scan”-button to launch the “Port Scanner”-Tool. After
completing a scan, simply select a port from the list, press ok an the selected
port will automatically be entered into the “TCP Port” settings.

Connection
The left and right side of the connection properties represents the properties of
the two interfaces attached to the connection, which you are already familiar
with. In the center of this dialog you can change the type of the connection
(Ethernet, Serial etc.) and the speed of the connection in Mb/s. Both values
influence the way the connection is drawn on the map (i.e. faster speed =
thicker line).

Map
The map properties currently contain the update interval and notification (see
“plugins” below). jNetMap will check the status of all devices and addresses on
the map every <update intervall>.

jNetMap User Guide Editing a map Page 6

Plugins
Plugins extend the functionality of jNetMap version >= 0.5.
You can download plugins from jnetmap.sourceforge.net
To install a plugin, go to Edit > Preferences > Plugins > Install. You can remove
the plugin again on that same page. Note that it is recommended to restart
jNetMap after installing/removing a plugin.

Context Menu
These Plugins are available through the context menu of a device. They are
usually used to connect to a device using RCP, SSH etc…

Notifications
These plugins will be called by jNetMap whenever a device of an interface
changes its state, e.g. does down. You can add these plugins to a map in the
maps properties (File > Properties).

jNetMap User Guide Plugins Page 7

These plugins will then notify you of that change, provided that the event
wasn't filtered. The filter is especially useful if don't want to be notified about
about every change on the map. You can the following options:
• Receive device events (default)
• Receive interface events (turning
both off will essentially disable the
notifier)
• Use regular expressions, only
matching events will be passed
(empty fields will match
everything):
• Device name
• Address
• Subnet Mask

Sidebar
The sidebar will display contextual information. The Info-Panel and the Notes
are always shown, but you can add more, such as the LogPanel (displays
logging information) or the NotePanel (stores notes about individual devices).

jNetMap User Guide Plugins Page 8

Preferences
To edit your preferences, go to Edit > Preferences or press Ctrl+P. The dialog
itself is pretty self-explanatory, the left side displays different topics in the form
of a tree and the right side the corresponding panel.
Note that there are usually more settings than are represented graphically, so
if you're brave, you can edit the preference-file (in the .jNetMap folder in you
home directory) in a text-editor. Just be careful, things might go wrong if the
preferences-file contains “weird” stuff. However, the preference file is self-
recovering, so if there's a crash after you've edited the file, you can simply
delete it and it will restore itself.

jNetMap User Guide Preferences Page 9

Contact
◦ Submit a bug

◦ Request a feature

◦ Write me directly:
public@rakudave.ch
Contact language: English or German

jNetMap User Guide Contact Page 10