Unclog Your Network

Want your network traffic to flow fast, furious and unfettered? If so, check out these Quality of Service and bandwidth management tools.

While GuardianPro 5.02, NetGuard’s entry into the bandwidth management arena, installs easily and is well documented, its interface is somewhat difficult to manipulate. Resembling a spreadsheet, the interface is loaded with numerous windows and click-on options (Figure 4). After several false starts, I found myself in the application’s Bandwidth Control Strategy Explorer.

Within Strategy Explorer, you’re first asked to create a “bandwidth strategy” by separating your available resources into three categories: guaranteed, prioritized and standby. Next, you add network objects, selecting from users, hosts, networks and groups. Finally, you establish the rules governing these objects and decide how bandwidth will be sliced and diced. Options you can choose include destination, service, direction, priority, when (hours and days), and action. You then can use Strategy Explorer to move rules around and change option values.

GuardianPro Bandwidth Control Strategy Explorer
Figure 4. GuardianPro’s Bandwidth Control Strategy Explorer lets you allocate bandwidth for users and groups.

GuardianPro’s Bandwidth Management Control Component allows you to use a “balance beam” slider to allocate bandwidth between the guaranteed and prioritized categories. For a quick test, I attempted to allocate 50 percent to each category. With the slider, I came close to this figure; still, it took fine mouse movements to do it. It would’ve been nice to have an option box where I could’ve typed the exact percentage.

Perhaps GuardianPro’s best feature is its real-time network monitoring capability. You can choose from a graphical or list presentation denoting various network traffic flows. You then choose from a multitude of 2-D and 3-D displays, and you can customize and filter traffic views.

As it addresses the bandwidth needs of individual users and groups, I found that GuardianPro offers a unique approach to bandwidth management. It forces you to take a global view, making you think about how exactly you want to allocate your total network bandwidth.

About the Author

Michael Feuda, MCSE, NNCDS, is an independent writer. He has worked with Microsoft products since the days of LAN Manager.

Featured

  • MIT Finds Only 1 in 20 AI Investments Translate into ROI

    Despite pouring billions into generative AI technologies, 95 percent of businesses have yet to see any measurable return on investment.

  • Report: Cost, Sustainability Drive DaaS Adoption Beyond Remote Work

    Gartner's 2025 Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service reveals that while secure remote access remains a key driver of DaaS adoption, a growing number of deployments now focus on broader efficiency goals.

  • Windows 365 Reserve, Microsoft's Cloud PC Rental Service, Hits Preview

    Microsoft has launched a limited public preview of its new "Windows 365 Reserve" service, which lets organizations rent cloud PC instances in the event their Windows devices are stolen, lost or damaged.

  • Hands-On AI Skills Now Outshine Certs in Salary Stakes

    For AI-related roles, employers are prioritizing verifiable, hands-on abilities over framed certificates -- and they're paying a premium for it.