Reviewer, 2009-06-23 09:30:00

An administrative tool for managing and tracking IP address use in a given local area network.

Features: For those looking to make the step from paper management of IP domains (or as the publisher’s say spreadsheet based management) to a more professional level of IP address management, SolarWinds IP Address Tracker provides a simple and free solution to meet their needs. Getting started is really simple. The IP Address Tracker lists all the IP addresses that are being used along with the status of current use, when it was last used, machine type, system name, location and response time. DNS lookups are done automatically and also show up on the list beside a given IP address. A single dynamic management tool like this ensures that errors are kept to a minimum and that managing the IP addresses in the given domain or network (more than one IP address domain) is kept fairly simple. It separately lists IP addresses being used for raw IP and phone use.

Overall: The software performs well and greatly simplifies the task of managing fairly large pools of IP addresses (of more than one IP domain). However, there are better, and more powerful tools out there, including the non-free version of this publisher’s IP Address Tracker (called Orion IP Address Tracker). For important administrative tasks such as IP address management for a domain or LAN, it makes sense to pay for the service and get some bang-for-the-back. In the free version the interface is simple, and it must be said, limited in functionality. This software is much more suited to users who are just setting up IP based networks with only a few nodes and need a solution to get started (example: small office / home office users). Even they will find that in time they prefer getting more advanced tools.