The server is actually an Intel-based Linux box. We set it up by plugging in power and punching in an IP address on the 10-key keypad. That's it! It involves no console and no terminal. All other usage, including administrative, is via the Web.

The administrative interface is character-based and includes reporting , autodiscovery, database and user administration. After launching autodiscovery a few times, with intervening upgrades to address the size of the combined test network located at Syracuse University and Network Computing's corporate network, we got a winner.

Launching the Java applets with both Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 initially brought us to the Kinnetics Answer Applet. Here we saw, in a compact active display, statistics that included network usage, network changes, various failures, MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) and MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) totals.

No network management platform would be worthwhile without a map, and Kinnetics doesn't disappoint, displaying unique port-connected icons with another Java applet. The layout of our network was basically what we've come to expect of autodiscovery, a relatively close representation, but one that requires some manual intervention to make accurate. Icons of switches, routers, networks, subnets and servers were all fairly standard, with the odd exception that the map displays the ports connecting nodes. Devices like unmanaged hubs show up as clouds with program-generated ports. We weren't sure of the value of these false ports, other than as a reference for work orders.

The Answer and Map Applets work together. The Answer Applet highlights nodes that exceed thresholds for its statistical categories. It also displays the network as it appeared in the past and will appear in the future, using the daily snapshots taken of the network. The future accuracy, in our case, was noted as having low confidence, as we only had the server for a couple of months, which didn't, surprisingly, provide enough history for accurate predictions.