This article applies to PRTG Network Monitor 14 or later, as well as to previous (deprecated) versions


How can I share the status of my network with others, e.g. other departments or management, without disclosing security sensitive data?

Preliminaries

First and foremost, change the default administrator login credentials (prtgadmin / prtgadmin). All PRTG installations use this default configuration and your installation will never be secure if you continue to use these settings.

If possible, use HTTPS for access to the PRTG web servers. You can control this using the PRTG Administration Tool that you can find in the Windows “Start” menu or via the PRTG web interface.

The default SSL certificate included with PRTG’s web server is completely secure but causes web browsers to show a warning notification because it does not match the respective server’s DNS name. To avoid this you must purchase your own SSL certificate and install it on your PRTG system. See How can I use a trusted SSL certificate with the PRTG web interface? for more details.

If you intend to distribute URLs from your PRTG installation, make sure that your DNS, firewall and NAT settings allow others to access the web server (port 80 or 443 for SSL) from the outside world.


Solution: Public Maps

Your best choice is to use the “public maps” feature. This feature requires minimal configuration effort. The map can be used as a web page by itself or can be embedded in other web pages (e.g. Intranets) using IFRAMEs.

  • Pros: Quick to set up. You can design the layout yourself. You can use logos and a background image.
  • Cons: Public users can not access more information than visible on the map, i.e. they cannot “drill” into the data. Depending on your needs, this can also be an intended feature.

Public maps are best suited for situations were only a few selected information blocks are to be published for others.

What you need to do:

  1. Create a new map by choosing Maps | Add Map from the main menu.
  2. Enter a name of your choice and select Yes for the Allow Public Access option.
  3. Add map objects to the map and arrange them on the screen as desired. Click the View Map tab to check the final layout.
  4. Click the Get HTML tab to find instructions on how to use the map’s URL directly or how to embed the map into another webpage using an IFRAME.

Please have a look at the maps section of the manual for more information: PRTG Manual: Maps


Disclaimer:
The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.