BigBrother helps the users to monitor the network. The status of the network is displayed in the format of the web pages with color coded, which makes the user to distinguish the errors. This report is generated in almost real time. The difference of BigBrother with SNMP is that in SNMP the information about the devices are collected in a centralized location. But in BigBrother local devices convey their own information in a centralized location and from there it polls the devices. This feature enables BigBrother to provide an efficient network monitoring system.

Following are the other significant features of BigBrother software:

· Architecture -
The main advantage in BigBrother is that it uses Client-Server architecture. Polling the devices can be done by a single machine and this polling reports are collected in a centralized location.

· Protocol -
BigBrother listens to port number 1984 that has been assigned by IANA.

· Display -
The report is generated as Web Pages or WML pages. Different color codes notify the user about the status of the system.

· Plugins and Extensions -
The user has the facility for plugins. These can be written in any languages.

BigBrother runs on Unix/Linux platform. However the versions to run BigBrother on Win2K/NT are also available (scaled down version).