Guides

Each switch is drawn on the map as a front panel with ports. The colour of a port tells you what is happening on it:

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• grey – the port is enabled, but nothing is plugged in (no link)
• orange – a slow connection, 10 or 100 Mb/s (often an old cable or device)
• green – 1 Gb/s, the usual speed
• turquoise – 2.5 or 5 Gb/s
• blue – 10 Gb/s and more
• black – the port is disabled on the switch

The frame around a port tells you what is connected:

• purple – an uplink, i.e. a cable to another switch or to the firewall
• pink – a Wi-Fi access point (AP)
• double yellow – a server with virtualization (Proxmox, Hyper-V, VMware)
• dashed with a number – several devices on one port (the number says how many). Usually there is a small switch that NetPorta cannot read – see Devices without SNMP.

Other marks: ⚡ the port powers a device over PoE · a small dot the port has a patch panel entered · a dashed line between switches is a backup or blocked link · ⚠ an orange / red mark on a port = a problem with the port (errors, changing speed, a dropping link) – the details are in the Problems menu.

Colours by VLAN: in Map options → Display switch to “by VLAN”. Ports are coloured by the network (VLAN) they belong to, and the Legend shows which colour is which VLAN. Tick “VLAN names and descriptions” and the numbers also show their names and descriptions from the switch.

Tips: a purple “i” mark on a port or next to a switch is a tip – advice on what to add. At the top you see “💡 N tips”; the full list is in Problems → Tips. Tips are not problems and no alerts are sent for them. The This is fine – don’t show button hides a tip; to remove tips from the map use Map options → Display → 💡 tips on the map.

Tip: Hover over a port to see what is plugged into it. Click it to open the port detail.

• Pan: drag the background with the mouse or scroll the wheel. Zoom: Ctrl + wheel, or the − / + buttons at the bottom right.
• Fit to screen shows the whole network at once.
• You can drag switches, labels and cards anywhere – NetPorta remembers the layout. If something goes wrong, Map options → Layout history undoes the last 10 changes.
• Click the name of a switch to open its window with a list of all ports and devices.
• The Timeline shows what the network looked like before – for example, what was plugged in yesterday morning.

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NetPorta reads network devices over SNMP (read-only, it changes nothing).

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1. Devices and sources → Credentials: save the SNMP community (or SNMPv3 account) configured on your switches.
2. Devices and sources → + Add device: enter the IP address and choose the credentials. NetPorta detects the model and vendor by itself.
3. After a few dozen seconds the switch appears on the map with its ports and devices.

Many devices at once? Use Download list (CSV), fill it in in Excel and upload it back – you will see a preview before saving.

SSH is optional: it adds details SNMP cannot provide (e.g. for FortiGate or for configuration backups).

You do not add computers, phones, printers, cameras… at all – NetPorta finds them by itself in the switch tables (MAC address, IP, name). In End devices you can just add their name, category, user, purchase date or warranty.

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A small “dumb” switch under the desk (unmanaged, no SNMP)

• NetPorta often detects it by itself – when there are several devices on one port, it creates an automatic switch on that port on the map.
• Manually: click the port it is connected to and choose + ▦ Connect unmanaged switch. Enter a name and the number of ports.
• NetPorta shows the devices behind it by itself (under the switch on the map and in its window). Which of its ports each one is on, however, a small switch cannot tell – in the switch window, type the port number next to the device and press Enter. Until then the port shows a question mark and the line to the card is dashed.
• If the port actually has something else on it (e.g. an IP phone with a computer behind it), change the Port type in the port detail – the automatic switch disappears.

Server or virtualization (Proxmox, Hyper-V, VMware)

In the port detail choose + 🖥️ Connect to server…, or Port type → server / virtualization. A server without a network cable (a tape library, a disk array over SAS/FC) is added with the + Add server / storage button above the map.

Things without a network

Licences, subscriptions, UPS units… go to Warranties and licences – NetPorta keeps an eye on when they end.

Details about Windows computers

The system version, latest updates, serial number and logged-in user are provided by the Windows agent (Devices and sources → Windows agent). It is a small script that only sends the information once an hour – it changes nothing on the PC.

In Map options → Layers and views turn on Devices and choose cards. Each switch then shows device cards – the ones from the top row of ports above the switch, the ones from the bottom row below it. A card shows the IP, MAC, user, warranty and when the device was last seen.

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• In Category choose what you want to see (e.g. only printers and cameras). Select all / Clear all with one click.
• Devices behind a small switch hang next to it, devices on a server next to the server.
• Save the finished setup as a view (e.g. “Cameras”) and next time turn it on with one click.
• Clicking a card opens the device detail, from where you also get to the Port settings of the port it is connected to.

With the Full / Simplified switch above the map you change to the simplified map (the default for read-only and inventory accounts). It shows only switches, firewalls, APs and the links between them, with small device icons at the ports. An orange exclamation mark = a device without a category. Click an icon to open a table with the details.

New categories: Camera recorder (NVR), Cash register / payment terminal, Intercom / doorbell, Thin client, Video conferencing and Building control (air conditioning, heating). You pick the category icon from a grid.

• Find – search by name, IP, MAC, user or port: where a device is connected. Quick search is also at the top (Ctrl + K).
• Network map – the whole network as a picture: switches, ports, cables, devices.
• Port list – all ports in a table: speed, VLAN, what is connected, notes, patch panels.
• End devices – all computers, phones, printers… with filters (online, new, not seen for a long time); import of names from DHCP.
• Printers – toner and paper levels, errors, number of printed pages; it also offers printers that are not monitored yet.
• Storage – NAS (QNAP, Synology): disks, RAID, usage, temperatures; it also offers storage that is not monitored yet.
• Problems – what needs attention: unreachable devices and ports with errors.
• Warranties and licences – when warranties, support and licences end, with an alert in advance.
• Devices and sources – adding switches, APs, firewalls, credentials and the Windows agent.
• Tools – ping, traceroute and nslookup run directly from NetPorta (you see the network through its eyes). Diagnostics for support – see When something does not work.
• Settings – alerts (e-mail, Zabbix, syslog), users, backups, updates, licence.
• Logging – what happened in the network: new devices, outages, logins, changes.
• Branches – on Main only: overview and adding of branches.

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Settings → Alerts and integrations: choose what you want to know about (a new unknown device, an uplink outage, a port problem, an expiring warranty, repeated failed logins…) and where to send it – e-mail, Zabbix or syslog. Everything is also written to Logging.

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NetPorta can save a switch's configuration once a day (over SSH, read-only). In the switch window → Configuration backups you see the saved versions and what changed between them (ports, VLANs).

NetPorta does not upload a backup to the switch – it is a reference for the technician, who uses it to set up the switch by hand, for example after a replacement or a reset.

The main NetPorta (Main) shows data from all branches. Add a branch in Branches → Add branch: a pairing code is created, which you enter in the NetPorta at the branch. The branch then sends its data to Main by itself (also over VPN).

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In the menu at the top left you choose which branch you are viewing. User accounts only need to be created once, on Main.

After purchase you receive a licence key by e-mail in the form NP-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

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1. In NetPorta, open Settings → General → Licence.
2. Paste the key into the Licence key field and click Activate. Within a minute the licence is installed automatically.
3. The licence is verified over the internet: once a day NetPorta asks the licence server and downloads update renewals at the same time. It sends only the licence key (or licence number), the installation ID, the version and an encrypted machine fingerprint – no data about your network.

Firewall: activation and verification need the firewall to let NetPorta out to the internet to smiratech.cz – HTTPS, TCP port 443 (a branch is verified through its headquarters). Verification must succeed at least once every 30 days; after that NetPorta warns you, and after 45 days without verification it becomes read-only – no data is lost and everything comes back by itself after a successful verification.

Network without internet access: by arrangement I will send you a licence for your installation ID (shown in the same place) as a .pmlic file valid for 12 months – upload it with the “Upload licence” button; it is renewed with a file again.

Restore from a backup on another machine (server replacement, failure, moving to another virtualization platform – with a backup): NetPorta notices that it runs elsewhere and works in full for 14 days; during that time, activate it again with your licence key (just enter it again in Settings → General → Licence).

A new installation without a backup has a new installation ID – write to me and send the new ID, and I will cancel the old activation.

Both count as a licence transfer – two transfers a year are free, further ones are charged as support. The original installation loses the licence. The same licence must not run on two NetPortas at once (e.g. a copy of the virtual machine) – NetPorta detects this and blocks the copy.

A switch looks odd, a device is missing, something is not being read? Send me a diagnostics file – it lets me find the cause without a long round of questions.

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1. Tools → Diagnostics for support (administrator account only).
2. Tick the device that has the problem (at most 5) – NetPorta reads it again straight away and attaches what it answered.
3. Click Download diagnostics and e-mail me the netporta-diag-….zip file with a short description of what is happening.

The diagnostics contain a copy of the database (map, ports, devices, events), the application status, the service log and the browser settings. They do not contain passwords, SNMP communities, SSH accounts, tokens, the licence key or configuration backups.

NetPorta finds and watches a lot by itself, but it does not know your company: it does not know who each computer belongs to, where the rack stands or when a warranty ends. People enter that information – and people move, computers get replaced, contracts end. That is why I recommend that one responsible person looks after NetPorta and spends a few minutes on it regularly:

• Every week (5–10 minutes): new devices (“new” in the top bar) – add name, category and user; Problems and 💡 tips.
• Every month: End devices without a name or category, devices not seen for a long time (retired? delete them or add a note), Warranties and licences – what ends in the coming months.
• With every change in the network (new switch, move, PC replacement): record it straight away – location, ports, notes, patch panels.
• Once a quarter: go through the map with someone who knows the network – does it match reality?

The more up to date the data, the more NetPorta helps: you find devices faster, alerts arrive on time and a technician does not search blindly during an outage.