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Big Brother (software)
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<h2 id="background">Background</h2> <p>Sean MacGuire wrote Big Brother in 1996 after he received what he believed to be an overpriced quote for network-monitoring software. He introduced it in an article for <i>Sys Admin</i> magazine in October 1996.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> In August 1997, it was mentioned in an article by Paul Sittler in <i><a href="/facts/Linux_Journal/m7rosgex">Linux Journal</a></i><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> Shortly after the initial release, Robert-Andre Croteau joined MacGuire and added notification rules, which he described in a <i>Sys Admin</i> article published in September 1998,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> and created the <a href="/facts/Microsoft_Windows/bwhAhuSL">Windows</a> version. </p><p>In 1999 MacGuire and Croteau started the company BB4 Technologies, to commercialize Big Brother. They licensed the product under what they called the "Better than Free" or BTF license - "better" because 10% of the license fee went to the charity of the purchaser's choice.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> </p><p>In 2001 Quest Software acquired BB4 Technologies.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> MacGuire and Croteau, the only employees of BB4, later went to work at <a href="/facts/Quest_Software/lNUrFVqJ">Quest Software</a> and continued to work on the product. The Big Brother Professional Edition (BBPE) was released shortly thereafter. In January 2012, MacGuire left Quest software and is no longer associated with the product he created. Quest Software was acquired by <a href="/facts/Dell/wLlYNTMM">Dell</a> in 2012 to form <a href="/facts/Dell_Software/6Vq6NmVv">Dell Software</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a> In June 2016, Dell announced the sale of their software division, including the Quest business, to <a href="/facts/Francisco_Partners/yw8r1hHK">Francisco Partners</a> and <a href="/facts/Elliott_Management_Corporation/vXrnUjjv">Elliott Management Corporation</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19"><sup>19</sup></a> On October 31, 2016, the sale was finalized. On November 1, 2016, the sale of Dell Software to Francisco Partners and Elliott Management was completed and the company re-launched as Quest Software.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20"><sup>20</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="versions">Versions</h2> <p>There are two versions of Big Brother available — the BTF version (source-code visible), and the pre-compiled, fully commercial, professionally supported Big Brother Professional Edition (BBPE). In 2009, they released the "Big Brother — Modern Edition", an <a href="/facts/Adobe_Flash/3Lrp9JuH">Adobe Flash</a>-based display for Big Brother, and formally added graphing and trend monitoring support. </p> <h2 id="testing">Testing</h2> <ul><li>Network services — Any TCP network service can be tested for availability, including (<a href="/facts/Internet_Control_Message_Protocol/VnrV56J0">ICMP</a> (Ping), <a href="/facts/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol/TWtvf7JD">HTTP</a>, <a href="/facts/Post_Office_Protocol/QCp6qJQm">POP3</a>, <a href="/facts/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol/TeCRKDpJ">SMTP</a>, <a href="/facts/File_Transfer_Protocol/THuWgzfw">FTP</a>, <a href="/facts/Secure_Shell/wjVRw5zv">SSH</a>)</li> <li>System Information including (<a href="/facts/Central_processing_unit/Jxp1bqMV">processor</a> 5-minute load average, <a href="/facts/Hard_disk_drive/kekLSGSE">disk</a> usage, messages critical) on all versions of UNIX, Linux and Windows <a href="/facts/Operating_system/8XTuvMh2">operating systems</a>, via native clients.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Simple_Network_Management_Protocol/UNYPVA1C">SNMP</a> tests and traps are supported natively.</li> <li>Custom tests, generally as <a href="/facts/Bash_(Unix_shell)/RrYLtEJT">bash scripts</a>, although other languages such as <a href="/facts/Perl/fx31kjlT">Perl</a> are supported.</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: <i>System Monitoring with Xymon</i> <ul><li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100305154503/http://www.bb4.org/">www.bb4.org</a> — Big Brother BTF version site</li> <li><a href="https://www.xymon.com/">https://www.xymon.com/</a> - Current Xymon site.</li></ul> <h3>Further reading</h3> <ul><li><a href="http://www.usenix.org/publications/login/2000-8/features/monitoring.html">:login</a>; <i>System and network monitoring using Big Brother</i></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100305223518/http://www.itmanagement.com/features/10-open-source-network-tools-052407/">IT Management</a> IT Management: <i>10 great open source network tools</i></li> <li><a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/big-brother-is-watching-your-network/">Techrepublic</a> <i>Big Brother is watching your network</i></li> <li><a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/automate-your-network-monitoring-process/">Techrepublic</a> <i>Automate your network monitoring process</i></li> <li><a href="http://sunsite.uakom.sk/sunworldonline/swol-07-1998/swol-07-security.html">Sun World</a> <i>Report from SANS '98</i></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110612105551/http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6347339.html">Cisco Patent</a> US Patent 6347339 <i>Detecting an active network node using a login attempt</i></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>MacGuire, Sean (3 March 1997). "Commercial Version of bb?". Big Brother (Mailing list). Archived from the original on 18 January 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2010. <a href="https://archive.today/20130118064650/http://support.bb4.com/archive/199707/msg00014.html" target="_blank">https://archive.today/20130118064650/http://support.bb4.com/archive/199707/msg00014.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>MacGuire, Sean; Robert Andre Croteau (May 1999). Big Brother is Watching (PDF). Monterey, California: SANS Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-08-21. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060821071017/http://www.bb4.org/bbsans98.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20060821071017/http://www.bb4.org/bbsans98.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>MacGuire, Sean; Robert Andre Croteau (May 1999). Big Brother is (Still) Watching (PDF). Baltimore, Maryland: SANS Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-02-04. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040204135837/http://www.bb4.org/bbsans99.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20040204135837/http://www.bb4.org/bbsans99.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>MacGuire, Sean; Robert Andre Croteau (August 2001). System, Network and Security Monitoring using Big Brother (PDF). Washington, D.C.: SANSFIRE Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-08-21. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060821071017/http://www.bb4.org/bbsans98.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20060821071017/http://www.bb4.org/bbsans98.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>Horwitz, Jeff (2002). Unix system management: primer plus. Sams Publishing. p. 169. ISBN 0-672-32372-9. <a href="0-672-32372-9" target="_blank">0-672-32372-9</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Well, Nicholas (2000). Guide to Linux installation and administration. Cengage Learning EMEA. p. 548. ISBN 0-619-00097-X. <a href="0-619-00097-X" target="_blank">0-619-00097-X</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Bookman, Charles (2003). Linux Clustering: Building and Maintaining Linux Clusters. Sams Publishing. p. 178. ISBN 1-57870-274-7. <a href="1-57870-274-7" target="_blank">1-57870-274-7</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Mancil, Tony (2002). Linux routers: a primer for network administrators. Prentice Hall. p. 248. ISBN 0-13-009026-3. <a href="0-13-009026-3" target="_blank">0-13-009026-3</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Andrés, Stephen (2004). Security Sage's guide to hardening the network infrastructure. Syngress. p. 252. ISBN 1-931836-01-9. <a href="1-931836-01-9" target="_blank">1-931836-01-9</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Northcutt, Stephen (2003). Inside network perimeter security. New Riders Publishing. p. 678. ISBN 978-0-672-32737-7. <a href="978-0-672-32737-7" target="_blank">978-0-672-32737-7</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Mauro, Douglas (2005). Essential SNMP. O'Reilly Media. p. 400. ISBN 0-596-00840-6. <a href="0-596-00840-6" target="_blank">0-596-00840-6</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>"www.xymon.com website". www.xymon.com. Retrieved 2019-10-18. <a href="https://www.xymon.com/" target="_blank">https://www.xymon.com/</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>MacGuire, Sean (October 1996), "Big Brother: A Web-based Unix Network Monitoring and Notification System", Sys Admin, pp. 1–6 <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Sittler, Paul (August 1, 1997), "Big Brother Network Monitoring System", Linux Journal <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2225" target="_blank">http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2225</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Croteau, Robert-Andre (September 1998), "BBWARN: A Notification Extension for Big Brother", Sys Admin, vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 1–6 <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>MacGuire, Sean (2001). "better than free / charities". Archived from the original on 12 February 2001. Retrieved 4 March 2010. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010212095439/http://maclawran.ca/~sean/bb-dnld/charity.html" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20010212095439/http://maclawran.ca/~sean/bb-dnld/charity.html</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>"Quest Software Acquires BB4 Technologies, Creators of Big Brother System and Network Monitor; Acquisition Strengthens Quest Software's Monitoring Business". Press release. Business Wire (bnet). 2002-03-13. Retrieved 2010-03-03. <a href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_March_13/ai_83728629/" target="_blank">http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_March_13/ai_83728629/</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:18"><p>"Dell to Acquire Quest Software". www.businesswire.com. 2 July 2012. Retrieved 2017-11-16. <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120702005389/en/Dell-Acquire-Quest-Software" target="_blank">http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120702005389/en/Dell-Acquire-Quest-Software</a> <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:19"><p>Miller, Ron. "Confirmed: Dell sells software division to Francisco Partners and Elliott Management". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-16. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/20/confirmed-dell-sells-software-division-to-francisco-partners-and-elliott-management/" target="_blank">https://techcrunch.com/2016/06/20/confirmed-dell-sells-software-division-to-francisco-partners-and-elliott-management/</a> <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:20"><p>"Quest Launches as an Independent Software Company Backed by Francisco Partners and Elliott Management". www.businesswire.com. November 2016. Retrieved 2017-11-16. <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161101005616/en/Quest-Launches-Independent-Software-Company-Backed-Francisco" target="_blank">http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161101005616/en/Quest-Launches-Independent-Software-Company-Backed-Francisco</a> <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>