Hey Simon,

Thanks for checking out PingPlotter.

PingPlotter at its core is the traceroute utility on steroids. It should help you in your troubleshooting once you get it set up and monitor all the devices on your network (which seems pretty extensive with 100 different nodes). It would also help to have it monitor traffic leaving your network as well. PingPlotter also does have an alert feature that you can set up for a variety of circumstances.

I would start by using the Local Network Discovery tool in PingPlotter to find every device connected to your network (Tools --> Scan for Local Devices). Then start a trace to all of these devices by hitting the Add All to Summary button in the bottom right. This will start a PingPlotter trace to every device. You’ll also want to start a trace to any public service, like 8.8.8.8 Google DNS.

The next step is to wait for your network to go down. This will likely show up in PingPlotter as a bunch of packet loss (red) and/or high latency spikes (black). Now for the “fun” part. Much like you did previously, you’ll need to start disconnecting your devices from the network one at a time and see if the network improves. You’ll know the network is improving in PingPlotter when you see the red start to disappear. If things aren’t improving, reconnect the device, and move on to the next. Do this until you find the one that is causing the network to fail.

I know this is a bit of a process but there isn’t really a magic silver bullet. Here are some articles you can read through to give you more details and ideas on how to proceed:

A Broadcast Storm Defined and How to Fix It
Find The Device Slowing Down Your Network
A Broadcast Storm Defined & How to Fix It

If you get some data and want to pick our brains on your situation you can reach out to us here on the forums or at support@pingman.com . If you have any specific questions about PingPlotter let me know and I’ll answer any questions you have.