Network Admins Use Quake to Troubleshoot Network Problems

Managing a corporate network can be an extremely tedious task, especially when things go bad because of a novice computer user. However, fixing errors got a little more fun with the advent of a new diagnosis and troubleshooting tool based on the popular Quake Arena game.

The software has been developed by a group of researchers at the Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, and is completely based on the Open Arena platform, an open-source computer game. The Quake III Arena derivative is able to display system events in a three-dimensional form, just like the older Doom game, once used to display the currently running processes.

Called the L3DGEWorld, the new piece of software goes deeper into the network than the archaic Linux-based Doom software developed by a researcher at the University of New Mexico. The researchers planned to create their own rendering engine, but they came up with the idea that Open Arena would do just fine with a couple of tweaks and adjustments.

The system allows researchers to visually monitor the status of a few server machines. As you can see in the attached video, the computers are represented by pyramids which can be customized with up to seven different ways to reflect their actual status. For instance, system administrators can use multiple colors, make them bounce, as well as have them rotate or change their shape.

Moreover, system administrators can interact with the servers using virtual tools, shaped as weapons. When shooting a server with one of the weapons, the system administrator would perform a specific action, such as locking down a firewall or getting further information about a system.

The network analysis tool is not only fun to use, but also takes interaction between the human and the machine to a completely new level. At the same time, network managers and system administrators can have all the vital data in plain view, in a comprehensive and intuitive manner.