<s>
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
(	O
alias	O
BB	O
)	O
was	O
a	O
tool	O
for	O
systems	O
and	O
network	O
monitoring	O
,	O
generally	O
used	O
by	O
system	B-Application
administrators	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
advent	O
of	O
the	O
dynamic	O
web	O
page	O
allowed	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
to	O
be	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
first	O
monitoring	O
systems	O
to	O
use	O
the	O
web	O
as	O
its	O
user	B-Application
interface	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Prior	O
to	O
this	O
,	O
monitoring	O
tools	O
were	O
generally	O
console	O
based	O
,	O
or	O
required	O
graphic	O
terminals	O
such	O
as	O
X	B-Operating_System
Window	I-Operating_System
to	O
operate	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
produces	O
HTML	B-Language
pages	O
containing	O
a	O
simple	O
matrix	O
of	O
hosts	O
and	O
tests	O
with	O
red	O
and	O
green	O
dots	O
to	O
denote	O
system	O
status	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
was	O
named	O
after	O
George	O
Orwell	O
's	O
character	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
from	O
his	O
novel	O
Nineteen	O
Eighty-Four	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
E-mail	O
from	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
originated	O
from	O
the	O
Ministry	O
of	O
Truth	O
,	O
and	O
users	O
of	O
the	O
software	O
were	O
called	O
Brothers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
designed	O
to	O
monitor	O
computer	O
systems	O
and	O
networks	B-Architecture
,	O
and	O
for	O
this	O
reason	O
does	O
not	O
use	O
SNMP	B-Protocol
natively	O
,	O
instead	O
using	O
a	O
client	B-Operating_System
–	I-Operating_System
server	I-Operating_System
model	I-Operating_System
and	O
its	O
own	O
network	O
communication	O
protocol	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Clients	O
send	O
status	O
information	O
over	O
port	O
TCP	B-Protocol
port	I-Protocol
1984	I-Protocol
(	O
possibly	O
a	O
reference	O
to	O
the	O
novel	O
1984	O
)	O
at	O
five-minute	O
intervals	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Since	O
the	O
clients	O
only	O
send	O
information	O
to	O
a	O
specific	O
monitoring	O
server	O
,	O
its	O
creators	O
claim	O
it	O
is	O
more	O
secure	O
than	O
SNMP-based	O
protocols	O
,	O
which	O
poll	O
clients	O
for	O
information	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
this	O
reason	O
,	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
was	O
featured	O
at	O
SANS	O
Institute	O
security	O
conferences	O
in	O
1998	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
has	O
also	O
been	O
cited	O
in	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
books	O
on	O
system	B-Application
administration	I-Application
,	O
computer	O
security	O
,	O
and	O
networking	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
application	O
supports	O
redundancy	B-Application
via	O
multiple	O
displays	O
,	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
failover	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
open-source	B-License
version	O
of	O
the	O
project	O
exists	O
:	O
between	O
2002	O
and	O
2004	O
it	O
was	O
called	O
bbgen	O
toolkit	O
,	O
between	O
2005	O
and	O
2008	O
it	O
was	O
called	O
Hobbit	B-Protocol
,	O
but	O
to	O
avoid	O
breach	O
of	O
trademark	O
,	O
it	O
was	O
renamed	O
Xymon	B-Protocol
which	O
is	O
still	O
in	O
development	O
and	O
use	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Sean	O
MacGuire	O
wrote	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
in	O
1996	O
after	O
he	O
received	O
what	O
he	O
believed	O
to	O
be	O
an	O
overpriced	O
quote	O
for	O
network-monitoring	O
software	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
August	O
1997	O
,	O
it	O
was	O
mentioned	O
in	O
an	O
article	O
by	O
Paul	O
Sittler	O
in	O
Linux	B-Application
Journal	O
Shortly	O
after	O
the	O
initial	O
release	O
,	O
Robert-Andre	O
Croteau	O
joined	O
MacGuire	O
and	O
added	O
notification	O
rules	O
,	O
which	O
he	O
described	O
in	O
a	O
Sys	O
Admin	O
article	O
published	O
in	O
September	O
1998	O
,	O
and	O
created	O
the	O
Windows	B-Application
version	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
1999	O
MacGuire	O
and	O
Croteau	O
started	O
the	O
company	O
BB4	O
Technologies	O
,	O
to	O
commercialize	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
Professional	O
Edition	O
(	O
BBPE	O
)	O
was	O
released	O
shortly	O
thereafter	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
two	O
versions	O
of	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
available	O
—	O
the	O
BTF	O
version	O
(	O
source-code	O
visible	O
)	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
pre-compiled	O
,	O
fully	O
commercial	O
,	O
professionally	O
supported	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
Professional	O
Edition	O
(	O
BBPE	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2009	O
,	O
they	O
released	O
the	O
"	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
—	O
Modern	O
Edition	O
"	O
,	O
an	O
Adobe	O
Flash-based	O
display	O
for	O
Big	B-Protocol
Brother	I-Protocol
,	O
and	O
formally	O
added	O
graphing	O
and	O
trend	O
monitoring	O
support	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
System	O
Information	O
including	O
(	O
processor	B-General_Concept
5-minute	O
load	O
average	O
,	O
disk	B-Device
usage	O
,	O
messages	O
critical	O
)	O
on	O
all	O
versions	O
of	O
UNIX	B-Application
,	O
Linux	B-Application
and	O
Windows	B-Application
operating	I-Application
systems	I-Application
,	O
via	O
native	O
clients	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SNMP	B-Protocol
tests	O
and	O
traps	O
are	O
supported	O
natively	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Custom	O
tests	O
,	O
generally	O
as	O
bash	B-Operating_System
scripts	I-Operating_System
,	O
although	O
other	O
languages	O
such	O
as	O
Perl	B-Language
are	O
supported	O
.	O
</s>
