When you launch PeakHour for the first time, the First Time Setup Assistant will appear to guide you through the setup process.

Setting up PeakHour involves a couple of steps, which the First Time Setup Assistant will walk you through:

  • Discovering your Internet router
    This is the most important, as PeakHour works best when it's monitoring your Internet throughput.

  • Monitoring your Mac
    You can optionally have PeakHour monitor your Mac's throughput too.
     
  • Setting up Connection Quality monitoring.
    Set up a monitor for the quality of your Internet connection. You can also set up additional monitors for specific sites, such as NetFlix.

  • Adding any additional compatible (SNMP-enabled) network devices.
    In this step you can add other network devices such as other Macs, PCs, WiFi access points, Network Attached Storage (NAS) or any other device that supports SNMP.


Search for Internet Router


In the first step, PeakHour will search for your Internet router. If the list is empty, don't worry - you may need to enable UPnP on your router first in order for it to be discoverable. Check your router's manual and setup interface for an option labeled UPnP or sometimes Universal Plug & Play and ensure it is enabled. You may need to restart your router and / or PeakHour in order for it to become visible.





Some routers do not fully implement the UPnP spec, or implement it badly. PeakHour will do it's best to validate the information being reported by your router and indicate whether it appears valid or not. If you see the router as Reporting, that means it is reporting back the information that PeakHour needs. For information on troubleshooting UPnP, check out these FAQs: UPnP Troubleshooting.

Choose What to Monitor


In the first screen, you get to choose the monitors that will be added:

  • Monitor Internet via Your-Router-Model
    If a router was found and reporting was detected in the previous step, this checkbox will set up a monitor for it. If you don't wish to add a monitor, uncheck this box.
  • Search for additional devices
    Checking this will prompt you to search for additional devices later on in First Time Setup.
  • Monitor this Mac
    Checking this will prompt you to set up monitoring of this Mac later on in First Time Setup.
  • Enable Usage Monitoring
    Enabling this will enable Usage Monitoring of either your Internet Router or - if that was not found - this Mac.

On the second screen, you'll be prompted to enable Connection Quality monitoring:

  • Monitor Internet connection quality.
    Sets up a monitor of your Internet Connection quality. It assumes that the 2nd hop from your Mac is the other side of your Internet connection. If your network is more complex, you can change this later.
  • Monitor connection to ...
    Optionally set up a additional monitors to specific sites, such as fast.com (Netflix). You can customize the destination later on in Preferences.

 

Additional Steps

In this step, depends on whether you checked the options back in Choose What to Monitor, you may be prompted to search for additional devices or set up monitoring of this Mac.

Monitor this Mac

If you opted to monitor this Mac, this step will guide you through:

  1. Enabling SNMP.
  2. Configuring PeakHour to monitor your Mac's network interface (WiFi, Ethernet etc).

Note: this step is slightly different depending on whether you purchased PeakHour from the Mac Appstore, or direct from us. If you're using the Mac Appstore version, sandboxing restricts PeakHour from performing the necessary steps to enable SNMP. If you're using the direct version, this step happens automatically. See Monitor This Mac for step-by-step instructions.

Search for Additional Devices

This step opens the Configuration Assistant to allow you to configure additional devices, such as SNMP-compatible routers, servers, PCs, Macs etc. To add more than one device, complete the First Time Setup wizard, open Preferences and click the '+' button in Targets.

PeakHour Remote

Finally, this option allows you to choose whether or not to enable PeakHour Remote. Enabling PeakHour Remote lets you monitor PeakHour from another PC, Mac, phone or tablet. For more information, visit the PeakHour Remote page.

Finish

Once you're done, click Finish to enable your configuration and start monitoring.

Next Steps

Now that PeakHour is running, here are some additional resources to help you use PeakHour:

  • To open PeakHour and view your monitors, click the menu bar area or the Dock icon to open PeakHour. For detailed instructions and explanation of the interface, visit this page.
  • To read more about PeakHour's many options, visit Preferences.