Endpoint Desktop Components

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Technical Summary

Catchpoint's Endpoint Monitoring feature collects performance data from end-user devices (Windows or Mac) related to their use of SaaS applications and other remote resources. These metrics are captured using the WebSee - Catchpoint User Experience desktop application and browser extension.

The desktop application does the following:

  • Communicates with Catchpoint 3gl.net servers for licensing, settings, and to transmit collected data
  • Informs the browser extension which domains to monitor/allowlist (per configuration in the Catchpoint Portal)
  • Runs ICMP traceroutes for network performance monitoring
  • Captures and reports device info including machine host name, CPU/RAM utilization, and a list of top processes by CPU/RAM utilization.
  • Runs instant and scheduled endpoint tests

The browser extension does the following:

  • Collects Employee App performance data such as HTTP request timings and page load time
  • Collects HTTP request transfer sizes
  • Collects JavaScript, browser, network, and HTTP errors

The bare minimum required to perform Endpoint Monitoring is the desktop application. On its own, this app can provide basic device information, and perform traceroutes and Endpoint Tests (scheduled or instant.) The browser extension is needed to collect Endpoint RUM data passively via an Employee App configuration.

Supported Platforms

Operating Systems

The following operating systems are currently supported for Endpoint Monitoring:

  • Windows Windows 10 or higher (partial support for Windows Server 2012 or later)
  • MAC OS macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later

Browsers

  • Chrome 43 or later

Footprint & Resource Utilization

The application takes up 23MB of disk space once installed with all components. The majority of this is used by the taskbar UI application, and the core application is about 5MB.

It collects and transmits three main types of data:

  • RUM data for each captured pageview – usually around 1kb per payload.
  • Traceroutes for each captured pageview – 250 to 500 bytes
  • Machine ram/cpu data – approximately 100 bytes (expected to increase as we add support for capturing more machine diagnostics)

The application posts the RUM payload whenever a webpage specified in an Employee App is viewed (per Employee App settings configured in the Catchpoint Portal.) A traceroute is performed for the first pageview of each session. Catchpoint also pulls configuration settings from each endpoint device every five minutes.

The cpu/ram utilization is minimal (under 1% CPU and 4MB RAM on average.) The application does not run continuously, so a given task only creates this small footprint momentarily (generally less than one second.)

Allowlisting Domains & IPs & Ports

The Catchpoint User Experience app makes requests to r.3gl.net which uses the following IPs:

63.251.235.39, 63.251.235.40, 63.251.235.41, 63.251.235.42, 63.251.235.43, 107.6.115.150, 107.6.115.151, 107.6.115.152, 107.6.115.153, 107.6.115.154, 63.251.112.74, 63.251.112.73, 63.251.112.75, 63.251.112.76, 63.251.112.77, 107.6.74.56, 107.6.74.58, 107.6.74.59, 107.6.74.60, 107.6.74.55, 173.231.186.87, 173.231.186.89, 173.231.186.88, 173.231.186.91, 173.231.186.90, 47.95.213.124, 101.132.166.251

Standard HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443) ports are used for Object tests, Bandwidth tests, and sending metrics to Catchpoint logger.

Bandwidth tests are run to Mlab servers. Catchpoint dynamically determines which server to test by making an API call to measurementlab.net to find the closest server. To allowlist or split-tunnel bandwidth tests, use the following domains: *.measurement-lab.org AND .*measurementlab.net

Note: For ICMP with raw sockets to run properly, an inbound firewall rule needs to be created in the Windows firewall on the Endpoint device. To create a rule go into the Windows firewall settings and follow these steps:

  1. Inbound rules > New Rule > Custom > All programs > Protocol type ICMPv4 > Customize > Specific ICMP Types
  2. Check “Time Exceeded” and “Destination Unreachable”

Data Security & Privacy

Catchpoint’s public security and data policy can be found here: https://www.catchpoint.com/trust

Installation Requirements

  • You must have admin privileges on the device(s) where you will be installing the desktop application and browser extension.
  • You must have a valid license key for Catchpoint's Endpoint Monitoring feature covering the number of endpoint devices you intend to monitor. If you install the endpoint components on more devices than your license allows, the excess devices will automatically be set to Inactive when they connect to the Catchpoint portal, and they will not be monitored. You can deactivate existing devices to free up licenses for new devices if needed.

For step by step instructions on installing the endpoint components, read Endpoint Component Installation.