Network Monitoring

[krazeecrw]

Hey all-

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any good network monitoring tools (under $50) that would allow me to see computers on my network and how much bandwidth each is using. We have a T1 line and periodically we have a slow down on the network normally due to somebody downloading a large file. It would be nice to have a tool to be able to show who might the culprits might be when such instances occur. I would need a tool that would be able to see all computers remotely so I do not have to install the program on each system.

Thanks for the help!

 

[JohnWill]

Good luck. Whatever tool you use will have to be watching at a "choke point" where all the Internet traffic goes by. Addressed traffic through a switch will only appear on the two port that are directing it from the source to the destination.

Perhaps you could tell us what type of network equipment you currently have. Your T1 firewall or gateway appliance may have monitoring capabilities.

 

[rhynes]

IPCOP is one that I use, it's a linux gateway with two nics. ALL traffic incoming and outgoing goes through this box is monitored. It's fully customizable. Quite a learning curve to it but I much prefer having monitoring done onsite rather than having someone else control it.

 

[JohnWill]

Yep, if you have a Linux Internet gateway, that is obviously an ideal place to monitor the Internet traffic.