Network monitoring and control - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: akis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 02:08:40 pm
content: I know this is not electronics related, marginally may be.Many times at home the network slows down and we have no idea what is causing it. As there are dozens of connected devices, ipads, phones, laptops, desktops, there is no way of telling who is doing a large download or upload or who's got a virus which is thrashing the network. Unfortunately all the routers I have come across, from all the known makes, do not offer any kind of monitoring or throttling for "fair" allocation of resources. I have had routers from 5 major broadband providers, and most do not even show you who is connected, let alone more important data or controls. Two out of five allowed time control settings, many have some sort of firewall where you can block/unblock certain IPs/MACs etc, but there is nothing I have ever seen about throughput and throttling.I have searched on the internet for network monitoring software, but there is not much around and what free (trial) I found was horribly complicated and literally unusable for what I wanted.Since the ADSL/cable modem router does not offer any such support, I was thinking there should be another router plugged in between this router and the rest of the network. This new router would have the software on it to allow easy monitoring of connected devices, with IP addresses and MACs (can you believe that many routers do not even show you this) as well as historical and current usage data. Something like task manager for windows, where you have a column "CPU TIME" which shows you how much time this application has spent since it started, and "CPU" which shows you how much it is spending now.If you have been in the same situation before and have solved the problem please tell me how

author: Fsck
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 02:25:21 pm
content: The only thing you should ever get (or have models specified for you) from your ISP is a modem.to just see connected devices, their connections, basic info, just a run of the mill consumer router running dd-wrt or open-wrt will do it.to get the task manager-like functionality probably requires you to move to a UTM-type device. you could roll a hardware appliance (aka, whateverPCyoufeellikebuying with >=2 ethernet ports - can get an acceptable rig for <200$ using new parts, less using older) and install a UTM/network appliance OS like pfSense or Sophos UTM Home Edition. (both free, haven't used pfsense in a while, don't think it'll do the detailed logging you want. Sophos kind of does, but it is a significantly more complex solution and may be more than you bargained for.)ideally, you'd change the settings in your ISP-provided box to make it pass-through everything and act as a dumb modem.

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 02:37:43 pm
content: Strange, the routers we get from SaskTel (and shaw) display a list of clients, mac and ip address, they have firewall options, and port forwarding, dmz, loads of stuff.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 24, 2014, 02:41:51 pm
content: QuoteIndeed. I only ever buy modems so that replacing the line-facing kit is cheap and simple. The routing part is the same whatever is fronting it, so I am never tied into some manufacturers crappy ideas on what they think I should want to do. When their kit expires, it's extremely unlikely anyone else will make something comparable enough that your config can be dropped straight on (or even typed in manually)...For routing here I use pfSense:http://www.pfsense.comYour only cost is the hardware, and this can be something like a PCEngines Alix (similar size to any off-the-shelf router) up to the latest quad-core i7 (bit of a waste, though). Just needs to be x86, so a VMWare or VirtualBox VM is fine.By default I think it won't tell you who is using what. It shows a real-time graph of throughput, and who it using it at that point, but it is transient data. However, you can run ntop on it, and that should provide the info you seek.There are built-in traffic shaping facilities, so the potential is there to restrict certain nodes in various ways.As an alternative, you could front your existing router with a managed switch (or unmanaged hub) and copy the router port to a monitoring port. Plug in a PC with Wireshark running and you'll get far more info that you'll know what to do with. Not really suitable for lengthy background monitoring, but if you want know what is going on it will show youeverything.