Monitoring DSL usage

E

extremist

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2006
Messages
106
Reaction score
0
Location
void main()
I'm looking for a way to accurately track how my ADSL is being used. I have 2-6 PCs connected to it at any given time so its difficult to see where all the bandwidth is going. I'm also not trying to police the household using it... we'd all like to know what's chowing our cap :p

I don't know if this has been discussed on the boards before but I couldn't find a relevant thread (though I did find ant1b0dy's app that displays the stats on userstats.adsl.saix.net in pretty graphs -- great app! and yes I know its stickied :p).

Is there a semi-easy way of doing this? I know of some cool kung fu you can pull with *Nix-based OSes and iptables but I don't have a dedicated GNU/Linux box at my disposal :(
 
I use BW Meter - iirc you can set one machine to be a master and have the other machines report their usage to it.
 
Limited success

Hi

I think I may have under-specced what I'm trying to do (don't all users do that ;)).

BW Meter does have limited usage aggregation support, but not quite the server/client thing. It can report on all traffic on the network, provided everyone is in the same collision domain (I think that's the correct term), of course. That is as soon as traffic goes through a router or switch, BW Meter's capability to monitor all traffic goes out the window.

We use a 4-port wireless router to which 2-4 machines connect with a cable and 1-3 notebooks connect to wirelessly. The machines connecting with good 'ol CAT-5 (desktops) run Windows. None of the notebooks connecting wirelessly run Windows. Mine runs Debian and the others are all Macs.

I have a sneaky suspicion the Mac users are causing us to haemorrhage bandwidth because many of them are from less broadband-challenged states.

I would like to be able to monitor in as much detail as possible, where the bandwidth is going. At the very least I'd like to be able to see a per-MAC address report of bandwidth usage. Being able to log exactly where each computer was browsing to / downloading from would be even nicer.

Regards
 
Look at Zone CD

This may not be what you are looking for, but I have used it with great success. Look at their web site. You slap a linux box between the network (Wireless AP and hub) and the ADSL modem. This work for wired and wireless connections. There are several options, including controled logins. I use it to measure who uses how much up and down band width. I do not police, alltough you can if you want to. The box runs off a dedicated Linux CD, no HDD and headless with 2 NIC's and is free. And you can use any old box. AND IT WORKS VERY WELL - for me at least!!

Any way read all about it: http://www.publicip.net

Paul
 
Look at Zone CD

This may not be what you are looking for, but I have used it with great success. Look at their web site. You slap a linux box between the network (Wireless AP and hub) and the ADSL modem. This work for wired and wireless connections. There are several options, including controled logins. I use it to measure who uses how much up and down band width. I do not police, alltough you can if you want to. The box runs off a dedicated Linux CD, no HDD and headless with 2 NIC's and is free. And you can use any old box. AND IT WORKS VERY WELL - for me at least!!

Any way read all about it: ]http://www.publicip.net

Paul
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X