What data can I use to monitor staff's data usage.

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Japster

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What Software can I use to monitor staff's data usage.

I have a small business running 3 pc's pn a network, all of them using Windows 7. I have a problem that my staff is over using our data cap every month, and I just do not seem to get out with my cap. So can anyone please suggest software with which I can monitor my data usage per computer and if it is possible see what is being downloaded by whom
 
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Speak to your staff, tell them not to abuse the internet connection for downloading or other personal nonsense. And you should probably consider uncapped anyway.
 
Uncapped is the cheapest solution. Anything more will cost you significantly more in purchases and support. So depending on if their productivity is suffering because of this you will have to pick one or the other.
 
I use a Dell GX280 running Kerio Control for this exact reason.
Can shape users, monitor them in real time, report on them, etc... works well.
Similar to untangle but a lot cheaper (when you consider the add-ons you must subscribe to).
Another good option is ClearOS.
 
Im considering to get an uncapped package, but still need to be able to monitor my staff, because then no work will get done. I will take a look at ClearOS, Kerio Control and Untangled.
 
You can use SmoothWall on an old machine to do throttling and monitoring. You should be able to get pretty good SmoothWall on this forum or on the official SmoothWall forum.

Another alternative would be to use a MikroTik Routerboard. Even the cheap RB750 (costs less than R500) would allow you to give people equal bandwidth, set up quotas, etc.
One thing though: the MikroTik devices aren't as intuitive to setup advanced stuff like rate limiting - but again you'll be able to set up your thing pretty well with assistance from this forum and the official MikroTik support forum.

At my office we have a few MikroTik RB1100/1200's and we use them to give priority to our server & other important traffic and then the rest gets divided equally amongst the users. We have a 5Mbps up/5Mbps down Fiber connection with an uncapped account, so we don't really worry about quotas, although we do encourage people not to watch youtube and downloading of torrents during the day.
We have actually given people an AUP (Acceptable Usage Policy) or similar kind of document with regards to all electronic communication, which includes privacy related things as well.
 
You should be able to get it from your local computer dealer or online. Just be careful of the version. The v1 and v2 work. (3800 v1) Look on the Gargoyle web site. It works with other devices as well, just make sure it has enough memory and power to work properly (thus the Netgear WNDR 3700 or 3800) and look on the forum to see if it works successfully if you want to try another router. (I also got it working on my WNR2000 v2 Netgear which is a cheaper option)

Mike Smit said:
This looks interesting. Where did you get your router?
Click to expand...
 
How big is the cap you currently have and what kind of Internet Applications is your staff approved to use? (E-mail? Web Browsing? Online backups?)
 
Japster said:
Im considering to get an uncapped package, but still need to be able to monitor my staff, because then no work will get done. I will take a look at ClearOS, Kerio Control and Untangled.
Click to expand...

There is the problem. Either they do not have realistic goals, or incentives are calculated unfairly, and thus they do not feel their work will make a difference to how their performance is measured.

But, monitoring is always a good idea in any case. It is just easier if you can trust your employees to do their work first though.
 
If you dont wanna setup a gateway server and its less than a handful of computers... install netlimiter.
 
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