Linux Tools for Internet Monitoring?

[Jay Nugent]

Greetings,

On Thu, 14 Jun 2007, Kirk wrote:

> I have recently put together an Ubuntu (full installation as available
> online) machine that I have tested and is working.  I have never gotten much
> past the novice stage with Linux but am competent.  Having said that, I am
> responsible for an Internet network in three buildings (approx 150 users)
> and the gateway modem to a VSAT system (1MB uplink/downlink, not shared).  I
> am not surprised as we have continued to increase bandwidth that it gets
> sucked up.  I am of the opinion that the nature of Internet behavior and
> design of websites which include lots of graphics is as much to blame for
> slow Internet performance as weather conditions or other unknowns that can
> affect VSAT systems.  My request for advice has to do with what tools are
> available, if any, on Linux that will allow me to monitor network behavior.
> Can I tell if one machine is dominating bandwidth utilization on YouTube,
> operating Skype or downloading movies/music/porno/whatever?  Can I tell if
> one of my machines has been co-opted by malicious code and sending out SPAM
> or anything else?  The VSAT Internet provider will send me very
> generic graphs on usage but nothing of value.  I would like to be able to
> respond with more information at hand when I get constant complaints about
> "the crappy Internet."  If I know that something else is going on, I can
> pinpoint my efforts at improving how we utilize the bandwidth that is
> available.
> 
> I'll take all suggestions and would be happy to contact anyone offline for a
> more specific conversation.  Thanks.

   I would recommend a package called "ntop".  This will sniff all the 
traffic across an ethernet segment and report, via a webpage, what hosts 
are being seen and what sites (web, mail, telnet, ftp, etc.) they are 
going to.  The tool can sort the output report by any parameter.  You can 
look at ALL the traffic going to your upstream connection (VSAT) or you 
can drill down to the individual host machines.  Very handy tool.  The 
kind of tool you DON'T want your manager looking at if you go places on 
the Net you aught not be going!

      --- Jay Nugent
          www.ISPmonitor.net

"Getting rid of terrorism is like getting rid of dandruff.  It cannot
 be done completely no matter how hard you try." -- Gore Vidal
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