Usage monitoring software

Berserker

Berserker

Berserker

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Joined
4 Nov 2002
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West Berkshire
I need a utility that will allow me to determine how much internet bandwidth I'm using, and when I'm using it. I'd like actual figures, not graphs, and I'm after the numbers my ISP would see (or at least as close as possible), so it needs to work with my router (SNMP is available).

Open source is best, but I'll pay if the price is right. Linux, OS X, Windows, all fine with me.
 
As far is I know there is no way you can do it fro a single PC, it would have to work either on the router or on a (linux?) firewall or some other device that ALL the bandwidth goes though, but otherwise theres plenty of them about, and most linux based firewalls servers routers etc will have it build in or easily obtainable.
 
PRTG will do this I think - there is a freeware version which allows 10 sensors: http://www.paessler.com/prtg. It seems to be pretty accurate for me, it might not be 100% accurate though as it only polls every x seconds and calculates an average I think.

You'd be able to get a more accurate reading with PRTG if you poll every 1 second, but that might put some strain on the router.

I might be wrong though, it might calculate the bandwidth usage accurately.
 
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@Stoned_SpaZZZ:

On the router isn't an option (no firmware support, no upgrade path). On a Linux router is an option, but one I'd rather explore as a last resort.

However, I know it can be done, but I'm only getting graphs out of the tool I'm using and they're no use to me. If I get desperate, I'll throw something together in PHP/MySQL, but I'd rather not have to.

@Craig321:

Will look into PRTG to see if it'll produce the reports I need.
 
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PRTG also has packet sniffing so you can collect data on the computers on your network that are using the bandwidth. Might be worth looking on their website to find out how to set up accurate bandwidth monitoring.

Netflow might also be worth looking at if you're willing to purchase PRTG - you'll need to find out if your router supports it though.
 
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On the Linux side, there's PRTG/Cacti. Both keep their data in RRD, so you can really do with it what you like (besides the graphs they churn out).
 
@Craig321:

No support for Netflow. I don't think packet sniffing will be very useful given that most of the traffic on my network goes via Linux. In any event, all I really need is the totals. Looks like PRTG Traffic Grapher might be what I want.

@tolien:

As it happens, I've already got as far as getting the data into an RRD file:

snmp_draytek_markvgray_com_if_1-day.png


If there's a more useful way of getting the data back out, that'll be great.

PS - I know about the gaps in that data - that monitoring is done from outside my network and sometimes I get time-outs doing that. Moving the monitoring local would fix that.
 
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How does that PRTG app work? The only way I can think it works is ARP spoof like sniffing way, and wouldnt this be quite inaccurate if people have certain firewalls etc that will prevent spoofing, along with SSL / IPsec type connections ?
 
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Cacti successfully installed (eventually). As well as the pretty graphs, it looks like it'll dump data to CSV which I can then import into Excel to play with.

I'll give it a day and then see if it'll tell me the information I need to know - which is how likely I am to get capped to hell and back if I move from Be to Virgin.

Thanks all. :)
 
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