Network monitoring for Windows?

[kalkal 476]

Hi all, just wondered, is there any sort of tool for either Windows/Mac/Android for monitoring network traffic on my entire network? My router doesn't support this natively, and I'd like to figure out which devices are using bandwidth at any given time.

 

Thinking about it, I do have a raspberry pi too, so if there's any distro that I could just plug in to do this, it could be super helpful.

 

Thanks.

[Xahid 5,309]

For monitoring entire network, you need to set SNMP in your router or gateway, I think most of the  router have snmp support.

Once set, than you can use any SNMP based tool to monitor your entire network traffic.

[+BudMan 3,368]

What specific router are you using, and or what switch?

 

There are few ways to skin this specific cat - but need to understand how your setup..

 

So one method, you span the port between your switch and router

 

This would allow you to report on all traffic to and from the internet

 

Depending on the feature set of your switch - could could send the flows of traffic from all on the switch so you could report on internet and traffic between any device on the switch

 

 

There are different protocols to accomplish this depending on the feature set of your specific switch.. SNMP sure could be used to just view the ports stats on traffic, or something like sFlow.

 

What router do you have?  While the native firmware might not support the functionality your looking for, its possible 3rd party firmware does, etc.

 

There are LOADS of different tools you could use - here couple of examples running on my network for different reasons and functions.

 

Again there are bajillion was to skin this cat.. Once if we have a better idea of hardware your working with we can figure out the best way to get the info your after.

 

 

At the level of detail your looking for.

 

 

The possibilities are almost endless

[kalkal 476]

My router is a Sky ER115, Sky Fibre, make it as difficult as possible to use a 3rd party router/modem, therefore to my knowledge, anything I do to monitor network usage will need to go through a 2nd piece of hardware before hitting the rest of my network.  SNMP not supported

 

[+BudMan 3,368]

So you have no switch?   And if your wifi is off that device your going to be pretty much out of luck other than doing monitoring on the devices themselves.

 

If your to the point where your wanting such monitoring, its prob going to mean you upgrade your hardware that is more feature rich.  A smart switch that has the ability to at min span ports - so you can tap off traffic and send it to something like even a pi that could run software to report on traffic details.. And an AP or APs that allow for such monitoring.. Or atleast the ability to grab info from them via something as basic as snmp... Even the dumbest of dumb wifi router that you could just use as AP connected to switch with some feature would allow you to monitor atleast "total" wifi traffic flowing through the switch port the ap is connected to.

 

You don't have to spend a shitton of money to do this.. A pi and a decent smart switch, and then something to use as AP that is not all tied up into your isp box.. Would allow for a ton of detail to your traffic flow.  A switch that allows for span ports is like $40..

 

 

[Circaflex 3,505]

@BudMando you have a unifi gateway setup so you can see the traffic stats in the unifi controller?

[+BudMan 3,368]

No while I do have one sitting on my shelf, I had to use it for a bit until my new pfsense box got off back order... And its an ok box for the price - but its like being used to driving a Porsche, here drive this yugo.. It has 4 wheels and an engine... Same thing

 

But the OP sure if used that and one of their AP he would have full details of his traffic flow.

 

edit:  So it wasn't on my shelf, it was out in the garage   But I have grabbed it and will update it to the latest firmware.. But quick google and still don't see any sort of monitor/bridge mode.. Seems you can disable nat but have to do it via cli.. Which is not a big deal... But if could put it bridge mode and just monitor traffic flow with it might be viable for that function..

 

But for my lazy sunday afternoon project going to get it current with the latest and greatest and see how far they have come with since I put in the shelf