I'm a network administrator for a small company, around 30 computers. I would like to monitor the usage.....

Question

I would like to monitor the usage of the internet of every user. Is there a good program that you can recommend me? Are there open source programs with these capabilities? if so please help. I did tryed out an iboss device but it slowed down the network so i would prefer a software.

Answer 1

A truly simple, easy method is as follows. I'm using Cisco gear, but I presume any vendor's equipment has similar capability. I note that this is NOT a long term solution, but it will give you some idea of what's going on.

Create an access-list which permits each source IP address to the internet, with a logging function on it. Send all the log messages to a SYSLOG server.

Collect the logs, dump them into Excel, then sort everything by the source address.

Within each IP address, sum all the bytes sent - and you have a poor man's log.

I usually do something different (BTW - I'm a CCIE consultant). I presume there is a content filter to ensure that users are not surfing black listed sites. So then ...

I create a classification list using access-lists such that responses to the world from my web site, ftp server, mail server, VPN, etc (i.e. - real work) has priority access to the internet connection. I then add a second class for internal access out to specific sites as required. Last I create a catch-all class for all other access. These are bundled into a priority queue, in the order shown above.

With the content filter keeping the users within surfing boundaries, and the class-list applied, real work gets priority, and only if there is any remaining bandwidth available do the users get to surf the general internet.

Works great. If they want to come in on the weekend and download, so what - the link is flat fee. On the other hand, if they want to do it during working hours, the real work gets the bandwidth, and internet surfing is SLOW !

I announce what has been done, and let the policy become it's own throttle.

Answer 2

Just look at the logs from your firewall- are you trying to track bandwidth usage or just websites visited?

Generally speaking, dedicated hardware devices are much faster than software; I'm not familiar with the Iboss but maybe it had some configuration issues that slowed things down so badly...

Answer 3

If the Internet is free, why monitor it? Even if you could monitor 30 computers at one time, would it make a diffrence? If your production is down, increase the work, and they will not have time to surf. If you want to limit the users, use your controls from the control panel.

Answer 4

Assuming all computers are networked thru a server and router then any any router monitor sofware such as WallWatcher will let you see what sites and ip's are being visited. Unapproved sites can then be blocked via the server or router firewall.

Answer 5

just curious as to why you have the need to monitor the internet usage of every user. Companies like yours are just shy of breaking privacy rights on this matter.

Answer 6

i suggest to use kerio winroute firewall