monitoring network trafic

Hi, just wondering if you know about any good solution that monitors network trafic and works with windows 7, I want to know what is happening on my wireless network, who is doing what etc, I have about 4-5 PCs connected and want to minitor how they use the network and who is taking the bandwidth, and who is connected. I tried using look@LAN but it seems it doesn't work very well for PCs that are firewalled, it doesn't even detect them, they still get an IP address from the router and connect to the internet but I have no way to monitor them or know they are actually using the network, thanks

what kind of router do you have? Using a router with special firmware is one of the best ways to monitor the network.

akramh said:

Hi, just wondering if you know about any good solution that monitors network trafic and works with windows 7, I want to know what is happening on my wireless network, who is doing what etc, I have about 4-5 PCs connected and want to minitor how they use the network and who is taking the bandwidth, and who is connected. I tried using look@LAN but it seems it doesn't work very well for PCs that are firewalled, it doesn't even detect them, they still get an IP address from the router and connect to the internet but I have no way to monitor them or know they are actually using the network, thanks

do you want just to know who is talking to who, or do you want to know every single bit of info?

There are applications that do both

Ken

First I want to know who is using the network, just to make sure nobody is on the network that I don't know of. I have a linksys WRT54GC, yeah with the C in the end it means I cannot run the tomato firmware.

once I know who is on the network, I want to know what are they doing, like what applications are they using, normal browsing or torrent or whatever they are doing, and how much bandwidth they are taking, that's all.

I have done some searches on google, and it does seem possible if I can run the tomato firmware but I can't run it on the WRT54GC . if i logon to the WRT54GC administrator console through the browser, I can check the IP addresses that have been given through DHCP, and some of them I can't ping and not sure who they are... here is a pic that shows the info I can see, but this is all I can see. I cannot even ping some of the unknown ones, could be a firewall blocking the ping duno

akramh said:

First I want to know who is using the network, just to make sure nobody is on the network that I don't know of. I have a linksys WRT54GC, yeah with the C in the end it means I cannot run the tomato firmware.

once I know who is on the network, I want to know what are they doing, like what applications are they using, normal browsing or torrent or whatever they are doing, and how much bandwidth they are taking, that's all.

I have done some searches on google, and it does seem possible if I can run the tomato firmware but I can't run it on the WRT54GC . if i logon to the WRT54GC administrator console through the browser, I can check the IP addresses that have been given through DHCP, and some of them I can't ping and not sure who they are... here is a pic that shows the info I can see, but this is all I can see. I cannot even ping some of the unknown ones, could be a firewall blocking the ping duno

All the data that goes into and out of a pc is sent and received in packets. from the packets you can tell what the machines mac address is, what their IP is, read their passords, uid, anything that is sent in clear text. the one thing a packet sniffer cannot do is tell if they are playing a game on the pc or opening a folder.
Anything external web browser, email, IM, can be decyphered by a packet sniffer. the biggest BUT is there is a big learning curve. They are hard to learn. there are several light weight sniffers like wireshark, or etherpeek NX. wireshark is free and easiest to use. there is tons of data so dont ask for everything be specific and they will be easier to use

I hope this has helped somewhat

Ken

Thanks for the info guys, I'll give wireshark a try I guess.
barman56, I don't have a Microsoft Live ID to download it, is there a way to get a trial version of that software? how do you get a Microsoft Live ID anyway?

live ID is free. just sign up using your e-mail address.

https://accountservices.passport.net...me.srf?lc=1033

EDIT - Or download the Network Monitor without signing up.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...6-3088333d062f

oh thanks how stupid of me, I already have a windows live ID! I misunderstood I thought your talking about something like technet lol thanks for the links guys.

also tried that Wireshark, v1.2 beta but it's a no go with Windows 7, I do have another PC i could try it with that's running XP though, so might do that, but since I can get a trial for Microsoft's own network monitor I will look into that first as it sounds promising!