Program For Logging Network Traffic


  1. Posts : 138
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
       #1

    Program For Logging Network Traffic


    Hey Everyone!

    Some Background:
    I run a file server that I use Windows 7 on (for now) with a RAID array and Teamed NIC's. I take this server to LAN parties and the like and use it as a Steam games backup and distribution center for all the participants at the LAN.

    Basically, I backup my entire Steam library to it and make those backups available for anyone to grab if they don't have a specific game installed and would like to play it during the event. This saves a huge amount of Internet usage for us since people downloading 5-30 GB Steam games all day takes forever when you've got 100 people trying to download at once.

    These are all placed into a "Steam Backup" directory and shared to the network with Read-only access.

    On top of this, I create a "Steam Backup Dropbox" share that has Read and Write access (but not modify). I allow people to place their own Steam game backups in here and once complete, I manually move them into the Steam Backup directory for everyone to share.

    Keep in mind, this is all completely legitimate since you need to have the game owned and associated with your Steam account in order to play the game. Even if you take a backup and restore it to your machine without owning it, Steam won't let you launch it since it knows you don't own it.

    Onto my question:
    I would like to be able to monitor the total amount of data transferred into and out of this server. If possible, I'd like to be able to log the network activity for specific shares such as "Steam Backup" and "Steam backup Dropbox" so I can see how much data was sent/received from each.

    I would also like to log the computer names/hostnames of the computers accessing the files so I know who is accessing files on the LAN. If computer name isn't loggable, IP address works as well.

    If its possible, I would also like to log if a file transfer completes or not. Since Steam Backups are effectively 1 directory per game, if I could log how many times a directory is transferred completely that would be awesome. Seeing how many times a transfer fails/doesn't complete would also be nice.

    So in summary I'm looking for a program that lets me:

    • Log network traffic (send/receive totals)
      • For specific shares if possible
    • Log file access (who accessed which specific files)
      • Log which computer name/host name/IP accesses which files
    • Log file transfer complete/incomplete/failure for specific directories

    If anyone knows of anything like this, please let me know!
      My Computer


  2. 2xg
    Posts : 2,377
    Win7 & Win8 64bit
       #2

    Hi there,

    Check out ShareWatch and other freeware here:
    4 ways to monitor who is accessing your shared folders/files | Reviews, news, tips, and tricks | dotTechdotTech

    Please let us know if this is what you were looking for.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 138
    Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    I found that page in my Google search already, I'm asking here because my Google-fu has failed me and I'm looking for a much more in-depth logging ability than anything I've found on Google provides.

    Net Share Monitor is the closest one to what I need from that page (as it's the only one that logs anything). However I don't believe it monitors the actual data transfer amounts from the shares. I'm looking for a log of how many bytes of a certain share have been transferred and where they have been transferred to.
      My Computer


 

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