Topic awaiting preservation: network monitoring tools?

was wondering what programs and such anyone has used that they like that will monitor network traffic. It would also be nice for some type of diagnostic tool that can find trouble spots.

I would like to have something that can show me where the traffic is going on our network at the office. We are supposed to be on our own T1 line but man....our network sometimes just crawls! The servers are running 2k server and the workstations are running xp pro and 2k pro.

Thanks in advance!

Later,

C:\

only thing i know is:
http://www.nullsoft.com/free/netmon/

its pretty dated, so probably not what you want. :P

CPrompt,

I'm not sure what kind of network monitoring you want to do. I assume this is for work so you want something a little more than just a meter to see the number of bits being transmitted on your NIC.

I find Ethereal to be a very useful monitoring program when I want to see exactly what is happening on my network. Take a look at it. There are versions for Linux and Windows.

.



-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

Oh yes. I was going to sugget Ethereal


Justice 4 Pat Richard

thanks for the info. Now I'm just going to have to learn how to use that thing. hahaha.

Did find a pretty cool (feature rich) app. http://manageengine.adventnet.com/products/opmanager/
It ain't cheap though!

Later,

C:\

Another one, that follows in netmon's.. traceroute?

Pardon the language, it's not mine:

http://www.cockos.com/assniffer/

Another unmarketable title by Justin Frankel.

Ethereal should work, although the performance monitors in Windows can go quite a ways towards what's going on. If you're using managed switches such as some of the Dell PowerConnect or the Cisco stuff, you can use some of the built in tools to show what's happening. Most of them will show the error stats as well, which might be causing some problems.

On a hunch, check your SMTP queues and make sure you're not being used (or attempted) as a relay. That'll choke down some bandwidth.

So will those streaming radios.

Also, you should not that although T1 is taken to be a big powerful thing, it's only a 1Mbit (or thereabouts) leased line. Most networks run at a minimum of 10mbit.s Traccifc between remote sites and your local network will always be a hell of a lot slower, no matter what.


Justice 4 Pat Richard

Also, you should not that although T1 is taken to be a big powerful thing, it's only a 1Mbit (or thereabouts) leased line. Most networks run at a minimum of 10mbit.s Traccifc between remote sites and your local network will always be a hell of a lot slower, no matter what.


Justice 4 Pat Richard

Ethereal is great, but you have to separate the wheat from the chaff since you will be sniffing everybody's traffic.

Since you mentioned the T1 (which is 1.54Mbits), I am assuming you mean internet traffic and not traffic on your local lan. One thing you can do is turn off uPnP which is on by default on Windows XP. This basically sends out multicast packets in order to discover Plug-n-Play network devices so that the pc can automatically install the drivers for them.

A nice feature for your home network, but all those mcast packets add up on a corporate LAN. They shouldn't propagate past your router or the CSU/DSU, but they may congest traffic for you.

If you have access to your gateway router, and it's Cisco, then you can use Netflow to monitor network traffic. It's a pretty involved solution, and a google search will net you more information than you'll ever read on the subject.