Traffic Monitor

[Stanley Hopcroft]

Dear Folks,

On Thu, Apr 22, 2004 at 10:43:03AM -0400, Arie Kachler wrote:
> Hi Spidey,
> 
> If you want full bells and whistles, 
> http://www.packeteer.com/prod-sol/products/packetshaper.cfm. This one 
> will let you do anything you want. Exprensive but worth it.
> 

if you want - perhaps - slightly less audio visual stimulation, the
Exinda appliance (http://www.Exinda.COM) is a cheaper alternative to the
Packeteer and also easier to set up.

The Exinda is a stoutly built beast with failover NICS. It runs Linux
and provides an LCD display, ssh and https interfaces. Reports are
downloadable PDFs or can be scheduled for delivery by mail. IIRC, data
can be downloaded in CSV format.

FWIW, all the products - ntop, Exinda, and ntop all have peculiarities
about data extraction. For example

 Exinda:     no SNMP; use web or mail 
 Packeteer:  SNMP but useless; use web
 Ntop:       web (or batch unloading of the RRDs)

A potential advantage of the appliance approach is that their reports
are less likely to be rejected by your provider. My employer uses ntop
(a fine product) but only for internal monitoring. BTW, there are some
FreeBSD specific gotcahs with ntop (possibly only with source install).

Another good cheap product is StatScout (http://www.StatScout.COM), a
FreeBSD based software product or possibly appliance. Doesn't do L4 or
above but can be used for accounting (usual role is performance and
utilisation monitoring).

Yours sincerely.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stanley Hopcroft
------------------------------------------------------------------------

'...No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a
manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know
for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee...'

from Meditation 17, J Donne.