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linux graph traffic for all LAN computers

We have a Debian linux based iptables firewall machine controlling access to the network. Occasionally we receive complaints that some users are having a hard time connecting to the Internet or that it is 'slow'. What we would like to do is be able to keep a historical graph for each host on the network (approx 50 computers) so when they complain we can look and see if there were any people using a lot of bandwidth at that time. Then we can decide what to do later.

Currently we use mrtg to graph the data in and out but we would like to be able to break that down per LAN computer. What tools are available to help us with that?

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amitnepal

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bdhtechnology

ASKER

mrtg is installed on the same linux box that runs the iptables firewall. I was searching the Internet for info on how to do this and found some info regarding snmp, but not being very familiar with snmp I wasn't sure that it would give me the results that I need. The problem is that the computers are owned by individuals and not by the company so we cannot install anything (or enable anything) on individual computers. Can snmp be used without enabling anything on the client machines?

It sounds like cacti or zabbix may be the best option for us.

amitnepal

Not if snmp is not already enabled, also in order to use snmp you would have to know the community string. zabbix can be a better option, because you can use your custom scripts or calculation and generate graphs on zabbix.

Thanks
Amit

bdhtechnology

ASKER

Thanks for the tip, while searching for examples on how to do what I am looking for in cacti and zabbix, I came across NfSen, which looks like it will do what I need it to: http://nfsen.sourceforge.net/

I am checking this out now.

To me it seems like there should be more tools for just this sort of thing. I would think that many people would want to see what computers on a network are using what kind of bandwidth at certain times, without requiring anything to be enabled/installed on the LAN client devices. Is this not a common thing people do?

amitnepal

Well ! really i have not found this situation common in my work experience because usually inside LAN, things are a little more trusted, controlled and owned. However, some cases could be like yours where you need to see the usage. But I think yes , nfsen seems to be useful in your case, it analyzes the netflow as it says.

Thanks
Amit