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Home Network Software

C

CS5679

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 18, 2011
21
0
Need some network software that can:

1.) Watch network traffic coming into my home network (a.k.a security)
2.) Monitor computer internet activity, (a.k.a what sites they are visiting on the internet, allows option to adjust how much bandwidth each computer uses)

Any suggestions? The software can be free, or commercial. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
CS5679 said:
1.) Watch network traffic coming into my home network (a.k.a security)
Click to expand...

Wireshark. FYI; monitoring network traffic provides no "security."

2.) Monitor computer internet activity, (a.k.a what sites they are visiting on the internet, allows option to adjust how much bandwidth each computer uses)
Click to expand...

OpenDNS will monitor, but bandwidth adjustment is probably best done with a router that allows/providse a QoS feature.
 
What is this --------> QoS feature, never heard of this terminology.
 
In addition to that..QoS is used to give certain traffic priority over other traffic. It simply is traffic control (or bandwidth control, what the OP is looking for). This way you can still download like there is no tomorrow and have a normal conversation over VoIP without it dropping out due to the excess download traffic. This is what some ISP's are trying to do but aren't allowed by the FCC due to net neutrality (all traffic should be handled the same by the ISP). Hasn't got anything to do with security though.

If you want something that watches network traffic going in and out and doing something about that traffic than you're talking about a dedicated firewall/router. Even the Airport Extreme can do this but you might want to look at things like m0n0wall, pfsense, smoothwall, netscreen firewalls, GTA firewalls, etc. Those do a bit more than the AE.
 
I've used Untangle (http://www.untangle.com) and it is very handy. There is a community (free) version and a subscriber version. I ran the free version in a VM for a bit. I like that it could alert me and send reports (traffic, probe attempts, etc) by email. The free version doesn't include QoS support, but you can probably do that with your router. I like ww-drt for my routers. The VPN support was handy too.
 
dyn said:
In addition to that..QoS is used to give certain traffic priority over other traffic. It simply is traffic control (or bandwidth control, what the OP is looking for). This way you can still download like there is no tomorrow and have a normal conversation over VoIP without it dropping out due to the excess download traffic. This is what some ISP's are trying to do but aren't allowed by the FCC due to net neutrality (all traffic should be handled the same by the ISP). Hasn't got anything to do with security though.
Click to expand...

Another tidbit on QoS is that unless you have QoS on both sides of the link, you may not get accurate results with it.
 
wilsonhaven said:
I've used Untangle (http://www.untangle.com) and it is very handy. There is a community (free) version and a subscriber version. I ran the free version in a VM for a bit. I like that it could alert me and send reports (traffic, probe attempts, etc) by email. The free version doesn't include QoS support, but you can probably do that with your router. I like ww-drt for my routers. The VPN support was handy too.
Click to expand...

dd-wrt*?
 
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