Looking for some sort of network monitoring tool

[Qaanol]

I’ve got a question that may or may not have a simple answer, and it has to do with figuring out the URL from which a program is downloading its updates so that I can download a backup of the installer.

The program in question is KeyRemap4MacBook, and the stable release version can be found here. But within the program, there is also a button to check for beta releases. The beta versions are not listed on the website as far as I can tell.

So what I want to do is somehow watch my computer’s network traffic when I update to the latest beta version, so that I can see what URL the beta version is downloaded from. What’s the best / simplest way to do that?

 

[S.B.G]

Give Little Snitch a look. Maybe it will do what you're looking for.

 

[ElectronGuru]

Depending on the install complexity, another option would saving a copy of the updated app after each update.

 

[Qaanol]

Little Snitch shows what server things are connecting to, but I don’t see a way to get it to show the full URL being fetched. Is there?

And ElectronGuru, this particular program uses a .pkg installer, so I strongly suspect it has more components than just the application bundle.

 

[S.B.G]

Little Snitch shows what server things are connecting to, but I don’t see a way to get it to show the full URL being fetched. Is there?

And ElectronGuru, this particular program uses a .pkg installer, so I strongly suspect it has more components than just the application bundle.

I just thought of a different way to accomplish that. Use Firefox and install the extension called FireBug.

There is a way to see full URL's with it and be able to download files using it. I've used to it before to find the URL's of videos for downloading, until I found a plugin for more easily getting YouTube videos.

I just can't remember the process on how to do it ATM.

 

[Qaanol]

I just thought of a different way to accomplish that. Use Firefox and install the extension called FireBug.

There is a way to see full URL's with it and be able to download files using it. I've used to it before to find the URL's of videos for downloading, until I found a plugin for more easily getting YouTube videos.

I just can't remember the process on how to do it ATM.

I am sorry, I don’t quite follow. My understanding is that Firebug operates entirely within Firefox, and does not provide insight on what other programs are doing.

As I mentioned, I am trying to figure out what URL the program KeyRemap4MacBook is accessing to fetch its beta version updates. The process happens entirely within the KR4MB application.

 

[S.B.G]

I am sorry, I don’t quite follow. My understanding is that Firebug operates entirely within Firefox, and does not provide insight on what other programs are doing.

As I mentioned, I am trying to figure out what URL the program KeyRemap4MacBook is accessing to fetch its beta version updates. The process happens entirely within the KR4MB application.

Ahh... yes. Sorry, I forgot you were trying to get the URL from an app and not via the web browser. In that case, Firebug won't help.

 

[ivoyordanov]

Network Monitoring Tools

Hello

Network monitoring depends a lot on what you want to monitor.
It depends on what kind of architecture. If you have devices supporting Netflow, this could be very handy to identify bottlenecks or missues. There are just a few good tools for netflow under a low budget, try solarwinds or Pandora FMS.

For SNMP monitoring, probably the most common case, most tools do a good job: cacti, zabbix, pandora fms or nagios. OpenNMS and Pandora FMS have the best management of Traps, and only a few manage v3 properly.

For a mixed scope on monitoring: server, apps and networking, you have less tools, we use Pandora FMS for that reason, can manage netflow, snmp, wmi (for remote server monitoring) and agent based monitoring for unix & windows server.



Some Links:

http://pandorafms.com/Producto/network-monitoring/en

http://opennms.com