Internet Usage Software

[iceman]

Hi guys

Can anyone give any suggestions for internet usage software?

My BigPond just gives me total MB per day, with no filtering on URL.
My modem/router configuration only allows me to block or allow URL's across all devices, and won't give me usage stats.

I want more granular filtering, to find out:
- Total MB usage by URL
- Total MB usage by Device
- Ability to block URL by Device
- Ability to set quotas of URL usage by Device

Is there anything like that out there?

[Octane]

DUMeter. Not sure if it does URL level statistics, though.

Although, if you want to make a complaint that your figures don't match up with theirs, they'll tell you that they won't accept what DUMeter says and that their internal statistics are correct.

I'm not sure if it's still available, but, it's what I used until 2003 or so.

H

[skysurfer]

Possible iptables might help ?
This is a standard Linux tool.

[troypiggo]

Not sure if this is up your alley, but I use a Linux gateway and run a transparent Squid web proxy on it. You can block sites during certain parts of the day, eg block FaceBook during work hours, but allow it during lunchtime and before/after work. You can set quotas, you can apply rules by device. All of what you list above. On top of that, there's a few Squid log analyser programs that can give graphical summaries. I use SARG. Can tell you usages per device/IP address, per site etc, on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. All for free, you just need a cheap machine to run it on. I've been using a tiny Dreamplug. Don't even know it's there.

[vindictive666]

hi

dumeter is still around i bought it not long ago had trouble with it would not work right on windows 7 64bit had a bit of a blue with them and had my money returned

i use networx instead does the same as du meter can set stats ect ect

http://www.softperfect.com/

scroll down its a free download

regards john

[g__day]

If your are running a halfway complicated network (router/s, switch/es and multiple PCs, Xbox's, PS-3's, MACs etc - I'd think the only way to take control of this would be to eiither have a really expensive and capable monitoring router or to put a small proxy server before the router and run all web traffic through it; so it could host web monitoring software.

I'll ask a friend who is more up on this to see if there are any simply ways to do what you describe: with teenagers and running out of large internet caps too frequently - I have the very same need!

[mithrandir]

If you have more than one computer you have to get usage stats from your router. That might be the computer which does internet connection sharing.

Otherwise you would have to capture statistics from every computer and aggregate them, and eliminate all local traffic.

Spiceworks might be one you could look at. Most of the others like Nagios run on Linux.

[2stroke]

might wanna get a router that runs wrt, or setup a pc as a network router which would give you full control over ip's in your network.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

[iceman]

hmm. More complex than I thought.

At the moment I'm using a Billion 7800N wireless modem/router, so all the devices (iPods, iPads and laptops) connect to the router directly.

So I will need something that can sniff the router traffic or run against router logs or something.

Otherwise I'd need to setup a computer as the wireless router and connect the modem directly to that computer?

[2stroke]

Log onto your router, check the manual and should should have some form of traffic logging that can be enabled. Most routers are very limited in terms of function and logging unless spending big bucks, that's why wrt is a great option but your router is supported by the looks. If its something you really need to do find a router that supports dd-wrt and flash it with the firmware, it's much less hassle then setting up and pc for home routing needs.

If you think you are being hacked or something make sure you are using wap2 and change your wifi password on a weekly basis, this will make them hack someone else s haha. It takes a long time to hack wap2 but wep can be hacked in no time.

You can setup your machine to route traffic but the down side is your machine must stay on all the time :(

[iceman]

It's not for disputing ISP's or for security purposes - it's more for monitoring/setting quotas on usage by the kids :)

My son sits on YouTube for hours and it's using up too much of my 100GB cap :)

[Octane]

Just implement QoS on the router and limit him to 3 K/s. That'll sort him out.

Better yet, go into the YouTube player's cog (settings button) on a video, and, change it from streaming at the highest quality, and set it to 240p, or something like that.

If you don't do that, it'll stream at 1080p based on your connection, meaning, your megabytes are being stolen.

H

[Moon]

My router has it. It's an ASUS RT-N16. I believe this version of the firmware is now based on DD-WRT and then customised by ASUS.
This one doesn't have ASDL, so it won't do everything you want, but perhaps you could find something similar?
James

[Moon]

PS - It also has a feature to block all the kids devices (ipod, iphone, ipad, etc etc) by mac address at 9pm every night. It works like a charm - and they hate it :D

[kustard]

It's possible to use SNMP to get the data you want. I use a mac program called "Examinet" that gives me an over picture of what my router (also a Billion 7800N) is doing. You can however use snmpwalk from your terminal (on mac or linux) to query the router. It has lots of options, way too many for me to go through here but there is plenty of documentation on it and the Billion router supports most of it IIRC.