Data Usage

[twinkel00]

Hello Everyone! I work for a small company and I am looking for a way, simple way, to see where our bandwidth is being used.

Our ISP upgraded our wireless modem and since then our data usage has doubled! We have not changed any of our office habits to explain this change of data usage. We have a small office with 6 computers. The network consists of a wireless router, that goes into a gigabit switch and then out to the 6 office computers.

The information im trying to find out is where this data is going. Some days the ISP usage page shows us using as much as 19 gigs of data. We do no streamlining, no data uploads and no video or music. Our office is mostly visiting various websites.

IVe tried some different software options but nothing I have tried allows me to separate the WAN traffic from the LAN traffic.

IS there some kind of hardware thats not to expensive and fairly user friendly that I can use to see where the data is coming from and going to?

something to add between the wireless router and switch?

May I add btw I like the forum, I come often but this is my first time posting.

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[frombehind]

hmm... how certain are you that a few of your employees don't have something like internet radio going in the background. This would certainly justify the bandwidth consumption. Little things like that, that we normally take for granted - actually consume a fair amount of bandwidth.

I myself am looking for something similar. I don't just want to see the traffic... I want to be able to shape it, and control its flow. See my thread for what I have found out so far http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/39474-42-best-solution-throttle-traffic-manage-bandwidth-network

But as far as "a simple device to view traffic" Sonic wall offers many such "appliances" that simply plug in between the router and the modem. Unfortunately such devices measure their price in thousands of dollars.

Not all is lost however... It may be possible to find a custom Linux distro that is designed to do the same thing - all you would need to pay for is the computer that it would run on (if you don't already have one with 2 network cards) Trouble is... if you are unfamiliar with Linux code and programming, you might be in for one miserable adventure. But that's pretty much the 2 options: The cheap way, or the easy way.

Either way, good luck ^^

 

[hang-the-9]

Have you checked the router logs? Could be someone is using the router outside the company latched on to the wifi signal. Look at what computers and other devices are connecting. Tables, smartphones maybe? Some IP or computer name that does not belong?

 

[twinkel00]

according to our ISP there are no logs we can access within the router.?

I am working on putting together a linux box for a firewall and hoping then I will be able to track this stuff

 

[frombehind]

Let us know how that goes for you ^^