Monitoring usage of one's WLAN

On 2/1/07 4:02 PM, "ngpappas" <ngpappasnii.net> wrote:

> Adam's post on ExtraBits (Open Door Networks Updates Security Products),
> raised a question for me.
>
> I am about to install an additional basic DSL service to an ice cream shop so
> that I can create a "hot spot" where customers can hang around and use their
> laptops. Our business network is on a Ethernet LAN with Internet access
> through a separate DSL line, so I don't anticipate any security issues.
>
> However, I would like to be able to keep an eye on how the wireless network is
> used. I wonder if abutters will use it regularly. I would like to know how
> much it is being used by our customers.
>
> Is there a product or collection of techniques (perhaps described in a book)
> that can be employed for this sort of monitoring of a small wireless network?

A number of router and firewall products (especially "managed" ones) can
collect a variety of data for you to peruse. However, these routers are
substantially more expensive than the usual $40 wi-fi router jobs that I
typically buy. You could also mess around with some of the open-source
Linksys router firmware out there to build a super-router out of a $40
router, and have it log traffic for you.

<http://www.openwrt.org/>

You could probably throw a spare Mac onto your network running Wireshark or
some other network analyzer and writing all the traffic out to a log, and
then analyze the log itself... but that will necessarily be somewhat time
intensive. (And may feel a little too much like spying on your customers
once you realize that the log contains all their IM conversations, emails,
and logs of web sites they've visited.)

<http://www.wireshark.org/>

In either case, gathering these metrics is mostly limited to the
highly-geeky, so don't expect to find many (if any) products that are easy
to use and configure. This is the realm of the network administrator or
security expert.

--
Nik :: gerberinik.net
Software picks, serious Mac geekery and productivity tips!
<http://iNik.net/>

>In either case, gathering these metrics is mostly limited to the
>highly-geeky, so don't expect to find many (if any) products that are easy
>to use and configure. This is the realm of the network administrator or
>security expert.

True, though for basic overall *usage* metrics (as opposed to actual
protocol and content metrics) a nice, and relatively inexpensive tool
is CyberGauge from Neon Software:

<http://www.neon.com/CGmac.shtml>

_________________________________________
chuck goolsbee - fully RFC 1925 compliant

Another possibility might be the Traffic Discovery tool in IPNetRouterX

http://sustworks.com/site/prod_ipnrx_help/html/TrafficDiscoveryHelp.html

- Peter (I'm the developer)