Flow-enabled routers can send information about the flows they see to a flow collector device. The flow collector receives information about the flows from multiple devices, and can then create reports about the flows.
It then determines "top lists" from the flows:. And now you can see the real power of flow monitoring: the top lists tell you exactly who or what is using the most bandwidth. You've found the culprit! Unfortunately, lots of devices don't support flow, especially lower-end equipment. Or, your device might support it, but you don't have management access to the device to be able to enable flow monitoring. What then? At this point, the only option left is traffic sniffing.
That means using some additional device, such as your laptop, to sniff packets and analyze the results. The best way to sniff traffic is to configure your router to "mirror" or "span" all of the traffic it sees to an unused port.
And then you attach your sniffer device eg. An aside: what's the difference between "mirroring" and "spanning"? If you're able to configure the router to mirror traffic, then you can attach a laptop to that port, and then use sniffing software to analyze the traffic. The results won't be perfect, but might still be enough to show you what's going on in the network. You now need some kind of sniffer software.
If you'd like to see top lists, similar to netflow, then you can use the PRTG "packet sniffer" sensor to analyze the traffic and produce top lists similar to those you get from netflow. If you need more than just toplists, then Wireshark is THE gold standard for traffic sniffing. It's not the easiest to learn, but it's extremely powerful once you've got the hang of it.
Wireshark offers multiple ways to track down bandwidth hogs, for example, under Statistics Endpoints IP and then sort the columns to identify the top talkers. Example: Wireshark Endpoints. If none of the above has helped, your last line of defense is taps in combination with a packet broker. Taps are physical devices that are installed in-line in your network. Because they're in-line, they see all of your traffic and send copies of the traffic it to a central monitoring device.
The monitoring device, called a packet broker, collects the traffic from all of your taps and forwards it to network monitoring tools for analysis. How Network Taps Work. Taps and packet brokers are usually too expensive for an SMB to consider. So, if you really, really need to track down a problem, and the steps above haven't helped, you can hire someone to temporarily tap the network for you.
Installing taps involves temporary interruptions in the network, so this isn't something you want to do often. We've now seen all the steps and possible solutions, from easiest to most difficult, that you can use to track down bandwidth hogs in your network and to ensure efficient working of your hardware, routers, and fast internet for everyone. Steps for Tracking Down Bandwidth Hogs. Did you find our guide helpful? How do you find bandwidth hogs?
And go from there. There may be a way of seeing bandwidth usage if you log on to the router that is connected to the internet, most have a least some basic monitoring built in.
On each device do a remote CMD and run netstat to see what connections you have or manually load up task manager and look at the load on the network device. With whats up gold i can pinpoint exactly who is doing what, but that uses Netflow from cisco routers Do you have a UTM device that can analyze application usage as well as inbound and outbound traffic?
Are there any services on your servers that go out to the internet? Is there an offsite backup that is kicking off during the day? I would also check with the ISP to see if they can monitor the traffic from their end so you can tell if it is an internal problem or an external one. Since switching from our old Cisco Pix with no visibility to a Watchguard firewall, I can see exactly whose hogging the bandwidth and what they are doing with it.
You will not only see outgoing bandwidth hogs, but incoming problems as well. Without a firewall with good visibility at the edge of the network, I wouldn't have known this and probably would have wasted time wondering what was wrong inside my network. Other bandwidth hogs I've recently found include large emails going out at one time to s of people.
By setting simple traffic management on our SMTP outgoing, everyone's service is now better during these times. You only have 6 users. Easy go to the switch and pull out a network cable and wait for someone to yell. Yea, he's looking for "simple" monitoring and setting up a new router seems like it doesn't meet that requirement. Thank you so much for all of your replies.
I am amazed at the quick response and not prepared for it. In fact I am leaving for the weekend and only hoped for a response or two by the time I got back. I will definitely study all of the responses and report whatever progress I can make next week. Thanks again - and any other responses are definitely appreciated. Ross I looked at the router but didn't see any way to get a bandwidth report.
That doesn't mean it's not there, but I couldn't find it. The main router is a Cisco E Alex Thanks for the link. I will read that post. Rockn: I don't know what a UTM device is and assume that we don't have one. GnRLies: Thanks for the tip about Watchguard firewall. I have no idea how to set that up either, but wonder if it is able to monitor individual PC activity. Chris Not so easy to unplug a network cable in the current configuration. Is prtg set up to monitor all your switch ports?
If it is then you should be able to see which port is taking the most traffic, both at a max spike and over time. I guess the third way if you don't have managed switches is if your firewall can export netflow, then prtg can read that. However if you don't have managed switches you most likely don't have a firewall that does netflow. Are you running Spiceworks? While I don't care for the bandwidth collection in it myself it does offer this feature, you might start there.
You need to have managed network equipment to best take advantage of this. On the managed equipment you need to turn on SNMP and set the community strings to get information from it. There is an SNMP agent that can be installed on windows 7 and above if you manage the devices and don't have managed devices. From the look of the router you have which is a consumer model I think you may have to go either promiscuous or proxy monitoring. If the router is also the Wireless access point for the network you might have a real issue getting the information you want.
In most cases PCs or phones are responsible for data overages due to software updates, large game downloads, video streaming, or glitchy apps. To see what apps are causing the issue you can use a real-time detailed data usage monitor like GlassWire for Android or Windows to solve the data overage issue.
Or you can just uninstall the data wasting app once you find it. GlassWire can also help you rule out any other devices that could be wasting your data. GlassWire can also alert you whenever a new unknown device joins your network so you can know instantly if a new device or hacker is starting to use your limited WiFi data. With the combination of monitoring your PCs and phone data usage in details, and knowing what all is on your network you can usually stay under any data limits imposed by cable, DSL, mobile, or satellite Internet providers.
Is it possible to estimate how much data and bandwidth your network will use every day, week, or month? We at GlassWire have made a new free Data Usage Calculator tool to make it easy for anyone to estimate their data usage for their WiFi network, or mobile phone. Some routers can show you detailed data usage per-device. GlassWire can also alert you when a new unknown device joins the network.
I wanted to mention one last thing you should be aware of. Unfortunately there are many apps out there that claim to help you stay under data limits but they exist solely to spy on what apps you are using, then sell that data to third parties.
With the GlassWire data usage apps your data never leaves your phone! How can I check my data usage? In By Ken GlassWire. Last updated April 2, Use apps to check your data usage 2. See how much data certain apps are using 3. Set a data usage limit or alert for your data plan 4. Monitor real-time data usage 5. Know immediately when an app starts using your data 6. Block apps from wasting your data 8. Avoid well known data wasting apps 9. Check your router stats Use apps to check your data usage GlassWire is a free app that specializes in keeping track of your data usage.
Use a PC? Windows instructions are below. Need to monitor a PC? See how much data certain apps are using Are you curious why you keep going over your data limits? Set a data usage limit or alert for your data plan Want to get alerted before you go over your data limit for your ISP or mobile cellular provider? After GlassWire is installed go to its data plan screen.
Just keeping track of your data one month can sometimes save you hundreds of dollars! Monitor real-time data usage The GlassWire app makes it easy to monitor what app is using your data in real-time.
Know immediately when an app starts using your data Sometimes a new app can start using up all your data almost immediately after installation. Avoid well known data wasting apps Many apps are famous for using huge amounts of data.
How can you stay under Comcast or Xfinity internet data caps? Is there anything you can do?
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