Monitoring home network

[Yonose]

Hello,

So i been looking around on what tool i need for monitoring my network, but not sure of what tool/OS is should use.

- I'll need something that is free, or at least cheap.
- I'll need to see incoming and maybe outcoming traffic
- I'll also need to see the packet loss on the network.

I also got a Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard that i can use for installing VM for OS for the router if that is needed.

 

[Gingerbread]

Check out WireShark.
https://www.wireshark.org/

 

[bill001g]

Your largest issue is getting the data in the first place. In most home installs only the router can see all the data from all the different machines and even then it does not always see traffic going between machines in your house if there is a switch or something inbetween.

Pretty much unless the router can collect the data for you and send it to some server you are out of luck.

It really depends how much effort you really want to go to. You could I suppose load router software on your server....likely running linux and not windows...and put it in place of your router. That may not be as simple as it sounds if your router also has a modem of some kind in it. You also have the issue of having to solve the wireless issue because your server will not act directly as a wireless router.

You might also look into loading different firmware on your router that can do some of these features but that too has lots of complexity. The main one of course if there is even third party firmware for your router.

Of course you can just buy a commercial router/firewall. The trade off is you are paying for easy to use when you want free you have to learn lots of things.

 

[AgPaul]

PRTG now has a great freeware version of their monitoring software

but the tough part is (like it was said before) getting hardware capable of sending information to the PRTG server.