Lightweight network visualization tool

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+3 Q:

Lightweight network visualization tool

I've been trying to find a tool for monitoring my home network. Before I go into the details, I've looked at a ton of different software and they're either an overkill or don't have what I'm looking for. Hopefully the community can help me with some advice.

My network is quite small. It consists of a modem connected to a D-Link DI-524 router. To this router I have a number of computers hooked up wirelessly.

What I'm looking for is a lightweight tool for monitoring my traffic. The ideal tool would have a GUI that shows an icon of the router, and icons of all devices connected to the router with a bandwidth indicator on the lines connecting the nodes. That's pretty much it.

I'm not sure if my router has SNMP. This might be a dealbreaker since many of the cheaper routers don't. I've also read somewhere that many routers can be monitored over UDP.

+1 A:

Found tnv after quick googling.

tnv (The Network Visualizer or Time-based Network Visualizer) depicts network traffic by visualizing packets and links between local and remote hosts.

eed3si9n 2009-12-06 02:55:03

Looks interesting. Thanks! Although their website crashes IE and java gives me headaches, best one so far. They also linked to this document which was quite interesting: http://holisticinfosec.org/toolsmith/docs/june2008.pdf

Pedery 2009-12-06 03:34:54

Here is a list of good tools to monitor network activity.
Looks like MRTG was the best tool to use

I have also been pleased with the Serial and USB software provided by HHD Software. I've never used their Network version, but if its as good as the USB and Serial, its probably pretty good. Here is the free trial version.

SwDevMan81 2009-12-06 02:57:05

Well, I saw that SO page you're referring to before I wrote my post and looked at every single link there. The thing is that none of the programs does what I described in my question. Rather, they seem to be log-based and I'm looking for something really lightweight. Not an app that will brew my coffee and beer and remote control the lawnmower to chase my neighbours' annoying cat while calculating pi with six billion decimals. Besides, I believe most of them use SNMP.

Pedery 2009-12-06 03:24:52

A more complete list could be found here: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/xorg/nmtf/nmtf-tools.html

SwDevMan81 2009-12-06 03:50:37

Looks like netmon could be pretty good: http://www.netmon.ca/solutions/networkmonitoring/features/monitortraffic

SwDevMan81 2009-12-06 04:36:30

Distinct Network Monitor: http://www.network-monitor.com/?source=MT-PR

SwDevMan81 2009-12-06 04:43:45

I really appreciate the answers. Yet, like I have stated in my question, neither of those look lightweight nor provide the simple node image I'm looking for. The extensive list was...well...extensive. I tried a few links, but half were dead. My hope was that someone would know about the simple tool I was looking for and could just throw out an answer. Freeware is of course also a keyword. Eed3si9n's answer looked promising, but I want to avoid having JVM running if I don't have to.

Pedery 2009-12-15 03:13:11

ansaurus

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Lightweight network visualization tool

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