[mrtg] Re: win2x

[Michael Grice]

* SW <swjunk81 at hotmail.com> [020423 11:13] wrote:
> I am new to MRTG and have spent only a few hours reading, so I apologize if this question is too simple.  I would like to know if there is a way to monitor a wan link without using an snmp capable router or switch.  I was able to load MRTG on a W2X box and get results (which according to what I have read are only for the pcs itself).  If I put this pc on a hub in front of my router, would ms snmp pick up all traffic to/from that router and graph it?

My advice is to use SNMP if at all possible. There are some security
issues with SNMP, which you can minimize by allowing only read-only
access to the router and by restricting SNMP access to the router with
an access list (or the equivalent).

SNMP will be much more accurate than the method you're suggesting. Keep
in mind that the traffic that goes over the PC (even if it's on a hub
with your WAN router) will not necessarily reflect the traffic going
over the WAN. For one thing, the router will not necessarily forward
all traffic on the hub over the WAN; routers don't forward broadcasts
(unless specifically configured to do so). Any traffic bound for the
PC itself will also effect the traffic measured without actually going
over the WAN. Finally, suppose the link is saturated and the router is
dropping packets. This means that the amount of traffic going to the
router to be sent over the WAN will be larger than the traffic actually
going over the WAN, and the PC would have no way to tell this.  
--Michael

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