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Measuring wireless users bandwidth

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kiera...@backpacker.com

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Oct 4, 2005, 10:02:35 AM10/4/05
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Is there a free or very cheap method of measuring wireless users
bandwidth usage? Ive got an 8 Meg connection with a Netgear DG834G
modem and 5 access points throughout the building. I have a windows
SBS2003 server but the wireless users are not on the domain but on an
freely accessible side of the network.
I dont have enough users to justify buying the products I've seen so
far.
Thanks
Kieran

Jeff Liebermann

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Oct 4, 2005, 1:32:02 PM10/4/05
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Any reason why you didn't bother specifying the model numbers of your
5 access points?

Two reasons why it's not going to happen with the DG834G.
1. It does not support SNMP which is used for almost all traffic
graphing programs (MRTG, RRDTool)
2. It's a combined DSL and wireless router. You would need access to
the connection between the DSL modem and the router section in order
to sniff the internet traffic.

If you want to do this, get a wireless router, or wireless access
points that support SNMP. This incidentally, is one reason why I
recommend buying seperate boxes for modem, router, and wireless.

See:
http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/rrdtool/
http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/
for SNMP graphing tools.

Here's an example of wireless traffic monitoring at a university:
http://www.uwo.ca/its/network/backbone/mrtg/bluesocket/blusck1-pro.wireless.uwo.ca.html
Click on the graphs for history.
--
Jeff Liebermann je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

frankd...@yahoo.com

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Oct 5, 2005, 9:44:33 AM10/5/05
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Is there is a similar program that will work with a Linksys with WRT54G
router with Sveasoft firmware and using Windows XP as an OS ?

Jeff Liebermann

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Oct 5, 2005, 11:18:12 AM10/5/05
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On 5 Oct 2005 06:44:33 -0700, "frankd...@yahoo.com"
<frankd...@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Is there is a similar program that will work with a Linksys with WRT54G
>router with Sveasoft firmware and using Windows XP as an OS ?

Sure. Any SNMP MIB browser will work for extracting numbers from any
SNMP enabled device includeing the WRT54G with Sveasoft firmware.
Sveasoft includes parts of NET-SNMP (see http://www.net-snmp.org). The
problem is how to enable and configure SNMP in the router. I've been
meaning to scribble a web page on how to do it for MRTG and RRDTool.

Meanwhile, if you want to Learn by Destroying, find and download GetIF
2.3.1 which is a MIB browser. Enable SNMP on the Administration page.
Leave the read password as "public" and the write password as
"private". Point GetIF 2.3.1 at the IP address of the WRT54G and see
if you can get it to display a MIB tree (huge list of OID's and
values). If you get that far, I can fill in the rest of the
destructions quite easily.

kiera...@backpacker.com

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Oct 6, 2005, 5:32:38 PM10/6/05
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All my access points are D-Link DWL-900AP+
I do have in a box a D-Link DI-804HV. I could use that perhaps and
disable the wireless on the DG834G?
Thanks for your response.

Kieran

Jeff Liebermann

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Oct 6, 2005, 7:02:21 PM10/6/05
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On 6 Oct 2005 14:32:38 -0700, kiera...@backpacker.com wrote:

>All my access points are D-Link DWL-900AP+
>I do have in a box a D-Link DI-804HV. I could use that perhaps and
>disable the wireless on the DG834G?

Yep. The DWL-900AP+ has SNMP. You'll need it to identify the OID's
and run a MIB browser. You'll also need IEEE802dot11-MIB. Digging...

http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/crud/IEEE802dot11-MIB.my
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/crud/DWL900APMIB.mib

1. Download and install GetIF 2.3.1 from:
http://www.wtcs.org/snmp4tpc/getif.htm

2. Copy the above MIB files to the directory:
C:\PROGRAM FILES\GETIF 2.3.1\MIBS\

3. Erase the file
C:\PROGRAM FILES\GETIF 2.3.1\.index
Running the program will recreate the index file if it's missing.
Every time you add a MIB database to the MIBS directory, erase the
files.

4. Run GetIF and point the IP address as the DWL-900AP+
Hit start and browse the MIB tree. Lots of OID's and numbers to play
with.

GetIF will NOT draw pretty graphs and record traffic and use history
like MRTG and RRDTool. However, it's a fairly easy program to use to
browse the MIB tree with SNMP to see what's available.

--
Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
831.336.2558 voice
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann
je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us je...@cruzio.com

Jeff Liebermann

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Oct 8, 2005, 9:29:06 AM10/8/05
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On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:02:21 GMT, Jeff Liebermann
<je...@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:

>On 6 Oct 2005 14:32:38 -0700, kiera...@backpacker.com wrote:
>
>>All my access points are D-Link DWL-900AP+
>>I do have in a box a D-Link DI-804HV. I could use that perhaps and
>>disable the wireless on the DG834G?
>
>Yep. The DWL-900AP+ has SNMP. You'll need it to identify the OID's
>and run a MIB browser. You'll also need IEEE802dot11-MIB. Digging...
>
>http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/crud/IEEE802dot11-MIB.my
>http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/crud/DWL900APMIB.mib

(...)

Here's another idea. I was blundering around the web and found:
http://dd-wrt.gruftie.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php?link=rflow
which is a program that generates traffic reports on multiple WRT54G
access points using SNMP. If the program uses the usual ifInOctets,
ifOutOctets, and such, then it should work with the DWL-900AP+ SNMP. I
still prefer the graphs from MRTG and RRDTool, but this looks like an
easier program to install and use. I haven't tried it yet.

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