Distributor Computer Monitor

Can I monitor network activity from my computer?

I have a normal ADSL Modem with no good options of monitoring the traffic, and also my D-Link 8-ports switch is just a signal distributor, is there any software that can help me in monitoring the traffic in a normal LAN and Client-Server network?

I depends on how much detail you're looking for.

If you're just interested in basic traffic levels, open Task Manager and click on the Network tab.

You can get a little more detail by running "PerfMon". (Available in all versions of Windows, but not exposed as an icon after Win2k.) With PerfMon open, click the (+) icon on the toolbar to add performance monitors. Select "Use local computer" and a performance object called either "Network Interface", "IP", "TCP" or "UDP". (There may be others there as well.) Then choose the specific performance data you're interested in.

If you're interested in the actual network traffic, you can try installing "Wireshark". It's a public domain network traffic protocol analyzer. Probably not that good at gathering statistics; but you can use to capture specific network traffic based on any filtering criteria you set up. BTW, Wireshark is a rather advanced tool...

There used to be a way to simply monitor what machines had network connections to the current system; but I forget where to find that.

- Joel

Windsor Computer Center - Batangas City - Philippines