Fraternity Network Monitoring

LiveWire

Weaksauce
Joined
Aug 3, 2004
Messages
99
So I am the IT/VP of my fraternity of 45-55 guys. Currently we run off a single DSL modem connected to a wireless N router and two other wireless access points.

Speed is acceptable right now on the modem, however almost every day the network just dies. People have been told to stay off torrents, video sites (youtube) and downloading massive files in general, but we still get the one person screwing everyone else over. Plus, I'd like to see the load on the various access points and try to balance them out.

I'm looking for an application I can run from my laptop that would track network usage for each user and tell me who the culprit is. If I can track the bastard I can punish accordingly.

Right now I have to walk through everyones room manually checking for applications and it's a pain in the ass. Some people hide their computers and I can't get to them. End the madness!
 
is your main router or your access points compatible with something like tomato or dd-wrt? that would be an easy and free way to monitor and log activity not to mention limiting peoples usage to whats allowed.
 
Set up either pfSense or unTangle on a spare computer and use it as the house router. Then configure the house with QoS and tweak the rules to fit what you need.

Then people can do whatever they want, and they can't hog the bandwidth.

If there ends up being a problematic site or something you can block them through either of those.

Also, with the untangle box you can set it up to do server side anti spam and antivirus, which will help keep their PCs healthier.

Question...do you want to isolate people from each other or do you want a flat network? Flat networks are good if you want to do file sharing or gaming..
 
With 50+ people you'll need a more robust router. You really can't get away with something cheap at this point. I do agree that getting an untangle/pfsense box with some semi beefy specs would help control the issue.

Unless you get something like a cisco or a sonicwall based wireless system, you won't be able to do what you want to do for the wireless stuff.
 
I'll have to make some calls for more information. I'm not currently on location at my fraternity house. Kettering University runs on 3-month co-op/schooling cycles and I'm on work section right now. I have another three weeks before I return and wanted to get my head around this before it's a problem again.

I may be able to put together a spare computer from parts at home and figure that out beforehand and adapt it to the fraternity house. If not, I'm the Treasurer so I have some say in what we need... :cool: However, we do not have a large budget for new hardware.

Virtually no-one shares files between their computers or do LAN gaming. They do play Call of Duty and other FPS online though.
 
Someone here setup Untangle for some college frathouse/dorm like setup..working well for them last I knew.
 
I've been looking at Untangle and it looks exactly like what I want. Thanks guys.
 
I can attest to the usage of Untangle in a college environment. I'm currently using it on a 10Mbps line and serving 200-300 users, all on a Dell desktop (Dimension 755 for now, moving to something more robust soon). No problems here.

edit - Not the same box as in my sig. That's personal use.
 
I'm just curious, whats your ISP speed? We've got a 20mbit line at my fraternity house and it usually gets bogged down (too lazy to manage it). Its possible you might need to get a faster connection with that many people anyway.
 
I believe we have 6mbit. It works fine for everything except when people try to do torrents, video sites (youtube) or downloading massive files.

We don't really have the money to go with anything more. With Kettering costing $30,000 a year in tuition it's tough to ask our members to raise their bills...
 
I believe we have 6mbit. It works fine for everything except when people try to do torrents, video sites (youtube) or downloading massive files.

We don't really have the money to go with anything more. With Kettering costing $30,000 a year in tuition it's tough to ask our members to raise their bills...

40-50 guys cant kick in $5 a month for a 30mg service? Common, thats $60 a YEAR each.
 
I believe we have 6mbit. It works fine for everything except when people try to do torrents, video sites (youtube) or downloading massive files./QUOTE]

That's your router getting crushed by all the concurrent connections with that p2p/torrent crap. Most of them run out at a couple of hundred sessions. This is something a good distro would perform much better with. My PFSense at home, I can support over 50,000 with 512 megs in her. In addition...top notch traffic shaping/qos will smooth things out...6 megs is fine. Or better yet...with Untangle...you can block p2p junk.
 
The Spyder said:
40-50 guys cant kick in $5 a month for a 30mg service? Common, thats $60 a YEAR each.

We currently have AT&T Elite DSL
Downstream Speed: Up to 6.0 Mbps
Upstream Speed: Up to 768 Kbps

This costs us $35 a month.

Comcast offers 12mbit for $43 a month or 16mbit for $63 a month. I can't find a 30mbit service in Flint, and I'm sure it would be around $100 a month or more even.

I see opportunity here for the 12mbit offer. I think I'll try my untangle box first and if it isn't sufficient I will up to 12mbit.
 
I would definitely go with an Untangle box and probably look into upgrading your network speed. 6 mbit? That's far too slow to share between 50-60 guys. Plus you can't youtube? wtf? What else do you do then :p
 
Use dedicated PFsense with opendns. Define QOS rules and use the penalty box.
 
Use dedicated PFsense with opendns. Define QOS rules and use the penalty box.

QFT and also use bandwithd, it logs bandwith usage based on ip. So if you see someone over a certain amount go to them and tell them to get the hell off bittorrent/youtube/whatever.
 
i think the need for you to run a dedicated computer w/ router software (untangle, smoothwall, etc...) has been emphasized enough :)

if you can just scrap something together w/ 2ghz+ cpu, 1-2gb of ram, you should be gravy train. hit up craigslist and i'm sure you'll find someone getting rid of something on the cheap. slap an extra NIC or two (depending on the AP configuration) and you'll be golden. unfortunately those household routers from Best Buy and such just can't handle the traffic.

you should also definitely budget the upgrade to comcast's 12 or 16mbps connections. cable performs better than dsl anyway, and combined with the dedicated router everyone will be much happier.

one thing though, just don't forget to put a battery backup on the router :)

if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to msg me... i have some experience with networking a fraternity house as well.
 
Why not do a dual wan device then slap untangle behind it? 2 16mbps lines would make it more tolerable.
 
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