Use a second router as a switch to monitor bandwidth usage?

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EnderW

[H]F Junkie
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Sep 25, 2003
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I had a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 with Tomato firmware and I really liked it except performance didn't seem very good. Whenever I had uTorrent running, everything would slow to a crawl, even if I wasn't using that much bandwidth.
So I upgraded to a D-Link DIR-655 and it works great, but I really miss the bandwidth monitoring with Tomato. Is there some way I could put the Buffalo in between the D-Link and my modem so it can record all the bandwidth?
Or what would be another solution? I'm open to ideas.

something like this?

Modem > Buffalo router with Tomato and acting as a switch > D-Link DIR-655

that way the DIR-655 would still be doing all the routing and I'd have gigabit, but all WAN traffic would have to pass through the Buffalo
I'm guessing I wouldn't be able to see individual stats for each system, but that would be OK

Whatever I have needs to have gigabit between my 3 computers and it would be nice, but not necessary to be able to see not only total bandwidth, but usage for all 3 PCs, Xbox, PS3, and laptop.
 
if the buffalo is acting as a switch, that means it wont be passing traffic thru the router itself.
all home based routers are really just a switch, router, and an AP all on one PCB. the switch isnt going pass all the traffic to the router, so the traffic wont be counted.

Plus if the router was giving you issues anyway, why continue to use it?

You need some sort of software router such as untangle or pfsense. I don't know what to recommend, but I DO know that the buffalo won't do it, it'll still slow you down.
 
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php

might wanna check that out it dd-wrt an open source firmware for routers jus like tomato but i like it alot better it also does bandwidth monitoring. another option u could use is build a smoothwall box out of an old pc thats laying around it has wonderful bandwidth monitoring in it and its all free

http://www.smoothwall.org/

we use these at work for that exact purpose and they work great. another cool thing about smooth wall is it monitors ever single ip on your network so you can tell who is using or not using all the bandwidth. i will link u some pics of the smoothwall is freaking sweet

smooth.png



smooth2.png



smooth3.png


these are a couple of screen shots i took jus to show you what it looks like it very cool and very easy to use but all in all its up to you to do it how ever you want
 
heavenlykid said:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php

might wanna check that out it dd-wrt an open source firmware for routers jus like tomato but i like it alot better it also does bandwidth monitoring. another option u could use is build a smoothwall box out of an old pc thats laying around it has wonderful bandwidth monitoring in it and its all free

http://www.smoothwall.org/

we use these at work for that exact purpose and they work great. another cool thing about smooth wall is it monitors ever single ip on your network so you can tell who is using or not using all the bandwidth. i will link u some pics of the smoothwall is freaking sweet

http://it.bluwavehybrid.com/smooth.png[IMG]


[IMG]http://it.bluwavehybrid.com/smooth2.png[IMG]


[IMG]http://it.bluwavehybrid.com/smooth3.png[IMG]

these are a couple of screen shots i took jus to show you what it looks like it very cool and very easy to use but all in all its up to you to do it how ever you want[/QUOTE]
what kind of hardware would I need? need wireless too
I'm assuming performance would be excellent since it's a full fledged computer
Click to expand...
 
EnderW said:
what kind of hardware would I need? need wireless too
I'm assuming performance would be excellent since it's a full fledged computer
Click to expand...

are smoothwall here is running on and old ibm pentium 3 with 256mb of ram and i think a 10gb hard drive. doesnt have to be alot i think the minimum specs are on smoothwalls site and it is a pentium 2 but i forget . then we jus use a linksys AP off of are switch for wireless.

also note when setting up a smooth box you need 2 nic cards

3 nics if you wanna plug you AP straight in to the smooth box

and yes performance is phenominal we have 2 of them here one does all are pc's which there are 50 and the other does 25 voip phones we havent been able to slow them down yet

opps i post my ip in one of those pics o well nothing on it but some goofy place holder site anyway
 
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