Easiest/Cheapest way to monitor internet bandwidth/activity? IPCOP?

[jebo_4jc]

My current setup:

1. 2wire DSL Modem/Router
2. D Link gigabit switch
3. Four PCs. One of which is a Windows Home Server box

I want to monitor the internet usage of my WHS specifically. I am using an online storage/backup service, which I can manually allocate bandwidth for, and I want to be able to monitor how much bandwidth it's actually using. I wish my Modem/router supported SNMP, but from what I read, it does not do any type of internet activity monitoring. (Unless I can upgrade/hack the firmware, which I have not found a way to do).

So, I've tossed around a lot of different ideas that would allow me to monitor my internet activity.

1. Buy a new router/modem/switch/etc with SNMP support
2. Build a Clark Connect/IPCop box
3. Put another NIC in my Windows Home Server (based on Win2k3) and run the net connection through it.

#3 intrigues me, but I have no idea how that would work. I assume the modem would be connected directly to the WHS, then the WHS would act as the router. How would that play nicely with my router/modem?

 

[jebo_4jc]

Actually, would it be as simple as jamming another NIC into my WHS, then "bridging" the two connections, then setting up an app to monitor the activity of the "internet" NIC?

 

[ntba]

Since you mentioned you mostly just want the WHS box to be monitored why not just use an app that monitors your net usage on that box, I know its pretty ugly but it'll do the trick without having to buy any new hardware or doing some wacky network setup. I know there are some free and some commercial software for windows that does this just fine and makes pretty graphs but right now the names of any of them escape me, mostly becasue I use Tomato on my WRT54G to monitor my entire network bandwidth

 

[jebo_4jc]

Since you mentioned you mostly just want the WHS box to be monitored why not just use an app that monitors your net usage on that box, I know its pretty ugly but it'll do the trick without having to buy any new hardware or doing some wacky network setup. I know there are some free and some commercial software for windows that does this just fine and makes pretty graphs but right now the names of any of them escape me, mostly becasue I use Tomato on my WRT54G to monitor my entire network bandwidth

Are there apps that specifically monitor internet traffic? Because the ones I've seen monitor traffic through a specific NIC, which would really be thrown off by all the PC-to-PC network traffic.