Keeping an Eye on Seconds and Bytes
Setting Up CommTraffic for the First Time
This chapter is the longest one, but there is a good reason behind this: Configuring CommTraffic properly is the key to getting correct results. The program's configuration is aimed at one important thing: We need to "tell" CommTraffic what and how to count.
To calculate the data in your network environment accurately, you should first consider what you are going to monitor with CommTraffic, and what settings will be needed for that. The Configuration Wizard is the tool that will guide you through this process. The Configuration Wizard window appears once you've installed CommTraffic on your computer. Alternately, you can launch it in the View pane by clicking Settings => Network => Wizard.
Even though we don't necessarily have to know the network layout details to get started, let's briefly discuss them.
Usually, you connect to the Internet by using a modem (that may be plain old dial-up, ADSL, or cable modem), but there are other connection types, e.g. a direct Ethernet connection or Frame Relay. Sometimes a VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection is being used on the top of these connections. Additionally, you may be sharing the Internet connection between a number of office or home computers via a Local Area Network (LAN). Most common network configurations are summarized below:
1. The computer is not connected to a LAN
If your computer is not connected to a LAN, i.e. you don't share your connection with other users and are interested only in your own traffic; select This is a stand-alone computer.
Then, if you have a dial-up or VPN connection to the Internet, select WAN Miniport in the adapter list. If you're connected via an Ethernet adapter (e.g. your ADSL modem cable may be plugged into the network adapter rather than a USB port), select the name of this adapter in the list:
2. The computer is connected to the Internet via a LAN.
If your computer is a part of a LAN but doesn't have direct connectivity to the Internet, i.e. it uses another computer as a gateway; select the This computer is a part of a LAN option in the first step of the Wizard and then select the adapter name in the network adapters list:
Clicking Next will populate the list with one or several ranges of your LAN's local IP addresses. This will let CommTraffic calculate Internet traffic for all computers on your LAN:
Note: Monitoring traffic for the entire LAN segment is always possible if the workstations are connected using a hub. Unlike hubs, switches prevent promiscuous sniffing. In a switched network environment, CommTraffic is limited to capturing broadcast and multicast packets and the traffic sent or received by the PC on which CommTraffic is running. However, most modern switches support "port mirroring," which is a feature that allows you to configure the switch to redirect the traffic that occurs on some or all ports to a designated monitoring port on the switch. By using this feature, you will able to monitor the entire LAN segment. For more information, please refer to the "FAQ" chapter of the product help file.
If you want CommTraffic to monitor only the traffic of the computer on which it has been installed, clear the list of the local addresses and go to the next page. On the next page, click Detect to have the list populated with the local IP addresses that should be excluded from monitoring:
If your computer is connected to the Internet via a proxy server, you will be able to specify the address(es) and port(s) of your LAN's proxy server(s) on the next page:
Normally, such a computer functions as a network server and has two network adapters (or interfaces, this term is also widely used): one is connected to the ISP (e.g. via a modem), and the other one is connected to the LAN. It is possible to monitor either of these network interfaces, but you should bear in mind some important distinctions.
Monitoring the external interface (ISP connection) allows you to monitor Internet traffic for the entire LAN, including the server itself. If that's what you need, just select This computer is a gateway to the Internet (WAN). I want to monitor the total Internet traffic for the entire LAN.
After clicking Next you will be able to select the name of the network interface to be monitored. This should be the "external" interface, the one being used to connect the server to the Internet.
One more important thing: It's advisable to look at the IP addresses assigned to the LAN hosts:
If they look like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, it is very likely that the LAN hosts use Network Address Translation (NAT) or a proxy server to access the Internet. If that's the case, detailed information on the LAN hosts' Internet traffic will not available: All the traffic will be attributed to the server. But you probably want to have detailed information on each LAN host. No problem, just read the next paragraph.
4. The computer functions as the LAN gateway, but you are interested in per-host Internet traffic statistics.
In the Wizard, select This computer is a gateway to the Internet (WAN). I want to have detailed information about Internet utilization by every LAN host:
The peculiarity of this configuration is that you will have per-host statistics for your LAN, with the exception of the gateway server. After clicking Next you will have to select the name of the adapter being used for connecting the server to the LAN:
The next page will list one or several ranges of your network's local IP addresses. Leave only those ranges that pertain to your LAN:
If your computer is connected to the Internet via a proxy server, you will be able to specify the address(es) and port(s) of your LAN's proxy server(s) on the next page:
We're done; CommTraffic is ready to go!
It's worth mentioning in this tutorial that your network configuration is may be more complex than any of the standard configurations described above. But don't worry: Even further fine-tuning is possible. The advanced settings can be accessed in the View pane by clicking Settings => Network. By using advanced formulas, you can control the way CommTraffic counts traffic. This feature originates from CommView, another application by TamoSoft, which is intended for network packet analysis:
You can learn more about advanced rules by reading the help file that comes with CommTraffic.
