Ethereal-users: RE: [Ethereal-users] Traffic measuring - is this possible

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From: "DAIGLE, ANDREW PAUL" <ADAIG90@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:29:07 -0600

If I understand your required task correctly, you are talking about cataloging all the remote endpoints with which “server X” converses and the number of bytes exchanged with those endpoints. One way to do this is to use tethereal with the –z option. Try this:

 

tethereal –z conv,ip,ip.addr==192.168.1.100 –R !eth > statistics.txt

 

Of course, substitute the server’s IP address for the above IP. Let it run as long as you want. When you hit Ctrl-C, it will write out a text file with a table listing all the endpoints with the total bytes exchanged with each.

 

Andrew

 

-----Original Message-----
From: ethereal-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ethereal-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Fowler, Steve
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 9:45 AM
To: 'ethereal-users@xxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [Ethereal-users] Traffic measuring - is this possible

 

Hi there all,

 

I am writing this mail after having a nose around and coming up short. I work as a network engineer in a dept. with no money available for tools, a situation I am sure a lot of you are familiar with.

 

I was given the task of measuring traffic from multiple hosts to a server with a fixed IP and decided to see how well I could achieve this goal using ethereal. Being fairly new to ethereal, although not so new to networks I put the following strategy together

 

·         Make captures.

·         Spend more time than I expected doing manual work, sifting through the capture file noting the start and stop times of the different transfers

·         Use editcap.exe to generate smaller capture files containing just the transfer itself

·         Open up the small file capture file in the ethereal GUI (filtering on the 2 IP addresses) and use summary to give me the number of packets sent within that transfer and the bytes transmitted.

·         Record all of that information in a spreadsheet for reference.

 

I've a distinct feeling that there is a better way to do this which you might be able to enlighten me about, bear in mind I am analyzing a capture file sometimes of a few hours, so many transfers from different locations to the one IP address need to be recorded.

 

If not, then I am looking to generate my own tool that can help speed up the process. I have already programmed a small CGI interface that automates the editcap process to a degree, but the whole thing is still a work in progress.

 

Ideally, what I would like to achieve is a tool which requires you to specify the input file and the IP addresses in question and the tool will identify all the transfers that occurred within that capture file and produce reports on the amount of data transferred in each session. My question is whether tools such as tethereal on the cli are able to pull that kind of information and how?

 

I hope that you can point me in the right direction here.

 

Thanks a lot,

Steve