Network Monitoring...

Topic: Network Monitoring... (Read 3424 times) previous topic - next topic

Network Monitoring...

January 09, 2005, 07:14:47 PM

Ok, so I have both computers in the house hooked up to a small home network to share the internet connection. They both run XP, this one Professional, the other one Home (d'oh!) Filesharing doesn't work too great (I can see files, can't copy or move them) and I'm looking for some means of monitoring what goes on on the other computer, my younger brother uses it downstairs. He's been known to clog up a PC with spyware pretty bad so I'd like to have a watch over what kinda he's putting on there.

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #1 – January 09, 2005, 10:10:37 PM

What type of monitoring are you looking for? If its only for installed programs, you'd probably want to prevent things from installing (take away the rights) instead of trying to get rid of them later. You can get a program to log what type of packets are going from/to the computer but that won't help you much other than know what he's visiting. Throw VNC on there and his privacy's pretty much gone - you could log on anytime remotely but not send input to the system (of course, you can allow it if you want). Pretty much like setting a hidden camera in front of the screen :p I don't know how Home works, but you may still be able to view the other system's counters remotely (you know, what you can find in the performance monitor). Not very useful for what you want but *shrugs*

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #2 – January 09, 2005, 10:18:46 PM

VNC... explain.

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #3 – January 09, 2005, 10:27:08 PM

http://www.realvnc.com/, It's a remote veiwer software. Along the lines of timbukto or pcanywhere.

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #4 – January 09, 2005, 10:34:27 PM

I've got it on there now. Server service is installed and running on downstairs PC. Set it to no authentication to ease connection. Now I'm trying to find out how to use the viewer to watch.

If I understand this right I have to have the computer I'd like to watch running the server program, right? So I have that up and running on there, I have the IP for that PC, and, upon attempting to enter it into the "Server:" field, but connection times out. Have I missed a step?

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #5 – January 09, 2005, 10:45:08 PM

I had the same problem until i disabled the worthess windows firewall. The thing was blocking its own stuff.

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #6 – January 09, 2005, 10:58:55 PM

Quote from: Ifixyawata

If I understand this right I have to have the computer I'd like to watch running the server program, right? So I have that up and running on there, I have the IP for that PC, and, upon attempting to enter it into the "Server:" field, but connection times out. Have I missed a step?

Pretty Close. I'd assume you set a password and what not, and played with some of the options as well. But to get into the remote (veiwing) computer you go to your browser and enter http://***.***.***.***:5800. The ":5800" is the Default port that vnc runs and is necessary to access the remote computer. Also the "http://" is equally important. And the ***'s correspond to the computer ip address.

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #7 – January 09, 2005, 11:14:01 PM

Got it! It was the firewall. Viewing is almost like real-time. Had my girlfriend go downstairs and do some web browsing and I could watch just like that, as well as interrupt any actions. Even with the firewall off, I still can't copy files out of shared folders on the downstairs pc, but that's for another day.

Thanks for the help, I look forward to "monitoring" actions in the future.

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #8 – January 09, 2005, 11:37:39 PM

If Red Hat Linux fully supported windows games I would say 100% I would never use windows again.

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #9 – January 10, 2005, 12:31:10 AM

glad you got it working. Myself, I have the other systems in the house setup to only accept connections from my private IP - and have connection attempts dropped from the internet. Also have encryption off (since its less overhead and not needed over the lan). Just uncheck the box when you connect to sent keyboard/mouse/clipboard events and you'll be unnoticed (even when things like videos lag vnc, they don't see it - with the exception of some systems having an erratic cursor - it may flash a bit on the server). Turning the color down from true color to any of the other settings is best for monitoring

have fun

Re: Network Monitoring...

Reply #10 – January 10, 2005, 02:44:19 AM

you could always try using net meeting to send files. It can be pretty useless at sometimes, but you can use it to do fun stuff like control desktop and some other things like that