----- Original Message -----
From: "Burton M. Strauss III" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 16:23 PM
Subject: RE: [Ntop] Bandwidth logging per IP... ntop the way to go?
> Nope. I'm right and you're wrong. Naaaaa Naaaaa.... :-)
>
I'll permit you to escape, but only this one time....:-)
> Actually, it depends on your network.
>
> If the network is stable, that is machines don't come and go frequently,
> then an IP address is a stable identifier and is substantially equal to a
> machine (PC) and thus to a user.
>
> From his question, I was expecting a network with a limited pool of DHCP
> addresses, where a large population of individuals come in, join the network
> and receive an address, do stuff for a period of minutes, hours, days and
> then leave. Some number of days later (depends on the lease time), another
> user touches down and gets assigned the same IP.
>
I read his question as simpler, ie. CAN one easily track bwidth
by IP w/ the *current* NTOP, even *if* one uses DHCP.
> So 192.168.1.12 is You on Monday/Tuesday and Me on Friday.
>
> Because ntop uses ip for the rrd's it will commingle our workload.
>
> In this situation, the MAC address is a better stable identifier.
>
> It would certainly be feasible to re-write rrdPlugin.c to use the MAC
> address not the IP address for local hosts (or maybe do both), but it
> doesn't do that today.
>
Actually, I was only chiming in to say that, in fact this could be
done and I'd done it (w/ the latest NTOP.) Yeah, tracking via MACs mite be
better from one perspective, but one can track traffic via IPs rite now.
Moreover, in spite of the possibility of DHCP lease-related conflicts, the
inclusion of RRD to NTOP, has made bwidth-by-IP more reliable.
> As a work-around, extending the DCHP lease time means that there would be
> much less reuse - maybe you want a time that is at least 110% of the
> interarrival time of your frequent users. That way, the people who show up
> periodically get the same address each time, while the transients and
> one-timers use the rest. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would work...
>
Agreed. Later....Jet
=============== From the desk of Jethro Wright, III ================
+ Nothing causes self-delusion quite so readily as power. =
=== [EMAIL PROTECTED] ========================= Liu Binyan ===
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