how to check if someone is downloading on my network

Hi, i have recently let my sister use my wireless network on one rule. No downloading torrents movies etc. now the internet has becomed really slow since she used it like less than 20% of the speed and i suspect she is downloading. how can i know?(besides asking her coz she always denies it) thx

 

What router do you have? Are you both connecting at the same speed (ie: both using 802.11n or 802.11g), or is one connecting at 802.11n and one at 802.11g?

 

I suggest blocking all ports except web browser ports. This way when she complains you know its because of download!

 

Also, check in the router's logs to see if it's logged anything suspicious - it may not have, because some routers have better logging routines than others (and you didn't tell us what make/model router you have), but if it's got a good logging routine it might have logged some of the traffic.

Also, check to see if any of the QoS (Quality of Service) settings have been altered to give higher priority to her machine, or to download-type activities.

 

i have a linkysys 2.4ghz 802.11g. how would i check the log or block the ports since i have a dynamic ip

 

is this another thread about an annoying sister blabbing about her brothers smut surfing or someones "dumb dad" watching espn online and muching about with WoW?

 

No, this is the thread where unhelpful people such as you and I jump in and ridicule other posters...you blatantly and me subtly.

 

Uhmm, don't take this the wrong way, but your best resource would probably be the user manual; I still don't know what model you actually have, so I'm going to assume that you have a current model, and, based on your description, will assume that you have the WRT54G2, the user manual for which can be downloaded directly from here. If that's not the correct model, then you should be able to download the correct user manual/guide from the Linksys website.

@gerryf19: you must be really bored today, eh?

 

It's easy enough to turn on the Router's logging feature, but if you don't know how to interpret the log data it won't do you much good. All you're going to get is an outgoing and destination IP address, not a URL or domain name, download activity, etc.

One program I've used since it came out is a Cisco program called Network Magic Pro. While it's not perfect, it does have enough good features that it's worth having for a Network Admin program for what it costs. You get 8 licenses (more than enough to put on just about all of your systems) per copy, and it will let you setup sharing, network monitoring, access times, intruder monitoring, etc. It also has a Network Map that shows your network at a glance - who's connected, what's connected, etc.

By access times you can literally setup specific times for internet access for a given system on your network. While you can do that with any router admin panel, most users are so paranoid with messing with their Router Admin settings they barely access it at all, which in itself is a shame. NWP is a evolution of Linksys' LELA admin program for its routers, and goes further than LELA does, though at times I miss the simplicity of LELA. Still, that's because I'm not a casual user.

Regardless, if she's using your network outside of your guidelines, NWP will not only show it, it'll log it so you can print the evidence. It'll track usage and history for any device it monitors.

If you want to see a sample report from NWP, go here: Network Monitoring Report


As a rule, I try to avoid having any female mad at me for any reason, or at least mad enough to want to get back at me. If you're wrong, and she's using the 'net within your rules, it could be a bad scene all around.

Keep in mind that a small slowdown is expected on a single band network, and the amount is dependent on the overall network setup. If you have a and older network to begin with, even downloading MP3's or normal browsing will cause a slowdown depending on the site. Movies and such take a lot of bandwidth even in compressed format, and if you've got a G or single band N you'll likely get a lot more slowdown than what you're seeing.

It's important to remember that most casual users tend to use Auto-updates and similar features that auto-connect and download content from the 'net withouth the user necessarily being aware of it. I don't have anything on my system that updates automatically, but that's me and I'm not typical of most users. My point is that she could be downloading anything, and if you're network isn't setup properly, it could seem like she's violating your rules when in fact she's not.

You can use Network Magic as a full trial for 2 weeks. They also push it with Speed Meter Pro, which isn't a bad program, but has its uses. You can get both for about 50 bucks.

Network Magic Pro

Speed Meter Pro