🚀 go-pugleaf

Back in July, I posted this message:

    >I'm wanting to gather some statistics on the utilization of our
    >ethernets, and would like to know if anyone out there is aware of a
    >reasonable way of doing this.  I'm thinking of something like a box
    >that will sit on the ethernet and gather statistics on network traffic,
    >reporting its accumulated statistics on request via a serial line.
    >I'm aware that this information is available on a per-host basis
    >via netstat, but would like to find a method that's a bit less unwieldy.
    >Please respond directly to menges@unc, and I will post a summary.

Here is a summary of the responses I received.  I don't yet have any
comments of my own, as I'm just now getting around to following up
on this.

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The INTEL 82586 Ethernet co-processor coupled with a
microprocessor would be able to do the trick for you.
The 82586 is designed to work closely with the 81086 uP
but other processors could be used.

The 82586 utilizes DMA into system memory and signals
the system processor when a packet has arrived.  he 82586
has a promiscus mode that will listen to all packets 
on the Ehternet!

Good Luck!

BIll Retzner
ihnp4!ihlpg!retzner
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From BRL.ARPA!ron@seismo

Interlan and Excelan both make ethernet monitoring equipment.
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You might like to take a look at the Excelan Nutcracker. This is the best known
of the current Ethernet monitors -- its prime fault is that it is a packaged
"workstation" that may only be used for the monitoring function.

-- 
UUCP:  ...!seismo!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!david
DARPA: david%lancs.comp@ucl-cs	| Post: University of Lancaster,
JANET: david@uk.ac.lancs.comp	|	Department of Computing,
Phone: +44 524 65201 ext 4150	|	Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YR, UK.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
From ucbvax!hplabs!oblio!paf@decvax

Try the Excelan Nutcracker. This is an ethernet monitor that is programmable.
The user language is really horrible and ill-designed. But you can code it
to monitor traffic to certain addresses or group of addresses. I used one
to bring up TCP/IP with a 4.2 port. The user interface really stinks, but
they seem to be the only game in town. Last time I talked with them, they
indicated that they were redoing it (Jan 1985). Their address is:

			Excelan
			2180 Fortune Drive
			San Jose, CA  95131
			(408) 945-9526
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From: hao!boulder!tim@seismo (Timothy J. Gardner)

You should get in contact with someone in the Network Performance Measurement
Group at the National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Md.  Rob Rosenthal
is the manager of the group.  This group has done extensive performance 
measurements of several networks, 802.2 being one of them.  The current
network being measured is 802.4 (token bus).  Measurement techniques used
involve building traffic generators and/or network exercisers to load the
network and then monitoring the network using a passive network monitor.
Data collected from the monitor is passed on to a program that tracks the
network protocol and creates a set of stastical data.  This data is then
passed on to an analysis and display program.  The phone number of the
group is (301) 921-3516.  There has been many articles and papers written
about work this group has done and they will be more than happy to point
you in the direction of some of them.

		Timothy Gardner
		University of Colorado, Boulder
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From: jbn@wdl1.UUCP

       Excelan has a nice box that does this, the Excelan Nutcracker,
but it is overpriced at $49K.  The MIT software for the IBM PC has some nice
logging and statistics facilities, and at $12 for the object and $75 for
the source, plus $650 to 3COM for the Ethernet controller, it's a bargain.

					John Nagle
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From: robert@cheviot.uucp (Robert Stroud)

Spider Systems produce an Ethernet monitor which sells for 4618 pounds.
It knows about the format of IP, XNS and ISO packets and can be used
to trace packets that match a particular pattern. A nice feature is the
ability to use local host names instead of Ethernet addresses. It can
also collect statistics, draw usage graphs, generate traffic, and test
the connectivity of the network.

We saw a demonstration the other day and liked it a lot, not least
because it tracked down a long-standing mysterious bug very quickly!
In fact we liked it so much we're going to buy one.

As a relatively new product, it is only available in the UK at present.

For further information contact...

	Spider Systems Limited,
	65 Bonnington Road,
	Edinburgh,
	EH6 5JQ

	+44 31 554 9197

(or try ...!ukc!edcaad!hwcs!spider)