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Re: simple traffic monitor/firewalls



* Arthur Dent (arthur_dent5@hotmail.com) [020529 01:42]:
> Under windows I had a little network picture which would show up in my 
> system tray on the taskbar whenever I was on the internet. It showed 2 
> computers linked and whenever there was traffic either to of from my pc the 
> small monitor screen icons would turn blue, indicating activity.
> Now I have no firewall under linux I would like to have some way of at 
> least monitoring traffic throughput as I surf the net. Does anyone know if 
> there is any small utility that can do this under woody.

Have a look at gkrellm for a lot of little meter-type-things, including
network load coming and going. Even better than just a simple blip,
it'll show you a (fully customizable, of course) bar- or line-chart, so
you get some context (i.e. you know that it's been high for the last
minute, or just spliked this second, etc.)

gkrellm also has monitors for damned-near everything else, including
processor and disk loads, internal sensors (if you've got it in your
kernel) the weather, your email box, and a bunch more. And it's pretty
and theme-able. You can see what it looks like before installing it by
checking out http://www.muhri.net/gkrellm/nav.php3?node=screenshots

> Also can anyone advise me of a good book on installing debian woody and 
> getting it set up as secure as possible for a beginner. I dont care if at 

have a look at the Securing Debian Manual, for starters:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-howto/

> i.e. Where are the alarmd logs kept? I've searched but cant find them. 
> MAybe not trying hard enough but I only have so much time a day to dedicate 
> to linux and I'd like to be able to know what should I be looking at /for 
> and what is irrelevant at least for a while. A good beginners book?
> Under Win2K I know where to look for log info etc and if I dont I know 

Yeah, and you can spend hours pointing and clicking on log entries --
sorry "events" in the "event viewer". Sorry. Anyway, any sane program
(I'm not sure what alarmd is) will have logs appearing under /var/log
somewhere. It may be under /var/log/alarmd , or just mixed in with
/var/log/daemon.log or /var/log/syslog . grep around, you'll find it =)
You won't be able to point at them, but at least you can always find
what you want quickly and easily and do any other processing you want on
them as well (i.e. send any log entries that (don't) match certain
patterns in an email to root(see the logcheck pacakge), or whatever else
your imagination comes up with.)

> where to find out what I need to be looking for...as long as Bill wants me 
> to know...
> Does linux have like index.dat files??

well, you could make one by typing 'touch index.dat'[1] ... what are you
looking for? My guess is that you are refering to indexing files used by
windows' Find feature. the program 'locate' (or slocate) is an indexed
filesystem searcher. It stores its index in /var/lib/locate/locatedb ,
though, and not anything/index.dat .

> Any help appreciated.

I hope that did.

good times,
Vineet
-- 
Currently seeking opportunities in the SF Bay Area
Please see http://www.doorstop.net/resume.shtml

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