Re: Advice / recommendations on Inexpensive Managed Ethernet Switches
Thanks for the replies (from Dan and Frank)!
I'm going to do some thinking--at first I just wanted to find out how we were
using so much bandwidth, but, once I do, I might want to try blocking some of
it if that won't disable pages that I want to look at.
I'll look for pfSense or OPNSense--apper doesn't list them for Wheezy, but I'm
sure I can find them.
I don' think I want to try to use a Debian box as a smart router, I'd rather
find a packaged solution. (I've done things like that before--I've learned too
much about NAT and such over the last 30 years or so. ;-)
Just for posterity, here's an example of a <$30 smart gigabit switch on eBay:
NEW NETGEAR ProSAFE GS105Ev2 5-Port Gigabit Web Managed (Plus) Switch
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-NETGEAR-ProSAFE-GS105Ev2-5-Port-Gigabit-Web-
Managed-Plus-Switch-/381923274422
On Thursday, February 02, 2017 11:58:28 AM Dan Ritter wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 02, 2017 at 11:19:59AM -0500, rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> > Aside: I am actually gobsmacked (I don't think I've ever been gobsmacked
> > before ;-)--in a week of monitoring, we (my son and I, but with my son
> > gone 8 to 12 hours a day) are downloading 1.5 to 4 GB *per day* (and
> > uploading 100 to 300 MB *per day*).
> >
> > Anyway, I want to try to figure out where all this data is going to and
> > coming from, at least in terms of the devices we have on our LAN (I'll
> > discuss those below), so I'm thinking that a(n inexpensive) managed
> > (Ethernet) switch or two (discussed below) might help me do that.
>
> I think you actually want a smart router. A Debian box with two
> or more network interfaces can be such a thing.
>
> > One thing I want to do is implement QOS--we have two ObiHai VOIP devices
> > (which we use pretty rarely, but still want to keep--they might be used
> > for 4 calls / 10 to 30 minutes a week). Sometimes the conversation gets
> > pretty choppy, probably depending on what my son is doing at the time (I
> > mean, like watching a video or something), so I'm hoping that QOS would
> > improve that (assuming the packets from the ObiHai device can be
> > recognized--I would think they can based on their (private / on the LAN)
> > IP addresses.
>
> A router can do that better than a switch can.
>
> > Like I mentioned above, the other thing I want to do is start monitoring
> > (at least on an occasional / diagnostic basis) the bandwidth used by
> > each device.
>
> Depending on exactly what you want, either a switch or a router
> can help here.
>
> > Layout of the network (for background):
> >
> > The Earthlink DSL modem (Westell) is followed by an Ethernet (unmanaged}
> > switch.
>
> You would want to put your router in between these. If you can
> arrange a third network interface on the router, you could
> connect the WiFi hotspot to the router, as well.
>
> > I see managed 5-port gigabit switches on eBay starting at a little under
> > $30, and I'd like to stay close to that as a budget (i.e., ~$60 for 2).
> > Of course, if a more featureful switch can monitor the data flows to
> > each device from that (central) location, I could spend that ~$60 for
> > the more featureful switch). (But there is some value to me to have two
> > managed switches such that one would serve as a spare for the central
> > one even if being used at other locations for monitoring.)
> >
> > Advice / comments / recommendations?
>
> That seems an unlikely price point, even for used equipment on
> ebay. And managed switches usually have a minimum of 12 ports,
> not 5. (12, 16, 24, 32 and 48 are all common)
>
> I would recommend putting in a Debian box between the DSL modem
> and the ethernet switch. You will need to learn a little about
> routing and IP masquerading / NAT, and you will want to set up
> firewalling with iptables.
>
> You can look at traffic in realtime with iftop, which will show
> you graphs of the top users by IP address or domain name and
> where they are connecting.
>
> You can set individual traffic counters per IP address or per
> service or both with iptables.
>
> What you won't get is flow information between local devices,
> but as I understand it you are more concerned about traffic
> in/out to the Internet at large.
>
> If you set fq_codel as the queue discipline on the interfaces
> to the router, you will probably solve most of your traffic
> interference problems without mucking with QoS.
>
> -dsr-
Reply to: