Sometimes, on an indeterminate problem of using WFilter, we might need a packet dump file for diagnosis. WFilter has a packet dump tool named "dumpPacket.exe", which will dump packets on the monitoring adapter.

This tutorial will guide you to generate a packet dump file using "dumpPacket.exe".

First, lauch "dumpPacket.exe" from "Start"->"IMFirewall WFilter"->"Tools". If you didn't install WFilter shortcuts, you can find this tool in WFilter directory.


It will ask you to enter a testing ip address. For example, if you need to check a monitoring problem for ip "192.168.1.20", you can input "192.168.1.20" here. If you just want to capture some packet samples, you may just press "enter" here! Press "enter" means dumping packets for all computers.



Close the dumping window. If you're doing a certain test, you need to wait until the test is done. For example, sending an email message.  If you're dumping packets for all computers, you only need to wait for 3-5 seconds because the dump file can be very large. If the dumping file is too large, you can do the test again in a shorter time.



The dump.cap file can be found in "temp" directory of WFilter. The dump.cap file is pcap format, which can be opened by wireshark and other pcap applications.

To make WFilter work, you need to setup port mirroring in your switch. However, sometimes you might still cannot monitor other computers even port mirroring is configured. It has several possibilities:

1. Misconfigured port mirroring. (wrong port, incorrect settings...)
2. Cable problem.
3. Network card problem.
4. Incorrect WFilter settings. (wrong ip segment or monitoring adapter...)

To locate the problem, first we need to confirm whether packets are mirrored to WFilter computer. It can be checked in a simple way following below steps:

Upon successful mirroring, the "Received" packets number shall be much larger than the "Sent" packets. If not, you need to check certain mirroring settings or cable connections.

Traffic Shaping and Prioritization is becoming more and more common in the corporate market. Most companies with remote offices are now connected via a WAN (Wide Area Network). Applications tend to become centrally hosted at the head office and remote offices are expected to pull data from central databases and server farms. As applications become more hungry in terms of bandwidth and prices of dedicated circuits being relatively high in most areas of the world, instead of increasing the size of their WAN circuits, companies feel the need to properly manage their circuits to make sure business-oriented traffic gets priority over best-effort traffic. Traffic shaping is thus a good means for companies to avoid purchasing additional bandwidth while properly managing these resources.

With a linux gateway, you have a very rich set of tools for managing and manipulating the transmission of packets. More details can be found at: http://linux-ip.net/articles/Traffic-Control-HOWTO/index.html, However, sometimes it might be difficult for you to deploy a linux gateway server.

This tutorial will guide to implement a passby bandwidth management solution, which enables you to manage internet bandwidth through a mirroring port on your switch. Port mirroring allows you to setup a port in the switch to receive packets of other ports. Setting up a mirror port does no change to your network topology, and it will not affect your network speed.

Let's take WFilter as an example:

First, setup a mirroring port.

When the port mirroring is properly setup, WFilter will be able to monitor all computers internet activities.

Bandwidth Management Settings

Using WFilter's bandwidth management feature, you can set a maximum accumulating bandwidth of each computer for a period time. In this example, each user can have 200M internet bandwidth every day. Only messengers and emails are allowed when the bandwidth limit is reached.


You also can setup a policy to block certain users when available internet bandwidth of the entire network is not enough. For example, When entire network traffic exceeds 80% of available internet bandwidth, p2p traffic will be blocked.

Bandwidth Alert Settings

And the bandwidth alert feature will send you an alert email when the accumulating bandwidth of a computer is too large.

More information, please check "WFilter Enterprise".
Other related links:
How to block websites at work during working hours?
How to block video streaming on company network?
How to block internet downloading?
How to monitor internet bandwidth?
How to monitor internet usage on company network?
How to block instant messaging on company network?
How to filter websites and restrict website access?

  Unmanaged internet downloading can consume most of your bandwidth, In practice, many, often most, of the files shared on peer-to-peer networks are copies of copyrighted popular music and movies. 

  So, it is important for corporations to manage, control and block p2p traffic and block unwanted file downloading.

  Files can be downloaded via various ways as described below:

  1. Downloading from HTTP/FTP websites.

  2. Downloading from p2p networks.

  3. Downloading from instant messenger buddies.

  For security purpose, downloading from p2p networks shall be completely forbidden in company networks. And only HTTP/FTP downloading from trusted websites can be allowed.

  Instant messenger file transfer makes it convenient to share files with our friends. It is fast and secure. However, because IM is so popular, virus writers can use it to spread malicious programs. These viruses are spread, in most cases, when a person clicks a link or opens an infected file that was sent in an instant message that appeared to come from a friend. Therefore, messenger file transfer also put your network in danger.

  "WFilter Enterprise"  makes it simple to manage file transfers between local network and the internet. Using WFilter, you may:

  1. Limit file downloading size.

  2. Block web downloading by file type.

  3. Block web downloading by content type. (Mime type)

  4. Block p2p traffic.

  5. Block file transfer via messengers.

  Figures:

 

Other related links:
How to monitor internet bandwidth?
Internet blocking
How to filter web surfing?
How to monitor internet usage on company network?
Internet monitoring software for business
Internet monitoring software

  Unmanaged internet access is harmful to your business.
  Without proper internet monitoring and filtering, you may suffer from:
  1. Lower productivity. Your employees might take hours for web surfing, chatting and watching videos.
  2. Slow internet speed. P2P programs or IPTV programs can easily consume most of your bandwidth. So normal business will not have enough available bandwidth.
  3. Unmanaged downloading will bring virus, worms and spyware, which is harmful to your network.
  4. Leaking of business documents and materials.

  Therefore, it is important for you to monitor and manage employees internet activity. This guide will introduce you several aspects of deployment and usage of internet monitoring and filtering software. Please be aware that I am only going to talk about internet access monitoring, which does not include screen monitoring, USB forbiding and keystroke recording. The latter requires you to install a client agent in every computer. And internet monitoring only needs to be installed near the internet entrance.

How to deploy internet monitoring software?

  Though internet monitoring only needs to be installed near internet entrance, it is quite different for different network topologies.
  For "Router<->Switch<->Computers" networks, you need to setup a mirroring port in the switch to enable monitoring. If you are using ISA or wingate proxy server, you can do monitoring right in the proxy server.

How to monitor internet bandwidth?

  Upon properly deployed, you can easily monitor internet bandwidth and activities using internet monitoring software.
  Below let me take "WFilter Enterprise" as an example:
 
  Use WFilter's "Active Connections" feature, you can have a clear view of all connections in your network.

Connections of a particular computer, you can kill established connections if you want.

For more details about "monitor internet bandwidth", please refer to: How to monitor internet bandwidth?

How to monitor internet usage?

In "Online computers" of WFilter, click the numbers under each title to view detailed records.

How to block downloading?

To save bandwidth, inproper downloading shall be blocked. The below figure shows blocking of large size files and blocking by video files.

Blocking of video files.





For more details, please refer to "How to block downloading?".

  In today's internet, video downloading, p2p programs, or IPTV programs can easily consume most of your bandwidth. So to make your internet more efficient, it is important for you to monitor internet bandwidth of each computers on your network.
  This tutorial will guide you in installing, setting up and using "WFilter Enterprise" to monitor your Internet bandwidth (uploads and download).

1. Setup a SPAN port for monitoring.

  Port mirroring allows you to setup a monitoring port in the switch to receive packets of other ports.
  First, you need to setup a SPAN port in your switch. And the computer with WFilter installed in shall be connected to the SPAN port.
  Read this example for details to setup port mirroring: Deploy internet monitoring using a port mirror switch.

2. Real-time bandwidth monitoring.

  Upon properly deployed, you will be able to monitor all computers internet activity and all internet connections.
  The "Online Computers" shows a list of online computers.

  The "Real-time bandwidth" shows current bandwidth usage diagram and top 20 computers.

3. Protocol Bandwidth Usage Report.

  The "Protocol Usage Report" shows the exact bandwidth usage for different protocols of each computer.
 


Bandwidth details:




More information, please check "WFilter Enterprise".
Other related links:
How to block internet downloading?
How to monitor internet usage on company network?
Internet monitoring software for business
How to filter web surfing?
How to block websites and restrict internet access?
How to Block Bittorrent and bitcomet?
How to block msn file transfer?
How to block certain websites to save your productivity?
How to block AIM using WFilter