[Discuss] Network monitoring tool recommendation

[darose at darose.net (David Rosenstrauch)]

We've got some machine (or machines) sucking up a lot of bandwidth on 
our network.  I'm trying to pin down exactly what, but not having much 
luck so far.

The network's got about a dozen machines, behind a firewall.  What I'd 
like to see is a high-level view of the whole network's bandwidth usage 
over the span of, say, 24 hours.  I.e., which machines are using the 
most bandwidth (i.e., in Gb), and connections to which external sites 
are causing most of the hogging.

Clearly, micro-level tools like iftop aren't going to cut it here, as 
they only show me a) what's using bandwidth right now, and b) an 
individual machine basis.

I tried running darkstat on each machine in the network, but it didn't 
really give me what I was looking for.  Again, the reporting was 
per-machine, and so didn't provide a comprehensive view.  (Among other 
problems.)

Bandwidthd looks like it might have some promise, but would take some 
time to set up to give me a comprehensive view.  (I.e., configure a 
pgsql database.)


Anyone have any particular recommendations for a situation like this?

Thanks,

DR