Hi,
Please forgive my ignorance for the subject. I am new to the world of router advanced capabilities.
We are about 10 to 15 users sharing the same internet connection in our building. Our ISP has put a cap on our bandwidth usage.
We need to monitor everyone's monthly usage and/or set a monthly quota for each user. It seems that a router running Gargoyle can do that. Is that right? What happens if the router is disconnected (powered off)? Does it loose all data (logs) and settings? Does the router provide some sort of archive? Is there some flexibility for collecting the data?
Thanks in advance!
Basic questions
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Re: Basic questions
If the power goes off, it still remembers. Should be fine for a month by month basis.
If you want to keep the logs for a history record (say for a few years), you may either need to ensure you have a router with USB or setup some sort of FTP script that sends the log file somewhere.
I'm using Gargoyle in a share house ATM and works great. Had some's internet cut after about 16 days cause the were torrenting (apparently they don't even know what file sharing is...lol as if I'm that stupid) anyway it's quite good.Only issue is that it's based off IP address, is if you have open DHCP enabled and are only monitoring the usage on an IP by IP base, it's quiet easy for them to just change MAC addresses and start fresh (they would have be that smart though, average user wouldn't know about this) Only way to stop that is to only allow devices that you've set the static IP address for. (<-- if you want to do that, let me know and I'll explain how to do it)
I'm working on another method of Quota Managment, but that's going to be freakin AAAAAAGES away at this rate since I'm having trouble getting a test system together. I posted about it here: http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi ... f=5&t=3304
If you want to keep the logs for a history record (say for a few years), you may either need to ensure you have a router with USB or setup some sort of FTP script that sends the log file somewhere.
I'm using Gargoyle in a share house ATM and works great. Had some's internet cut after about 16 days cause the were torrenting (apparently they don't even know what file sharing is...lol as if I'm that stupid) anyway it's quite good.Only issue is that it's based off IP address, is if you have open DHCP enabled and are only monitoring the usage on an IP by IP base, it's quiet easy for them to just change MAC addresses and start fresh (they would have be that smart though, average user wouldn't know about this) Only way to stop that is to only allow devices that you've set the static IP address for. (<-- if you want to do that, let me know and I'll explain how to do it)
I'm working on another method of Quota Managment, but that's going to be freakin AAAAAAGES away at this rate since I'm having trouble getting a test system together. I posted about it here: http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi ... f=5&t=3304
Re: Basic questions
Thank you so much bjm for your kind reply! Great, it's comforting to know that I would not loose data upon a power failure.
I don't really need a long term archive at the moment. I would preferably need to keep the data for at least the previous month. What happens at the end of the month (or a cycle?), does it reset to zero and data is erased? Or is there some short term archiving? Can't sit and wait the last minute of the month to collect the data
Keeping long term history could eventually become useful. How would I collect the data through USB? Manually copying a file from the back of the router?
The FTP option is also interesting. As I understand, the router performs the script and log data to a server by FTP. Where do you get such script and how do you install it?
I have setup routers in the past and I am somewhat comfortable with the basic settings. I should be able to set up static IP.
I am quite interested in your Quota Management project. We have guests coming for short term stay. It would be fantastic if they could register themselves. My understanding is that it would collect the MAC address and assign an IP address to it. We charge users per usage. How would you link this record to a person? Would it collect their names as well? How do you install such "package" on the router? I wish something like that already exists. I will certainly keep a watch on your progress. Would you announce it of the post you listed? Thanks again and looking forward to hear from you again.
I don't really need a long term archive at the moment. I would preferably need to keep the data for at least the previous month. What happens at the end of the month (or a cycle?), does it reset to zero and data is erased? Or is there some short term archiving? Can't sit and wait the last minute of the month to collect the data
Keeping long term history could eventually become useful. How would I collect the data through USB? Manually copying a file from the back of the router?
The FTP option is also interesting. As I understand, the router performs the script and log data to a server by FTP. Where do you get such script and how do you install it?
I have setup routers in the past and I am somewhat comfortable with the basic settings. I should be able to set up static IP.
I am quite interested in your Quota Management project. We have guests coming for short term stay. It would be fantastic if they could register themselves. My understanding is that it would collect the MAC address and assign an IP address to it. We charge users per usage. How would you link this record to a person? Would it collect their names as well? How do you install such "package" on the router? I wish something like that already exists. I will certainly keep a watch on your progress. Would you announce it of the post you listed? Thanks again and looking forward to hear from you again.