1 Introduction to ntop
Network management is becoming an increasingly complex task due to the variety of network types and the integration of different network media. As networks become larger, more complex, and more heterogeneous, the costs of network management rise. In this scenario, automated tools are needed to support human effort, gathering information about the status and behaviour of networked elements. According to [14], network monitoring is the most fundamental aspect of automated network management.
This text provides information on the use of ntop by network managers or operators. ntop [3] is a simple, free and portable traffic measurement and monitoring tool, initially conceived by Luca Deri and Stefano Suin for tackling performance problems on the campus network of the University of Pisa, Italy.
Similar to the Unix top tool that reports processes CPU usage, the authors needed a simple tool able to report the network top users (hence the term ntop) for quickly identifying those hosts that were currently using most of the available network resources. ntop then evolved into a more flexible and powerful tool [6], [8], [5]. The current version of ntop features command line and web-based user interfaces, and is available on both UNIX and Win32 platforms. It is currently developed using the concept of open source software [13]. ntop focuses on:
- traffic measurement,
- traffic monitoring,
- network optimization and planning, and
- detection of network security violations.
This text is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the features mentioned above in further detail, Section 3 describes the installation procedures, Section 4 provides an example of the use of ntop, and Section 5 discusses alternative approaches to monitoring.