| |
| |
| User's forum |
(C) Serge Ryvkin, 1999-2000
E-Mail:
From version 3.0 the program is distributed as Shareware. In unregistered version could be used without any limitations all functions of previous Freeware versions, but registration gives additional benefits.
From version 2.0 format of configuration data and encryption algorithms
changed. You should store new data by running program, entering passwords
and pressing OK in configuration window. The same must be done after saving
new registration file (ChanLoad.key).
1. Common information
^
This client/server program was developed for system administrator and network users would be able to see main Internet channel statistics in real time. It can show for selected channel such information as:
To decrease CISCO router usage, the program may work as HTTP server. In this mode it gets router statistics
and can distribute these data by browser request.
2. Used CISCO OS command
^
For this program was used following blocks of commands:
The program don't need installation, to run it Microsoft windows sockets should be installed. For deinstall program you can delete unnecessary Registry information, after that delete all files from working directory.
During first start of program banner advertisement block from Aureate Media Corporation is initializing. You can enter requested information to receive only interesting for you advertisement information in the future. If you don't want to enter any information, you can press CANCEL. In this situation default information settings will be used. In registered version of the program banner advertisement will not be shown.
After installation of new program version on the old one, the good idea would be to enter into configuration window, check data and press OK to overwrite configuration data.
The program was developed as Win32 Internet/Intranet application. It regularly connects
via TELNET to the CISCO router and gets
statistic information.
Program command line options where [Router name] - using this parameter in Server mode may be run multiple
instances of program with different configuration data [/DEBUG] - using this parameter you can receive internal error messages and error messages of interaction with router during program run in file DEBUG.LOG.
This mode also enables to write configuration data (without any
passwords!) to text file After startup, main program icon appears on System Tray.
If you want to run the program as NT Service, you can use programs like
SrvAny (part of NT resource kit), or third part firms (for example, http://www.firedaemon.com/).
With Configuration command of context menu administrator must set up following parameters
Connection ^
4. Program description ^
| Parameter name | Description | Advice |
| CISCO host: | IP address or DNS name of host | You can enter Host name of IP address like a.b.c.d. IP address is more effectively |
| CISCO port: | port number for TELNET connection | Usually 23 |
| User name: | user name for AAA password authentication | If AAA password authentification mode (by
name and password) enabled on router, mentioned name is storing in
this field. This mode allow increase work security - you can create
separate user with low rights and use his name in the program
Mode Switch On: name# conf t Mode Switch Off: name# conf t |
| TELNET PSW: | standard password for TELNET connection | You must enter this parameter, because without it the program cannot receive any data |
| Admin PSW: | administrative password | This parameter used in the program for
following purposes:
If you don't use the program in these mode, you can not enter this parameter. |
| Refresh interval: | time between statistic request (in ms). | Must be not less than 5000 ms. Depend on program working mode. Each additional mode (such as IP accounting, CPU stats etc) slows down program's productivity. So, you should check time need for all data handling and set this parameter to 1.5-2 times more. |
| No Logoff | Keep connection after receiving statistics data |
This mode have some advantages and disadvantages. Advantages:
Disadvantages:
|
| Connection timeout | time during which data receiving process is valid | Must be not less than 5000 ms. This parameter used by program as time interval between telnet connection request and error handling because connection did not established and/or data did not received. So, it should be enough to connect to remote router and receive all data. If router have a lot of IP accounting data, you should increase this value too. |
Channel stats ^
| Parameter name | Description | Advice |
| Enable | enable get information about summary channel statistics for interfaces, listed in Interface(s) | |
| Administrative Mode | retrieve statistics (summary, subnet traffic and CPU utilization) in administrative mode (enable command) | If router's security enables to show interface statistics only in administrative mode (enable command), this switch allows the program receive data. I don't advice to use this mode commonly, because admin password is sending to router every time the program gets channel stats (and usually - only during Clear counters). |
| Logging interval (min): | time interval (in minutes) between saving of Log with average for this interval information. Zero value disables logging. | There are not many channel statistic information, so saving frequency can depend only on reliability (because of possible fail of computer with program) and precision (because of average calculation of data for selected time interval). |
| Log Name: | name of Log file. Log file contains following information:
|
If file does not exist, the program creates new
one. First line of such file contains information about field names.
During work with file enabled ReadOnly access to it from another
program.More information about naming of Log files can be seen below.
I can advise following name
(D)log\yyyymmddhhnn.log where log\ - is folder for storing Log files.
|
| Bandwidth: | Maximum channel bandwidth (bit/s). | The program needs this parameter to have
reference point of 100% for produce percent data and draw graphics. If you
set some value, all results will be adjusted to to it. So, it would be convenient
to set this value to most thin channel. If select 'Auto', Bandwidth will be retrieved from channel statistic information
(Bandwidth parameter of channel setup)
Bandwidth parameter can be set as following: name# configure terminal
|
| Interface(s): | interface name to show it statistics. Multiple interfaces may be delimited by ';'. It is possible add extended name to the interface for improve visibility of information. In this case each interface name may consist with name and extended name, delimited by '!' | Rules of interface naming can be found on CISCO documentation web site. Main channel name is using in telnet session and in Log file. Channel alias is using to name the channel on screen. |
| Beep on channel load more than | Beep if channel load exceeds this value. | The program beeps during log file write |
| Clear counters | clear Volume traffic counters, correspondently, never, everyday, every week on Monday, 1-st day every month. Button press clears counters at once. This button available only on Server, and only if was entered CISCO administration password | Enables regularly clear accumulative counters (as summary channel traffic) |
IP Accounting ^
| Parameter name | Description | Advice |
| Enable: | enable/disable receiving IP accounting information | |
| Switch On After Start: | switch IP accounting ON after program start | These parameters can be Switched Off if IP accounting statistics are already switched on in the router, and it would be undesired that the program will affect to this statistics. In this mode the program stores previous received data, and calculates difference on base new received information. This result is using for statistics calculation. Accordingly, this mode uses additional memory, and receiving new information from router time increases. |
| Switch Off Before Finish: | switch IP accounting OFF before program termination | |
| Clear: | clear IP accounting during program work. I don't suggest disable this mode because of non stable results of CPS measurement and growth of used router memory | |
| Subnet / Mask: | Inner subnet for which the program counts IP accounting information. It is possible multiple subnet accounting. Each Subnet address/Mask should be delimited by ';'. | The program allows receive raw statistics data like
From IP - To IP - Bytes and select from it addresses corresponded to selected subnet(s). The program considers them as main addreses, and all others - as correspondents. Thus, the program is able to count traffic statistics (inbound and outbound) for group of addresses. If you want to watch all addresses, set Mask to '0.0.0.0' (but you should know, than traffic information doubles, because count two times - for first and for second addresses) |
| Interfaces: | interfaces list (delimited by ';'), for which the program counts the IP accounting information | CISCO router is able to count IP accounting of output and error packets. So, in this parameter you should enumerate all active interfaces on watching router. For each of this interfaces IP accounting of output packets will be enable, so it allows to resolve the problem. |
| Host by Address Enable | enable/disable show of DNS (NetBios) host name on IP accounting graphic. In correspondence with this switch will be written or no host names to Log file. For properly work the Wins server must exists in the network (or it analog - LMHOSTS file ) or all hosts must have reverse PTR record on DNS server (or HOSTS file). If not, it would be impossible get host name by IP address | Host name information is more informative than IP address, so this mode can add valuable information to user. Buf Host By Address request is very slow (about 2-4 second per one), this job was moved into separate thread, and host names will appear gradually, not an once. |
| Look after correspondents | Enables mode for watching correspondent addresses' traffic through router. !WARNING! This mode may decrease productivity. | |
| Log Name: | name of Log file with traffic information. Log file contains following information:
Full Log Enabled
Full Log Disabled
|
If file does not exist, the program creates new one. First
line of such file contains information about field names.
So, if user want to change Log file format, he should change file name or delete old Log
file. During work with file enabled ReadOnly access to it from
another program. More information about naming of Log files can be seen below.
I can advise following name
(D)log\IPAyyyymmddhhnn.log where log\ - is folder for storing Log files.
|
| Full Log: | Enables write Full IP accounting Log - with addresses of source and destination hosts | Difference between log files format can be seen above. |
| Logging interval (min): | time interval (in seconds) between saving traffic
information of each subnet IP address. Zero value
disables logging. Must be not less than 5 min. |
!!!! ATTENTION !!!! Log file contains ALL information about subnet workstations' traffic during this time interval, so it size may race fast. You should take into account, that frequent cleaning correspondents' data may interfere with saving information into log files. It should be checked during selection of these parameters. |
| Clear correspondents' data frequency: | time interval (in seconds) after which information about correspondents will be deleted (to improve performance and save memory) | If you try to imagine all addresses information space as digital tree, its root will have addresses list of watching subnet, from each point if which grow lists of correspondent addresses. In this situation address list of watching subnet usually grows much slower and is enough stable. So, to increase productivity of addresses handling and saving of memory, correspondents' data lists periodically are deleting. |
| Threshold: | number of records in memory for IP accounting. | Each record corresponds to about 16 Bytes. CISCO recommends to set Threshold value to half of available memory. For example, for 2501 this value should not be more than 512. If this number or frequency of IP accounting data receiving is not enough, message 'Low IP accounting threshold memory !!!' appears in the status line of Subnet Traffic window. |
| Show packets' data | to take into account the information about packets for subnet traffic show | The program takes into account number of packets and average packet size |
| Parameter name | Description | Advice |
| Enable: | Enable / Disable embedded HTTP server | HTTP server is block of embedded into program procedures that supply standard HTTP request on selected port. Mentioned procedures work in separate thread. Because HTTP answer have been prepared before and enough fast, clients' service should not be separated into threads. |
| Port: | IP port, for HTTP server. If this port is already busy, the program is trying to find first free port incrementing this value | May be value from 1 to 65535. This port should be free on the computer. |
| Time GMT: | Difference between local time and Greenwich time (GMT) | Need for correct time representation in HTTP answer header |
| Name / Password: | Name and Password for get access to HTTP server | For user identification the program uses 'Basic HTTP Authentification' (RFC1945) |
| Autorefresh: | During HTTP server work it is possible auto refresh pages generation with refresh time corresponded to period of data receiving from CISCO router. I suggest to not use this option during work via Proxy. | The program uses tag META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh..., that can not be supported by some browsers |
| Working directory | Directory name to store files generated by HTTP server | Files will be stored in mentioned directory if HTTP server enabled and this parameter is not empty |
Program parameters ^
| Parameter name | Description | Advice |
| Select default mode | Gives possibility to select, which window will be opened by double click on program's Tray Icon. User can select between 'Top 10 Traffic Makers' and 'Common Statistics' | |
| Session window - Enable | enable/disable window with text of current telnet session | |
| Session window - Log Name | if non empty - save telnet session to file | |
| Hash table size | Size of table for fast addresses search. | Size of main table corresponds to size of watching subnet. Default value is 256. Size of correspondents' table depends on average number of correspondents. Default value is 16. Search speed may be accelerated in selected times (due to memory size increase). |
| CPU Utilization | enable get information about CISCO CPU utilization and show it in common statistic
window. ChanStat retrieves such data about CPU utilization as
|
|
| Clear Registry | clear all previous entered data from Registry. After this the program exits. | This is the simple way to deinstall the program. After that tt's safe to delete program's directory to finish deinstallation |
| Help English / Russian | hyper-link to corresponding locally stored home-page |
Mail notification ^
| Parameter name | Description | Advice |
| Enable | Enables / Disables possibility to send Log files via EMail | Log files can be created in two modes: usual additive and, depending on date, each time new. In first mode actual data can be found only if latest sent file (all other can be deleted). In second mode each sent file is unique. |
| SMTP server | Mail server via which you want to send mail messages | |
| User ID | User name on this server | Most servers accept mail only from registered on them users |
| User name | Name on behalf of which this messages will be sent | |
| User Address | ReplyTo address | |
| Destination address | Address to which you want to send messages | |
| Channel statistic log IP accounting log Session window log |
Log files that you want to receive |
| Parameter name | Description |
| Cancel: | Undo last changes and close configuration window |
| OK: | test values, set up parameters and save them in Registry. After that the program tries to restart. |
All parameters are saved in registry key:
ConfigData - Configuration parameters
Multy, Session, IPA, Config - correspondent windows parameters
password parameters are encrypted.
Name of Log file can have information about date and time (for example, to everyday logging). To do it, user should add (D) before Log file name. In the file name can be used following symbols:
After setting the configuration parameters, tray icon of the application
shows current channel summary load gauge. Application hint shows this
information in digital way. Double click on it opens full statistical window. (It is possible select mode to open Subnet Traffic window - see below).
To close this window you should click to flashing circle on the right. Depending on working state, this circle can be filled with three colors.
Red - state, when data is retrieving from router. Yellow - data is treated. Green - data information is ready for show.
If multiple channel mode is set, tray icon, hint and status bar
in statistical windows show information about first listed channel. To select
another, user should click to such channel chart in statistical window. Data
about this channel will be shown by tray icon and hint.
If IP accounting is enabled in the program, it enables accounting on router after start and disables before finish (this process needs some timeout time). During work time the program regularly receives traffic information from CISCO router. Full translated information it writes to the Log file. User can see 'Top Ten Subnet traffic makers' graphic. It can be shown by menu command 'Subnet Traffic'. To close Traffic Information Window user should click to flashing circle.
In registered version of program there is gray circle in left upper corner of each filled line. After click on it another watch mode will be enabled. In this mode user can look after correspondents of selected address. Gray window with summary of selected address' traffic will be moved to the top (and
circle will became blue), and in white windows will contain traffic information for corresponded addresses. To return into normal mode user should click to blue
circle.
If HTTP server enabled, embedded HTTP server can answer browser requests like:
Context menu command Disable/Enable can stop/start getting information. To
exit application, user should use EXIT command from context menu.
For developing this application was used following tools:
5. Used tools ^
6. Acknowledgments
^
Great acknowledgments for new ideas and help in debugging process to
??.??.???? (Version 3.5)
01.03.2000 (Version 3.4)
14.12.1999 (Version 3.3)
10.09.1999 (Version 3.2)
28.06.1999 (Version 3.1)
03.05.1999 (Version 3.0)
09.03.1999 (Version 2.1)
03.03.1999 (Version 2.0)
29.01.1999 (Version 1.2)
18.01.1999 (Version 1.1)
29.12.1998 (Version 1.0)
I will provide technical support for registered users through E-mail. If you want help to resolve some problems with my program, please write me a message with following information:
