[colug-432] Monitoring your link

[Rick Hornsby]

On Mar 22, 2013, at 16:45, Tim Randles <tim.randles at gmail.com> wrote:

> Locked wifi considered harmful
> 
> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/04/open-wireless-movement


When I read this the first time, and again when Tim linked it, I found it thought provoking.

I'm curious if anyone does this, and if so, you do monitor usage even in the aggregate?Supposing you wanted to, what sort of software would be good for that?  I've always been a little bit curious about how much and what is using my bandwidth, not only from me directly, but background processes like software checking for updates, etc.

I feel like I might want to know what someone is doing on my network, but then again maybe I don't.

I know that Windows and OSX (and Linux desktop?) do a good bit of network communication behind the scenes.  Has anyone taken the time to figure out a way to see what that is, and what the OS is doing?

Years ago, I could be pretty confident that if I was checking my email the only measurable traffic was a DNS request or two, and a TCP connection to port 110 on the remote mail server.

Beyond the curiosity, there is a practical reason - using tools like iptables, ipfw, or Little Snitch, is it possible to create a sort of "roaming" network access profile for use when you need to use your laptop, but your only connectivity is metered 3G/4G?  I wouldn't want, for example, Apple Software Update to download a 700MB update in the background while I'm tethered to my phone.  There are lots of processes that perform functions on behalf of applications and the OS that need connectivity, so it isn't enough to just say "only this app/browser can contact the Internet" or "only this address on the Internet may be contacted".  An example of the second one is to be able to fetch a CRL before visiting an SSL encrypted site.


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