Internet tracking options

[Scot L. Harris]

On Mon, 2005-03-28 at 11:50, Mark Haney wrote:

> On Mon, 2005-03-28 at 11:45, Mark Haney wrote:
> 
> > Well after a small hiatus, I am back on the list again.  It's good to 
> > finally think about something other than Windows.  Here's my question 
> > to the list.  What options are there to track Users internet usage in 
> > Linux?  Not just bandwidth, which isn't an issue, but what sites are 
> > visited etc?  I know squid does this, but the log files are a pain to 
> > go through.  Are there any other apps out there that I can test?
> 
> Why not write a script to parse the squid log files for you?  
> 
> I suppose I could, however, my intention is to look at alternatives for
> those times when squid isn't used.  I guess I should have mentioned that
> earlier.

Without using a proxy server to funnel all http requests you will have
to find another choke point where you can monitor all traffic.  The
logical place would be the external firewall.  Even there you will need
to parse the firewalls logs to collect the data you want to look at.  

In a normal setup where squid is used the firewall is typically set to
block all http requests unless they come from the proxy server.  If this
is not done then the proxy server may go unused and you won't get any
benefit from having it in place.

You may need to explain more of what it is you really want to do and the
environment you are trying to set this up in.  

Without a choke point to log and view the traffic, which implies parsing
a log file at some point, there are no real good ways to get what I
think you are asking.  Trying to sniff traffic on the fly is difficult
at best and still requires a central choke point.

-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

Early to rise, early to bed, makes a man healthy, wealthy and dead.
		-- Terry Pratchett, "The Light Fantastic"