Network Monitoring Application
 

As part of my first year mini project I have to develop an application that should be such that when its deployed on a LAN, the server should at any time be able to find out the number and details of all nodes connected to the network, The details of file-sharing.

So is creating a log of all network activities and sending it over a good idea?
I need to somehow be able to create a log of the network activity that a computer does. Like a list of file the computer copied from another on the LAN and the list of files that he sent. So that when the server asks for the details it can be sent. The LAN will be connected via a switch so all communications between clients will not reach the server and so the log to store the history too.

I tried to find this myself but just couldnt get anywhere. I found Beej's tutorial via Google while looking for information on Sockets and SNMP. I read the tutorial but I am a complete newbie in this field and couldnt understand it all. I am still trying. Please help me in whatever way you can. I need to know how its done as we will need it in other similar projects.

I saw a similar thread printing text to a server or something , but again it got me nowhere.

Can this be done in anyway other than creating the log?


I am a first year computer engineering student from India. Sockets look wonderfull but very hard to understand.

Re: Network Monitoring Application
 

Seeing as you have not been taught anything about sockets this seems a little much for a first year computer project. If I were to do this I would try using libpcap. It lets you capture all the packets that sent or received over the computers network interfaces. This is what wireshark uses.

Re: Network Monitoring Application
 

I am also begining to think this is a bit too much for me now. We were to do this under guidance but our professor had to leave suddenly and left us to figure it out.