Re: Nmap-based mapping/monitoring tool

[Mike Slifcak <slif () bellsouth net>]

The one thing I don't see ntop nor nmap being useful is in
finding network slowdowns or outages, as Jake describes those.

I've seen the utility of MRTG and Cricket, backed by routers
and switches that can be monitored for these purposes.

I'm willing to be educated, so let me know how you do this.
-Mike Slifcak


Jake Kallman wrote:
> Thank you all for the very fast responses and great input =)
>
> I'll take a look at ntop also.  One thing that I didn't mention in the
> initial post, and which might be of interest to Bob, is that to ease the
> load on a central server (and the network on the whole) we were going to
> make the server script work in a distributed and parallelized manner.
> Where at the top level of your network you could have a server that just
> compiles data from lower-tier machines which each run scans on the
> machines connected to them.  In this way the top level server does not
> have to run any scans, but rather just get the database files from the
> lower level machines at the scheduled intervals.  We thought that this
> would cut down a lot of scan time on larger networks, and also allow some
> scalability so that as the program was installed on larger networks one
> machine wouldn't be burdened with the job of handling all the scanning.
>
> Not sure if this helps out any, but just an idea I thought I'd throw out
> there.
>
> Jake
>
> On Wed, 10 Mar 2004, Craig Humphrey wrote:
>
>
> > Hi Jake,
> >
> > you may also want to look at ntop, which monitors a network through sniffing
> > (rather than active scanning), but integrates nmap to probe hosts.
> >
> > There are a few commercial tools out there that do this kind of thing (or
> > similar, or sub/supersets).
> > I've used What's Up Gold quite a bit.
> > Just did a little google and https://freemap.qualys.com/ looks interesting,
> > and being browser based, there's a certain amount of freedom for the client
> > end.
> >
> > Have fun and keep us in the loop.
> >
> > Later'ish
> > Craig
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Jake Kallman [mailto:jkallman () unr nevada edu]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 9:04 PM
> > > To: nmap-dev () insecure org
> > > Subject: Nmap-based mapping/monitoring tool
> > >
> > >
> > > I am developing a network monitoring and mapping tool based
> > > around nmap,
> > > which will provide a graphical representation of a network
> > > topology and
> > > maintain a database of information about computers in that
> > > network.  In
> > > essence, it will take the output of namp, run at scheduled
> > > intervals, and
> > > compare that data against data from previous runs to try and flag
> > > potential security and infrastructure problems.
> > >
> > > The idea, at a high level is fairly simple, and in fact is a
> > > little more
> > > complicated than it needs to be since I'm doing this as a project to
> > > complete my undergraduate degree in CS.  I'm writing a driver program,
> > > which will sit on a network server somewhere, and will run nmap at
> > > scheduled intervals on all computers in the network (which
> > > I'm going to
> > > try and optimize somewhat by allowing for multiple nmapping
> > > servers in the
> > > network so as to distribute the work as much as possible).  There will
> > > also be a client application which will allow a user to
> > > access this data
> > > remotely (ideally I'm trying to create this client application to
> > > allow users to log into the server from multiple platforms,
> > > like PDAs and
> > > cell phones, which might not be currently available, but when
> > > I talked to
> > > some network engineers in my area they said that it would be a great
> > > feature). The client will access the data from the server program, and
> > > create a graphical map of the network, showing any potential problem
> > > areas. Ideally, I want to be able to flag network slowdowns
> > > and outages,
> > > newly enabled/disabled ports on machines, newly connected
> > > machines (with
> > > an eye toward being able to watch for unauthorized wireless
> > > connections)
> > > and things of that nature.
> > >
> > > My question is whether or not this seems like a usable idea?
> > > If not, then
> > > what seems unfeasible about the design?
>
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