6 ms·

Self-hosted home network traffic monitoring with ntopng and a Fritz Box

72 points by fortym2 4y ago

amaccuish 4y ago
Fritzboxes have the best non-OpenWRT OS IMHO
- fortym2 4y ago
  I agree. Probably best consumer-level router OS
- hansel_der 4y ago
  iirc fritz-os was very much based on openwrt, same as most homerouters
  - gsich 4y ago
    Not sure that is the case. Most use Linux.
    - hansel_der 4y ago
      openwrt indeed uses the linux kernel
      - gsich 4y ago
        Yes. That does not make Fritzos a fork or continuation of OpenWrt.
        hansel_der 4y ago
        true. thou the second part of your comment sounds like you are saying that openwrt and linux have little in common.
- TillE 4y ago
  They're the only home routers I've ever owned which aren't constantly failing in some way. It's a shame they're only really available in Germany (and I guess Austria).
  - codetrotter 4y ago
    I’ve seen FritzBoxes in a computer shop in Spain as well. Don’t know how wide-spread they are in Spain however.
  - nasalter 4y ago
    I'm in the UK and use Zen Internet as my ISP. Zen distribute a FRITZ!Box 7530 as their home router [1]. I was sufficiently pleased by the FRITZ!Box that I bought a 2nd one to extend the wifi in my home - very easy to do with the fritz devices. [1] https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/broadband-router https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/broadband-router
  - waste_monk 4y ago
    Can confirm they are in use down here in Australia. I know someone who just upgraded their 7490 to a 7590 due to compatibility changes with our National Broadband Network (enablement of SOS-ROC).
  - amaccuish 4y ago
    I brought mine over from the UK for use here in Germany and just upgraded. Sadly it seems their extenders are only available with EU plugs so I'll have to send some back for my parents, they really are that hassle free that it's worth the effort.
richrichardsson 4y ago
Slightly off-topic: "an" should not be used with words beginning with H, unless the H is unvoiced, such as "an homage".
- fortym2 4y ago
  You are right, thank you :D
- akerl_ 4y ago
  I just assumed that, because the server was providing resistance to the flow of packets on the network, it was properly called "an ohm server".
j3th9n 4y ago
[flagged]
- Macha 4y ago
  It's a short spiral pattern, seems a little weird to attribute it to anything? I wasn't aware there was a pedophile symbol so I searched it and found some 00s parenting advice "these are the symbols to be aware of", while also warning about AIM abbreviations that I'm pretty sure is just a made up panic, and some pizzagate articles, so I'm not sure that that's even a real thing.
  - JadoJodo 4y ago
    This symbol was also in the TV show True Detective. Attributing that to this article is kind of ridiculous though.
    - Jnr 4y ago
      And I thought he is a fan of Debian distro.
    - MonkeyClub 4y ago
      The “symbol” in question is this: https://davquar.it/images/post/self-hosting/ntopng-fritzbox-monitoring/funny-ip-geolocation-milan.png https://davquar.it/images/post/self-hosting/ntopng-fritzbox-... Fundamentally it’s a bunch of points superimposed on a map of Milan through geolocation. The author’s comment doesn’t indicate that he views it as something sinister in the pd sense.
    - TillE 4y ago
      Was that their version of the Yellow Sign? I like the Pelgrane Press one: https://pelgranepress.com/2020/02/06/our-yellow-sign-is-your-yellow-sign/ https://pelgranepress.com/2020/02/06/our-yellow-sign-is-your...
- m0rbz 4y ago
  Hopefully he was alluding to the Debian logo
c0nsumer 4y ago
This is neat. A word of caution, depending on how the network is laid out, this could cause severe bandwidth overhead if there isn't a dedicated, and unmonitored, interface for the capture to flow over. One needs to be careful not to have the captured traffic flowing out to the monitor via an interface that's being monitored, otherwise load will snowball. The example here omits eth1, so I'm presuming that's the path the capture takes, but it would have been nice to see the author call this out. Otherwise, without some sort of capture-side filter, which the fritzdump.sh script and example doesn't seem to include, the capture will include a copy of the monitoring stream and the bandwidth will snowball. There's also the issue of the monitoring port likely not able to capture full bandwidth of the aggregate of the other ports being monitored. Since the buffer in the device likely isn't unlimited, there's a possibility for lost data during times of high traffic.
dmacvicar 4y ago
Off-topic but interesting to this audience: since the last update, Fritz boxes support Wireguard. https://en.avm.de/news/the-latest-news-from-fritz/2022/wireguard-vpn-has-never-been-so-easy/ https://en.avm.de/news/the-latest-news-from-fritz/2022/wireg...
- senectus1 4y ago
  nice! I wasn't aware of that thanks. Had to upgrade to a beta FW for my older model but it works a treat!
binkHN 4y ago
I’ve been doing something similar at home for years. An OpenBSD box at the egress point exports IPFIX data to nfdump and I designed custom charts for myself using the legacy dygraphs. IPFIX plus nfdump is wonderful as I can quickly use a tcpdump-like interface to very quickly search against data from months ago and the dygraphs charting allows me to easily see traffic patterns with the ability to quickly zoom in.

72 points by fortym2 4y ago

amaccuish 4y ago

Fritzboxes have the best non-OpenWRT OS IMHO

fortym2 4y ago
I agree. Probably best consumer-level router OS
hansel_der 4y ago
iirc fritz-os was very much based on openwrt, same as most homerouters
- gsich 4y ago
  Not sure that is the case. Most use Linux.
  - hansel_der 4y ago
    openwrt indeed uses the linux kernel
    - gsich 4y ago
      Yes. That does not make Fritzos a fork or continuation of OpenWrt.
      - hansel_der 4y ago
        true. thou the second part of your comment sounds like you are saying that openwrt and linux have little in common.
TillE 4y ago
They're the only home routers I've ever owned which aren't constantly failing in some way. It's a shame they're only really available in Germany (and I guess Austria).
- codetrotter 4y ago
  I’ve seen FritzBoxes in a computer shop in Spain as well. Don’t know how wide-spread they are in Spain however.
- nasalter 4y ago
  I'm in the UK and use Zen Internet as my ISP. Zen distribute a FRITZ!Box 7530 as their home router [1]. I was sufficiently pleased by the FRITZ!Box that I bought a 2nd one to extend the wifi in my home - very easy to do with the fritz devices. [1] https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/broadband-router https://www.zen.co.uk/broadband/broadband-router
- waste_monk 4y ago
  Can confirm they are in use down here in Australia. I know someone who just upgraded their 7490 to a 7590 due to compatibility changes with our National Broadband Network (enablement of SOS-ROC).
- amaccuish 4y ago
  I brought mine over from the UK for use here in Germany and just upgraded. Sadly it seems their extenders are only available with EU plugs so I'll have to send some back for my parents, they really are that hassle free that it's worth the effort.

richrichardsson 4y ago

Slightly off-topic: "an" should not be used with words beginning with H, unless the H is unvoiced, such as "an homage".

fortym2 4y ago
You are right, thank you :D
akerl_ 4y ago
I just assumed that, because the server was providing resistance to the flow of packets on the network, it was properly called "an ohm server".

j3th9n 4y ago

[flagged]

Macha 4y ago
It's a short spiral pattern, seems a little weird to attribute it to anything? I wasn't aware there was a pedophile symbol so I searched it and found some 00s parenting advice "these are the symbols to be aware of", while also warning about AIM abbreviations that I'm pretty sure is just a made up panic, and some pizzagate articles, so I'm not sure that that's even a real thing.
- JadoJodo 4y ago
  This symbol was also in the TV show True Detective. Attributing that to this article is kind of ridiculous though.
  - Jnr 4y ago
    And I thought he is a fan of Debian distro.
  - MonkeyClub 4y ago
    The “symbol” in question is this: https://davquar.it/images/post/self-hosting/ntopng-fritzbox-monitoring/funny-ip-geolocation-milan.png https://davquar.it/images/post/self-hosting/ntopng-fritzbox-... Fundamentally it’s a bunch of points superimposed on a map of Milan through geolocation. The author’s comment doesn’t indicate that he views it as something sinister in the pd sense.
  - TillE 4y ago
    Was that their version of the Yellow Sign? I like the Pelgrane Press one: https://pelgranepress.com/2020/02/06/our-yellow-sign-is-your-yellow-sign/ https://pelgranepress.com/2020/02/06/our-yellow-sign-is-your...
m0rbz 4y ago
Hopefully he was alluding to the Debian logo

c0nsumer 4y ago

This is neat. A word of caution, depending on how the network is laid out, this could cause severe bandwidth overhead if there isn't a dedicated, and unmonitored, interface for the capture to flow over. One needs to be careful not to have the captured traffic flowing out to the monitor via an interface that's being monitored, otherwise load will snowball. The example here omits eth1, so I'm presuming that's the path the capture takes, but it would have been nice to see the author call this out. Otherwise, without some sort of capture-side filter, which the fritzdump.sh script and example doesn't seem to include, the capture will include a copy of the monitoring stream and the bandwidth will snowball. There's also the issue of the monitoring port likely not able to capture full bandwidth of the aggregate of the other ports being monitored. Since the buffer in the device likely isn't unlimited, there's a possibility for lost data during times of high traffic.

dmacvicar 4y ago

Off-topic but interesting to this audience: since the last update, Fritz boxes support Wireguard. https://en.avm.de/news/the-latest-news-from-fritz/2022/wireguard-vpn-has-never-been-so-easy/ https://en.avm.de/news/the-latest-news-from-fritz/2022/wireg...

senectus1 4y ago
nice! I wasn't aware of that thanks. Had to upgrade to a beta FW for my older model but it works a treat!

binkHN 4y ago

I’ve been doing something similar at home for years. An OpenBSD box at the egress point exports IPFIX data to nfdump and I designed custom charts for myself using the legacy dygraphs. IPFIX plus nfdump is wonderful as I can quickly use a tcpdump-like interface to very quickly search against data from months ago and the dygraphs charting allows me to easily see traffic patterns with the ability to quickly zoom in.