Hi,
I need to set up a bandwidth probe or something to help me measure the how much bandwidth is being used at our division routers. I have some expereince with the 'DUDE" but I have no idea where to start with this.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks
Would the graphing option included in routeros be enough for that ? Not as a probe, but to effectively see that.
You might want to start here…
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/The_Dude
Thanks for that…as helpful as it was to post a link for the entire manual I need some more help than the basic manual provides.
I am assuming that bandwidth can be monitored by using links. What I am having trouble is working how to use the ‘interface’ section of the link. I am not sure how I am supposed to know what the interface will be. Also the devices I am monitoring are either not under my control or I am not even physically able to access them.
Can someone provide some personal experience about this?
Depending on the device type will depend on how helpful and obvious the interface names are.
If in doubt use the SNMP tab of the device page (double clik device etc)
under interfaces it will show all visible interfaces and they current throughput.
From there you should be able to guess what is the correct interface to use.
Then just select that interface on the link.
PM me with specific info if you need more help.
Jeff
Monitoring devices that are not under your control will take some talking to people who are in control. You will need them to enable SNMP and agree to a community string that they will put on the device for you.
Do not auto discover the network with out understanding what is going on. Auto discover can peg the processor of a weak router. If you slow the network down the people in control will not like it.
SNMP is required to monitor utilization. So if you don’t know anything about SNMP you will need to read at least enough to understand the basics.
I wasn’t trying to be a smart ass posting the link to the entire manual (forgive me for not just asking you what your skill level is).
Start very slow, manually add two devices to a map, When you add a device you can specify many things one of them is the SNMP community name. If the devices you are trying to monitor have the default SNMP read only string of “Public” enabled you will be able to click on the SNMP tab of the device and see things get populated. If that is working then add a link between them. On the General tab of the link properties select the device from the drop down that you want to monitor. Select mastering type SNMP. Select the interface that you want to monitor, if SNMP is setup correctly you will see the history graph being updated every 30 seconds.
As lebowski says… if they aren’t yours and you aren’t being given permission to access them - FIRST seek permission.
Good luck with that part 
Sorry lebowski, shoulda given more info, I did mention that I have 'I have some experience with the ‘DUDE"’ but I could have been more specific. My main experience to date is with monitoring servers and their services. None really with router and bandwidth probes or links.
Anyway I have suss’ed it now. The problem I was having was that no interfaces were showing in the snmp tab for the devices to be monitored for bandwidth. In the General tab for the device properties I had forgotten to add the newly acquired snmp community (provided by my ISP) in the ‘SNMP profile’. Once I did this, all the interfaces started appearing. Once there, it was indeed easy to work out which one was the main interface to be monitored.
Man, I love this software, thanks for getting the old grey matter ticking over guys.
Yep it is a great piece of software, glad you got your monitoring working.