MENeT: a monitoring and protocol analysis tool for LAN

The fastest growth of data communication networks over the past decades has resulted in the development of sophisticated tools to diagnose, debug and analyze such networks. We have developed a toolkit called MENeT (Monitor for Ethernet Network Traffic). The toolkit is an extension to the earlier developed utility for traffic monitoring. The toolkit is operational on the platform of Windows NT/2000 and is developed by programming in the Microsoft Visual C++ environment. The MENeT captures and dissembles the packets flowing through a system and extracts TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) packets only. MENeT monitors network traffic by partitioning it into a set of classes. The set of classes are defined as network traffic, broadcast traffic and workstation traffic. It measures traffic at a time scale ranging from a few seconds to several minutes. Using the fine-grained information that MENeT exports, proves its effectiveness for monitoring and protocol analysis. The work on presenting the statistics to portray the network traffic from every angle is in place.