How to install ntop ?

[Xentrk]

Thanks.. I'm fine running a Linux VM, I also have an old netbook (Intel Atom) about ten years old with 2GB RAM that may be fine to run a minimal Linux too. Does ntopng need something running on the Asus RT-86u router? netdata looks great but most is system info of no use to me rather than useful network info. So ntopng looks interesting.

Yes, ntopng will give you much more insight into what is going on with your traffic than netdata. I recommend you go to youtube and search on "ntopng lawrence systems". These guys have done some good videos on ntopng which will give you a good idea of it's capabilities.

 

[tgm]

I've read through this thread and I'm convinced that there are some concept issues to be looked at. The original desire is to potentially run NTop within an ASUS router. First, none of these routers have native storage available as a normal function to the OS. Yes, there is a USB port that could have a stick inserted but I doubt that Merlin is going to allow you to use it to load and run software. NTop is a somewhat complex application that uses a fair amount of real estate. Certainly a lot more than you would want to try and squeeze into a firmware image. I suppose you can recompile Merlin to get the functionality you want and play some games to get a USB stick to attach and load NTop, etc. But then you also have to play some additional games to temporarily store the data that NTop collects (at least). I'm sure you don't want to eat up the limited RAM that the router has. There are a significant amount of Linux dependencies that are required too.

NTop does have NProbe available for remote data collection but this software is not free (nor cheap) and is really intended for a commercial environment that supports NetFlows running, high throughput networking, etc. NTop is really adept at monitoring an individual server to get a firm handle on who, what, and where the machine is communicating with. It is very complete in terms of which ports and protocols are in use specifically identifying the end points. There is a lot more, but you should get the idea. It's been a while since I've actively worked with NTop. I know it can work with virtual environments, but I haven't played around with using it there. BTW... the --instance option will define the network adapter device that it is monitoring. Apparently the developers have decide to default to the virtual network device if it's present, assuming that if you have virtual machines installed, that's probably what you want to monitor.

 

[heysoundude]

Thanks.. I'm fine running a Linux VM, I also have an old netbook (Intel Atom) about ten years old with 2GB RAM that may be fine to run a minimal Linux too. Does ntopng need something running on the Asus RT-86u router? netdata looks great but most is system info of no use to me rather than useful network info. So ntopng looks interesting.

may I be so bold as to recommend lubuntu for your netbook?
I'll also 2nd or 3rd the motion to include this in @RMerlin 's firmware - the graphics are much more modern and pleasing to me, in comparison to Asus'...no offense to @JackYaz for all his hard work of late

 

[bitmonster]

may I be so bold as to recommend lubuntu for your netbook?
I'll also 2nd or 3rd the motion to include this in @RMerlin 's firmware - the graphics are much more modern and pleasing to me, in comparison to Asus'...no offense to @JackYaz for all his hard work of late

I will check it out, thanks..