Temporary Router

[geffers]

Folks,

Curious, I have a number of devices working behind a router, it is an old router and the admin page shows some kind of throughput (blocks) but no real detail.

Is there any way of routing (temporarily preferably) all network traffic through a Pi so that using something like ntopng more detailed network traffic can be viewed.

Appreciate this could cause a bottleneck, hence suggestion of temporary.

Geoff

[epoch1970]

I'd rather suggest adding a bridge (possibly anonymous = sans IP address), in other words turn the Pi into a 2-port ethernet switch, that will see all the traffic pass through it without changing anything to the network setup.

For ethernet:

• Install on the Pi the software packages you want to use,
• Add an USB adapter to the Pi,
• Create a bridge br0 with both eth0 and usb0 in it,
• Disconnect everything from the router except WAN and one LAN cable,
• Stick the LAN cable in the Pi,
• Connect another cable from the USB adapter to a switch on which LAN clients are connected.

So for this recipe you need: 1 gigabit USB adapter, 1 ethernet switch, 1 ethernet cable, Pi and accessories.

If you need to see wifi traffic as well, altering the router, and possibly clients configs will be required:

• Disable the AP in the router,
• Create one with possibly identical parameters in the Pi,
• Add wlan0 to the bridge.

Ethernet or wifi, performance will suffer so the setup is not going to be as "transparent" as it can be.

[tpylkko]

On many routers you can install a linux-based open source firmware that then allows you to modify and install almost anything on them.

[Andyroo]

On many routers you can install a linux-based open source firmware that then allows you to modify and install almost anything on them.

The best known is https://dd-wrt.com/ but there is https://openwrt.org/ and https://advancedtomato.com/ with different capabilities.

[geffers]

On many routers you can install a linux-based open source firmware that then allows you to modify and install almost anything on them.

The best known is https://dd-wrt.com/ but there is https://openwrt.org/ and https://advancedtomato.com/ with different capabilities.

Yes, I've seen them, my present Router is old but still works fine and can't take that firmware update.

Thanks for suggestion.

Geffers

[geffers]

I'd rather suggest adding a bridge (possibly anonymous = sans IP address), in other words turn the Pi into a 2-port ethernet switch, that will see all the traffic pass through it without changing anything to the network setup.

Great suggestion but for my minimal requirements might be too much.

Think I may just go with installing ntopng on remote machine then just viewing nia web browser.

Geffers

[procount]

Lede / Openwrt can also be installed on a RPi to turn it into a router. It's available for many devices. (also installable via PINN )

[geffers]

Lede / Openwrt can also be installed on a RPi to turn it into a router. It's available for many devices. (also installable via PINN )

Now the Pi 4 is out with gigabit ethernet this becomes a decent option.

Geffers