If you do not control Internet traffic in the work network, some users will definitely take advantage of this for personal purposes. Periodically distracted during work is a physiological need of the body. The problem is that employees do not always choose low-power resources for this. Even after watching a short video, you can significantly increase the load on the working network if this video is in HD. This load can be critical if reports are uploaded to 1C or backup in a neighbouring department, and the application is deployed.

Why monitor traffic on a corporate network? Even if the company is connected to a corporate tariff, misuse of the Internet can harm the business.

The main reasons for the restrictions:

• decrease in channel capacity;

• efficient use of working time;

• ensuring the security of corporate information;

• reducing the likelihood of downtime of network services.

User activity can be administered using specialized services and programs. Despite the abundance of services, traffic control is a complex task. If it is not solved, then even a short-term network shutdown will provoke serious financial losses for the business. Losses for government organizations can be much more serious – up to the loss of critical data.

Traffic data collection methods

There are three data collection methods:

• Passive.

• Active.

• Mixed.

You can control traffic using monitoring:

• SNMP;

• RMON;

• Cisco NetFlow;

• Wren;

• SCNM

• Span.

Control of incoming traffic

Incoming traffic is received by the source from the Internet. You can control it with simple user settings:

• content blocking using special settings and applications, such as AdBlock;

• browser settings: compress images, do not open videos, refuse flash;

• page caching to speed up their loading;

• setting up software and OS updates.

One of the effective and mandatory methods is to install an antivirus and Firewall. This will help eliminate information leakage and protect against intrusions and damage to the entire server. A firewall can be configured to restrict downloads when a certain threshold is reached.

Both a system administrator and an ordinary user can configure programs to control incoming traffic. The interface of such software is usually intuitive. However, in business, we recommend leaving this work to professionals to avoid abuse by ordinary personnel.

Control of outgoing traffic

Outgoing traffic is what users send to the Internet. It must be controlled by the system administrator in manual and automatic modes. This will help to avoid information leakage and generally increase the security of corporate networks.

The monitoring system is configured to limit data leakage and exclude the transfer of large personal archives (photos, videos), which will narrow the bandwidth of the channel.

Types of networks

There are two main types of networks:

• Global (WAN).

• Local (LAN).

Global networks have access to the Internet, only computers and devices of a specific group of users are located in local networks.

In turn, these networks are divided into many subgroups:

• wired and wireless;

• regional, local, global;

• centralized and decentralized;

• homogeneous, heterogeneous.

To understand the process of traffic control, you need to navigate in basic terms. Any network consists of:

• servers;

• workstation – a computer in the local network;

• client – a computer that uses server resources.

In all existing networks, it is necessary to analyze incoming and outgoing traffic, predict, control and prevent its leakage.

Traffic monitoring programs

When choosing a monitoring program, pay attention to:

• UI – the interface should be simple and understandable;

• timely updates;

• compatibility.