Network Monitoring on a Budget

In this post, I want to discuss how to monitor a small network without spending big money. The goal of such monitoring is primarily security. We want to look for signs of presence of attackers and malware on our network. It is quite a daunting task, especially if there is no dedicated budget and no dedicated personnel (which is what one usually finds in small, and sometimes even not so small institutions). Below, there are some of the things that I have tried. If you have other ideas, please share them (send a comment). Read the rest of this entry »