How to know what others are doing on the Network?

Hello there, I have desktop computer which is running on Windows XP operating system. I have an Internet connection connected to the computer which is shared with 3 other people through a Cisco catalyst switch. I regularly play games online and have never faced such problems like this before. Nowadays while playing online I get high pings due to which I get kicked from the servers. I think the people who are sharing the connection with me are using all the bandwidth due to which I am facing problems with high pings. Therefore I need to know How to know what others are doing on the Network? Are there are any applications required to be installed? Please help.

The latency or pings which we get while playing online depends on the location of the server from the place from which the game is played. The ping is directly related to the distance of the host from the client. If the distance between the host and the client is more then the ping which the client will get will be much high. On the other hand if the server is located in the vicinity of the client then ping will be relatively lower. Ping or the latency also depends on speed of the connection as lot of data has to be transferred during playing online.

As you are sharing the connection the speed of the connection will also be shared. If all the 4 users are using the same connection simultaneously then speed of the connection each user gets will be further divided. Sharing of the connection is the main cause behind the high pings which you are getting. If other users are also downloading or uploading while you are playing game then the game wont be able to send or receive data at faster speed which will cause the game to lag. Hence get a separate connection if you want to play online.

Cisco switches helps the administrator to monitor the traffic on the network. Cisco switches can be configured to give details of the traffic originating and terminating on different ports which can be helpful in monitoring the traffic of the network. In order to get details about the traffic on each port of the Cisco switch, SPAN has to be configured. To configure SPAN on the Cisco switch, log in to the switch and enter the Configure terminal mode and then enter the following commands :-
1. "monitor session 1 source interface fastethernet 3/1
(The above command will set interface Fast Ethernet 3/1 as source port)
2. "monitor session 1 destination interface fastethernet 3/4
(The above command will set interface Fast Ethernet 3/4 as destination port)

Now to display the monitoring status, enter the following command.
3. "show monitor session 1"

Choose the source and the destination port according to your needs.

There are many applications which can be downloaded and installed on the computer to get the traffic monitoring information on the network. Download one of such application and then install it on the computer. Once the application is installed and started on the computer it will start sending requests to receive traffic information. The responses received by the applications are displayed by it in a format which can be understood by the user. Wireshark is one such application which can be downloaded and installed on the computer to analyze the traffic on the network.

To track the traffic over a network, the application which are used are known as Packet analyzer or Network analyzer. If this applications are developed for particular type of network then they are called as Ethernet Sniffer or Wireless sniffer. All the packet analyzer or sniffers work on same basic rule, of intercepting the incoming traffic and then analyze the packets and reveal the information to the user in a more understandable form. Network Packet Analyzer CAPSA is one of the network analyzer which can be downloaded and installed on the computer to capture all the information about the traffic of the network. Apart from CAPSA there is one more application known as CommView which provides more features like network management apart from monitoring.