Few techie questions about network monitoring

[Fearless]

We have around 2000 users at work based on different sites i am a Domain Admin, the network has been up and down of recent, im thinking possibly because we have rolled out Mcaffe E Orchestrator, im wondering if anybody can advise me on what software/method is best practise/easiest to use for me to achieve the following:-

1. Monitor the bandwidth useage for each site (internet and LAN)(see if p2p is running on any machines etc)
2. Monitor network processes and if Mcaffe is using a lot of bandwidth/Lan resources
3. Spot any potential ports open on the main gateway that could be letting trojans or viruses in or any potential security holes.
4. Identify potential client host names on the network that could be allowing incoming connections/contain security holes.

Ideally this could be run from one pc and display the info, rather than to sit at each machine and type dos commands etc.

[Modcoms]

Hi Mate
We use Solarwinds and we find it the best bit of SW we use.
http://www.solarwinds.com/products/orion/

It show all your routers and switches and individual pcs if you have decent managed switches you can port throttle in real time etc
you will have to install this on a workstation with SQL on it but just for the easy of use and peace of mind its brilliant.
You can get it on a 30 day test try it and see how you go.

[liveseytowers]

How have you got EPO set up? I'm assuming that you've set up a local repository where the PC's pick up their DAT's from each day rather than have them going across the LAN/WAN to the EPO server? If not then that's going to generate lots of traffic. I have a repository on each site/VLAN and it works OK.

[beerman]

If you have just rolled out Mcafee EPO agent to all your PCs then that would cause a lot of network traffic. Also you say you across different sites, are the remote users updating from local epo repository or from a central one?

Why would any p2p be running on any site? Surely you've blocked all ports apart from the ones needed?

[Fearless]

How have you got EPO set up? I'm assuming that you've set up a local repository where the PC's pick up their DAT's from each day rather than have them going across the LAN/WAN to the EPO server?

yes m8 the server is on the main site, repositorary is local, the rest are small and come in on N3 Connections.

download solarwinds now m8 cheers for that!!

Why would any p2p be running on any site? Surely you've blocked all ports apart from the ones needed?

sadly security isnt as strong as it should be at the moment.

thanks for the replies people