Surely I didn't hallucinate an entire utility.

August 1, 2009 3:19 AM

Help me identify a network sharing monitoring program I haven't run in nearly a decade.

Back in the day when I lived in the dorms, there were a bunch of us that used to share various media (*cough*) by setting folders to share. (Yes, it was dumb, but it was 2000 and we were young and stupid.) One of the handier programs I had on my Windows 98 box at the time was (I believe) called "Network Monitor"; it showed you who was connected to your computer and what folder and/or file they were looking at and/or downloading, along with (I think) their download progress if they were downloading something.

I seem to remember that, but Google turns up nothing useful or relevant. Does anyone remember the program I'm thinking of?

posted by Pope Guilty to computers & internet (6 comments total)

NetResView?
posted by Mach5 at 5:35 AM on August 1

I believe what you're looking for was called Net Watcher. It was part of the Windows 95/98 Remote Administration Services.
posted by Partial Law at 6:45 AM on August 1

Might not be the app you recall, but KillWatcher is free and and probably does what you need. These days, a far better is to run a local FTP server - easier to set up users, track connections, limit access, set up quotas, and they usually don't waste too many system resources at rest. Plenty of good ones out there, but FileZilla Server is free.
posted by tra at 7:21 AM on August 1

Under windows XP, similar monitoring can be achieved under the 'Computer Management' snap-in. The easiest way to run this is Start->Run 'compmgmt.msc'. You can see active sessions through System Tools->Shared Folders->Sessions. I know that works under XP Pro, at least, and I think it works under XP Home.

I suspect that might be easiest if you've upgraded since 98.
posted by arrjay at 9:55 AM on August 1

You are thinking of Network Monitor aka NetMon. It was part of the BackOffice utility set but circulated pretty widely.

It was, as you recall, a useful quick-and-dirty way to oversee your computer's file serving in peer-to-peer network situations. It really wasn't as important under the NT architecture, where everything was tied to shares and permissions. It remains available in a more robust packet-analysis tool of the same name.
posted by dhartung at 3:29 PM on August 1 [1 favorite]

Thanks dhartung, that's exactly what I'm thinking of. If it was part of BackOffice I have no idea where I got it, since I don't remember every buying that.

Also thanks to arrjay. I'm all nostalgic now for the days of wandering through the shares on peoples' computers and finding all sorts of weird random stuff. Of course, now I know better...
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:10 PM on August 1