Wiznet makers

The project combines Arduino UNO with a WIZnet W5500 Ethernet Shield as the hardware platform with a pfSense firewall and a NetFlow-based network environment, enabling upload and download traffic statistics to be recorded and provided through a web interface.

Components

• Arduino UNO with Ethernet Shield (WIZnet W5500): Hardware platform for collecting and transmitting network data
• nfdump: Core tool for collecting and processing NetFlow data
• stats.php: PHP script providing a web UI to visualize traffic statistics
• users.php: Mapping file linking participant IP addresses to their actual names
• update_stats.sh: Shell script for automated, periodic updates of statistics
• data directory: Storage location for collected statistical data

Key Features

• Traffic collection and analysis – Aggregates network usage per participant based on NetFlow data
• User identification – Maps IP addresses to user information for individual-level statistics
• Visualization and sharing – Presents upload and download volumes via the web UI in graphical form
• Data export – Supports CSV export for integration with external analytics tools

Use Cases

1. LAN party organizers can monitor participant-level network usage in real time.
2. Abnormal or excessive traffic usage can be identified early to prevent network degradation.
3. Participants can directly access their own usage statistics through the web interface.

Conclusion

The Autarc LAN User Stats project demonstrates an effective traffic management approach for small, dedicated network environments.

• From an operator’s perspective, it enables fair resource allocation and early detection of problematic users, thereby contributing to the overall quality of the network.
• From a participant’s perspective, it ensures transparency by allowing individuals to verify their own usage, fostering greater trust in the network operation.
• From a technical perspective, it represents a lightweight and efficient monitoring framework that combines Arduino hardware, NetFlow data, open-source tools (nfdump, PHP), and simple automation scripts.

The system’s design extends beyond LAN parties, with potential applications in:

• Corporate network monitoring
• Research and educational environments for traffic analysis
• Small community network management

In particular, compared to commercial network analysis solutions, this project stands out for its low implementation cost and high customizability.

Looking ahead, further enhancements such as advanced visualization (e.g., Grafana integration), user authentication, and long-term data archiving could transform it into a more comprehensive and practical network management solution.