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Tracking Instant Messenger on the LAN

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by techrific 1 view

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Howdy all, thanks to any takers! :)

I am trying to figure out how to track Instant messenger messages passed via our LAN. Currently we allow the use of MSN, yahoo, etc. but the boss wants to know if it should still be allowed, and wants a presentation displaying the pros and cons. One of the ways I will show him is by creating a chart showing the amount of IM's being composed for business, and the amount being composed for personal agendas. Any takers?

Thanks,
Sozo

10 replies

by techkid

There's no way to aggregate this type of data without having a central IM server. You'd be wasting your time to sniff packets and it wouldn't be prudent to install software on someones machine and watch them use IM.

You can't even effectivley decipher this type of data for email without logging every single email that passes through your server.

Stick to the obvious pros and cons. Or, casually ask people in the office if they use it for business or pleasure.

by curacao_dejavu

first take a look at the software that you use to access the internet. (isa server, winroute, etc).
sometimes they provide logs and they track per protocol also.
in the past I have used net probe 0.3 (free) to get those kind of details.
seperation per bussiness and per personal use is almost impossible. Maybe it could be done if your set your won IM server, and if it can logg the destination messages.

Leopold

by techrific

Thanks guys, but there is a way, I found this article today........ http://www.msnbc.com/news/966896.asp at the very bottom (last sentence) you see that the author states it is possible to track, he/she just doesn't say how. Also it is not the first time I have heard that it is tracing IM's. Thanks for the advice though :)

by curacao_dejavu

Hi again.
just clarifying.
I said, t could be monitored via the log files of your gateway.
I said the distinction between whats for personal use and whats for bussiness is impossible to monitor.
the links is very interesting.

Leopold

by techkid

The Akonix tool only detects IM and P2P protocol traffic. How does it decipher business from personal? He doesn't need IM traffic detection as he knows that people are using it. There are always ways to detect IM traffic but his question was how to decipher business use from personal use. The only way to do that is to have a human read recorded transcripts of IM conversations and determine if it's personal or business. You may have a program that will extract key words from the archived IM conversations to make things go quicker, but just like an anti-spam solution you'll still have SOME legitimate messages that are blocked.

A simple conversation of "wanna get lunch on Friday" could be deemed personal OR business, depending.

All in all, I just don't see how you can determine business conversions from personal with a piece of software.

But let me know if you find a solution. I'd be interested.

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