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SmartMonitor Setup and Troubleshooting FAQ

Products:
Vigor 2820
Vigor 2830
Vigor 2850
Vigor 2920
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Keywords:
Network monitoring
SmartMonitor
Smart Monitor
Unable To Locate Component
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SmartMonitor is unable to start because "mfc120.dll" was not found?

The latest versions of the DrayTek SmartMonitor application require an additional software package that contains DLLs for Visual C++ 2013. This can be resolved by performing the following steps:

  1. Download Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 from Microsoft's Download Site and install it on the computer. 
    For Windows 10 users, please download and install both vcredist_x64 and vcredist_x86 version and make sure there's a “mfc120.dll” file in both C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64.  

  2. Restart the computer.

  3. Uninstall then re-install Smart Monitor.

  4. Start Smart Monitor again.

 

Which routers support SmartMonitor and how many users are supported with each router?

 Router ModelSupported UsersMonitor Port Type
 DrayTek Vigor 2820  30  Listen Only
 DrayTek Vigor 2830  30  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2830  30  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2830  30  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2832  30  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2920  30  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2850  30  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2860  30  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2925  50  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2930  60  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2950  100  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2955  100  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 3200  100  Bi-Directional (via WAN4)
 DrayTek Vigor IPPBX 2820  30  Listen Only
 DrayTek Vigor IPPBX 3510  100  Listen Only
 DrayTek Vigor 5510  150  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 300B  200  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2960  200  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 3900  500  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 2952  100  Bi-Directional
 DrayTek Vigor 3220  100  Bi-Directional (via DMZ or WAN port)

How is SmartMonitor set up?

SmartMonitor runs as a service on a PC; it runs in the background on that machine and catalogues all information received. SmartMonitor requires capturing network traffic to monitor the network traffic, this can be configured on most DrayTek routers and this guide covers how to configure the port mirroring.

System Requirements:

  • Intel P4 / AMD equivalent 1.4GHz at minimum
  • 20GB free hard disk space at minimum for software installation and database storage
  • 1GB of memory at minimum
  • DrayTek router that supports SmartMonitor
  • TCP port 80 (by default) used for the web interface – ensure this port is not in use before installing
  • Must be a physical machine rather than a virtual machine – because a virtual machine's NIC would be going through a virtual switch that would filter out traffic not specific to the VM
  • Connected directly to the router's monitor port or the monitor port configured on a switch – an unmanaged switch would filter out traffic not specific to the computer running SmartMonitor and this would stop SmartMonitor from capturing network usage information.

To install SmartMonitor, check the Introduction section of the User Manual which has a step by step guide of the initial installation.

Once it is installed, SmartMonitor will be accessible on http://127.0.0.1 of the local machine or from other PCs using the IP address of the computer i.e. http://192.168.1.10.

The default username and password are admin / admin. It is recommended to disable the anonymous login feature which is located under the System – Setting menu under the Administration section. Untick “Allow login anonymously” and click save to disable it.

Does SmartMonitor require two network cards?

This depends on how the mirror port operates on the router / switch that is being used for port mirroring – if the port is only able to receive traffic then two network cards will be required; one for the monitoring interface and another so that the SmartMonitor computer can be accessed and the router can authenticate with the software.

On older routers such as the Vigor 2820 series and Vigor IPPBX 2820 series, the mirror port is receive only.
On newer routers such as the Vigor 2860 series, the mirror port is still able to communicate with the network so only one network interface is required.

To set up SmartMonitor to operate with two network cards, the monitor interface will need to be set up with a static IP address on the network with no Gateway address:

The active network card that will be used for network / internet access can be configured as normal.

Once that has been set up with both network interfaces connected, access the SmartMonitor web interface, go into the System – Setting menu then under the Administration section, select the network card that has been set up without a gateway address as the monitoring card and click Save:

With that set, SmartMonitor should start capturing network traffic and the computer will still have normal internet access.

Can SmartMonitor monitor multiple subnets?

SmartMonitor will only monitor the network that its network interface is configured to use, for instance if the IP address of the SmartMonitor computer is 192.168.1.10 and it has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, it will only be able to monitor computers on the 192.168.1.0 network.

To set up SmartMonitor to monitor multiple subnets, the network interface will need to have additional IP addresses configured on it. This can be done in Windows by going to the properties of the network interface then click the Advanced button, on the Advanced settings page, click Add and enter the IP address and subnet mask for the IP presence on the additional subnet. The SmartMonitor computer would need additional IP addresses for each additional subnet or a large enough subnet (subnet mask) to include the additional network ranges:
                

Can SmartMonitor monitor traffic from wireless clients?

Because SmartMonitor uses switch functionality to capture traffic, it does not capture wireless traffic because that is not part of the wired network. It is possible to capture wireless traffic by using a separate access point connected to one of the LAN ports.

Why can't SmartMonitor detect all of the traffic going through the router?

SmartMonitor needs to be able to read the packets it is monitoring and this is not possible if the traffic is encrypted. Good examples of this are HTTPS traffic, SSL / TLS emails and encrypted P2P network traffic which is becoming more common.
The utility is still able to monitor the amount of data used by the IP addresses it is monitoring and will show in the utility under the category of Other traffic.

SmartMonitor cannot detect the router, how can this be fixed?

If the SmartMonitor login screen shows this error message, the SmartMonitor utility is unable to detect the router. This can happen with a dual card configuration where only the monitor interface is connected. The network access interface also needs to be connected for SmartMonitor to be able to confirm that it is connected to a DrayTek router to operate.

Other possible causes:

  • The router's firmware may need to be updated as some improvements have been made to the port mirroring facilities and the authentication system used by SmartMonitor.
  • The SmartMonitor services may not be running, in which case SmartMonitor should be reinstalled.

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Comments

From: Gareth Harrison
22/09/2016

Great piece of software but quite heavily limited by the inability to do anything with https traffic. Whilst I'm aware it's encrypted, you could still list the destination of the traffic, so that the service in use could be identified.