Kermit: see and control the devices using your home network

Kermit, a research project from Georgia Tech, lets home broadband users view and control the use of bandwidth on their home networks, showing which devices are using the network and allowing customers to throttle devices that are clobbering their other connections. It also reports on ISP shenanigans, such as bandwidth shaping, and tells you whether you're getting the speeds your ISP advertised.

To make them easier to sort out, Kermit provides a visual display of every device using the home network at any given moment, and it logs usage and total bandwidth over time. It also shows how much bandwidth the connection is delivering. The tool is designed for at-a-glance simplicity, and slapping bandwidth or time limits on any given device is just a click away (prioritizing devices is also an option). To make this dashboard view even simpler, users can rename any object ("My Xbox," "Janie's iPhone") and can display a picture of the device.

Parents, need to throttle Timmy's Xbox while you work from home?

Kermit Research Paper (PDF)

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axfelix

@bcsizemo — I actually went back to the (excellent) stock firmware for my ASUS router after buying it specifically for DD-WRT functionality because the print server just wasn’t working as well with the FOSS interface. I, too, content myself that I’m in the minority. As an aside, it’s a treat to see work featured on boingboing two hours after its official CHI debut :-)
Anonymous

BOYCOTT. The kermit project, protocol, team and product are all alive and well, are a vital part of the world’s computing infrastructure, and need your support more than some johnny-come-lately project that is either clueless or trying to steal the excellent reputation of the existing FOSS Kermit communications protocol and engine.

Rename it Fozzie and we’ll talk.
pinehead

I feel like I’m missing something. Is Kermit just a network monitoring app? That kind of software has been around forever and a day.
Anonymous

The Bismark project has been developing a version of OpenWRT that will do continuous measurements to measure and monitor your home connection. That software is available for download, if you’re willing to flash a router. The project page suggests that a portal is also planned.

https://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bismark
EeyoreX

Why are there so many posts about bandwidth and what’s on the other side? “Bandwidth is relative to your location and ISPs have nothing to hide” – so we’ve been told, and some choose to believe it.
I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we’ll find it, the broadband connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me.

Sorry. Had to be done.
- Anonymous
  
  Cute. .. and yes, it had to be done!
- Kimmo
  
  Well played, sir : D
- Anonymous
  
  You’re my # 1 today.
FnordX

I hear that MIT is working on the vastly superior Z-MODEM protocol.
Mantissa128

Aaaaaaand, you can’t get it. Not available.

The research results are interesting, but not interesting enough to write home about. Here we have this staggeringly useful tool of great interest, which you can’t have, resulting in some data which is somewhat ho-hum.

Oh internets, when will people learn?
BikerRay

Right-clicking on a YouTube video (like the one above) and selecting “speed test” gives me a historical graph of my download speed that is quite useful.
Bloo

This is obviously not the file transfer protocol from Columbia from the 80s…
David Llopis

Oh, so not the networking protocol I used on Commodore PETs in the mid-80s?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_(protocol)
TSE

Nice ignorance of communications history, Georgia Tech.
- Susan Oliver
  
  I dunno. I immediately thought of the speed website Internet Frog, so it works for me.
spool32

bad name, good idea. Want this.
Anonymous

GNU/Linux Tomato (http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato) on my WRT54GL Linksys Router (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series) does that job perfectly for me in a simple webinterface.
farrellmcgovern

Kermit was a unix based terminal and a file transmission protocol utilizing “sliding windows” to optimize the transfer speed…I remember Fidonet….
Robert

Maybe if we retweet something we’ll get an advance copy. ;)
Tim

I would use this.
Lady Katey

Oh I really need something like this. My new roommate is a big downloader of the pirate sort. It would be great to be able to throttle him when I need to use the internet for something bandwidthy like watching Hulu….
AirPillo

Unfortunately though it looks like you need to be part of their study if you want to use the program, even though everyone’s headline on the story gets your hopes up that it’s currently available for use.

Correct me if I’m wrong, of course.
Anonymous

So, I’m wondering if it will tell you whether the problem is with your OS or your provider. Windows XP can be pretty bandwidth limiting.
jacques45

Agreed, it looks great (minus the name), and it would be nice to give something like this to my parents so that they don’t need to call me to complain when their connection slows down. Explaining it once is one thing, but it got old after the 3rd time.

I’d love this tool if it can accurately let me know what my average connection speed is from Comcast. I suspect they prioritise traffic to the well-known speed tests while providing crappy service for everything else, so if this has a way around it (like a distributed speed test application using random payloads and ports), it would really make my day.
- Willis
  
  I have the same feeling about my Comcast connection. How soon can I get a hold of this software, or is there another similar thing out there already? I put DD-WRT on a router once, but it was for work, so I didn’t get to play around with it. Suggestions?
Galoot

Please follow up when this is available to… me.
Ceronomus

Love it. Want it.
EH

I’m guessing the name was chosen for troll-PR purposes.
bcsizemo

I would mention DD-WRT (as Tomato has been already), but after fighting rounds trying to keep the printer server functional I don’t know if I can.

Perhaps it’s just my router or me…statistically it’s one of those two as most people seem to be able to setup and use DD-WRT o Tomato with great success.
Anonymous

Great – as if my family didn’t ask enough of me already in running the household network. ;)

Kermit Woodall