Layer7 protocol: How can I determine whether I use this protocol? [question]

jow- / nlbwmon

Simple conntrack based traffic accounting

ISC License

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Layer7 protocol: How can I determine whether I use this protocol? [question] #4

Closed hub2git closed 7 years ago

hub2git commented 7 years ago

The readme.md on https://github.com/jow-/nlbwmon says

If the user is not interested in layer7 protocol information, removing all protcools from the protocol file will classify all traffic into 'other', vastly reducing the database size.

I'd love to save on database size. So what exactly is Layer7 protocol? And more importantly, how do I know if I'm using that protocol? I surf the web. If it helps, I don't torrent or Netflix or play online games or whatever.

hub2git commented 7 years ago

Ah, never mind, I now understand that "Layer7 protocol info" probably means distinguishing between POP3, FTP, HTTPs, HTTP, etc.

I don't need that much info, but since the monthly db.gz files are tiny (for now, anyway), I'll keep "Layer7 protocol info" enabled.