Network Analysis of Students' Online Activities via Port mirroring Switch Port Analyzer

This research presents a network analysis of students’ online activities via port mirroring using Switch Port Analyzer. Today, universities support private networks of internet connections for students to access. Issues have been raised where internet connections are misused by students for non-academic purposes activities. This research aims to capture the network packets inside the lab and analyze the students' online activities based on the packet captured. Port mirroring or Switch Port Analyzer (SPAN) is used to mirror the network packets in the campus network traffic. Campus network topology is identified, and the network is monitored and analyzed using the Wireshark sniffer software. Switches and PCs are connected and configured with IP addresses. Four labs sessions were monitored on a timely basis. Network packets for each session were collected and analyzed. Results present a maximum of 100% on sessions used, and YouTube is identified as the highest percentage at 55.83%. A total of 10 internet and social media sites are compared. Research is significant in helping the academic and network administrator to monitor the network's Quality of Services (QoS) for learning and teaching purposes.