After 15 years since the introduction of the original ntop, it was time to start over with a new, modern ntop. We called it ntopng, ntop next generation. The goal of this new application are manyfold:
- Released under GNU GPL3.
- Feature a modern, HTML5 and Ajax-based dynamic web interface (caveat: you need a modern browser to use ntopng).
- Small application engine, memory wise and crash proof.
- Ability to identify application protocols via nDPI, ntop’s open-source DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) framework.
- User’s ability to script, extend, and modify ntopng pages coding them in LuaJIT, a small yet lighting fast language.
- Characterise HTTP traffic by leveraging on block.si categorisation services. ntopng comes with a licensing key, but you can acquire a private key by contacting info@block.si.
- Use of redis as data cache, for splitting the ntopng engine from data being saved.
- Ability to collect flows (sFlow, NetFlow and IPFIX) using nProbe as probe/proxy.
- Fast, very fast engine able to scale up to 10 Gbit on commodity PCs when using PF_RING/DNA.
- Support of Unix, BSD, MacOSX and Windows (including 7/8).
The ntopng engine is coded in C++ with web pages written in Lua. In the next weeks we will publish some development guidelines for those who will be willing to contribute to this project and make ntopng even better. We are aware that many more features are missing, but they will come later this year as incremental updates. We will publish a roadmap in the coming weeks, and encourage users and companies, to contact us for including ntopng in they products and distributions. The idea is to create an ecosystem where everyone can contribute.
Download links:
- Source (all platforms)
- CentOS/Ubuntu binaries
- MacOS binary (it installs /usr/local/bin/ntopng)
- Windows binary (demo). Full release available here: this is our way to support the project, but you’re free to build it from source at no cost.
Finally let us thank those that made all this possible, and in particular those that in the early ntop days have believed in us, and encouraged to move forward. The list (in alphabetical order) is pretty long, so we apologise in advance if we forgot some of you:
- Burton Strauss.
- Centro Serra (Paolo Caturegli and Stefano Ciuti), and in particular Prof. Giuseppe Pierazzini who recently past away.
- Rocco Carbone.
- Stefano Suin (University of Pisa).
- Teknoservice.
We hope you will enjoy ntopng. Thank you all.