Ntopng is a web-based application for true network traffic flow monitoring that is available as open freeware. It’s an improved kind of innovative Ntop that displays network use, statistics, and analytical data. It works with a variety of computer systems, including Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and BSD. Ntopng comes in professional and corporate editions with license restrictions, as well as a free open source community version. In this guide, I will show you how to install and configure the Ntopng community edition on Ubuntu 20.04.
Install Ntopng on Ubuntu
To get started, you need to launch the console application named “terminal” from your system via the Activity area or using “Ctrl+Alt+T” for quick launch to install Ntopng locally. If you want to install the software on a server, you can connect e.g. via SSH to the remote system. Now the terminal is opened, we must first update our system and apt packages. For that, execute the stated command in the shell. Upon requirement, add your password for the sudo account to continue.
$ sudo apt-get update -y
The Ntopng has some dependencies on different packages to be installed on our system. Hence, install them first, using the below apt-get query.
$ sudo apt-get install wget gnupg -y
Now use the “wget” package to download the “ntop” file package on the system. Hence, use the below query in the shell to do so.
$ cd /tmp $ wget http://apt.ntop.org/20.04/all/apt-ntop.deb
You can see the package will be downloaded quickly and saved into the system.
Now, we can install the downloaded “deb” file using the below command. Hit the “Enter” key from your keyboard to run this instruction. It takes little time to install itself.
$ sudo dpkg -i apt-ntop.deb
As an alternative to downloading the latest version as shown above, you can install an older release with apt like this:
$ sudo apt-get install ntopng
Meanwhile, within the installation process, the system will pause the installation and ask you to authorize the installation. If you want to install it, you have to hit “Y”, otherwise, press “n”.
You have to wait and sit back while it completes its installation. The last lines for the installation completion process would be as given in the image below.
Now the Ntopng has been successfully installed on our system, it’s time to configure it properly. For that purpose, we need to open its configuration file that has been located at /etc/ntopng folder, via the GNU Nano editor. Use the below command to do so.
$ sudo nano /etc/ntopng.conf
Now the file has been opened, you have to add the same configurations, as shown in the screenshot image below. Save the configuration file of Ntopng using “Ctrl+S”. After that, quit the updated file, using “Ctrl+X” and navigate back towards the terminal shell.
Now the updates have been done, we need to implement these changes in our system. For that purpose, we need to restart the ntopng service first. Therefore, we have been using the below “systemctl” command using the keyword “restart” followed by the name of a server e.g. ntopng.
$ sudo systemctl restart ntopng
If you want to check all the existing interfaces of your Ntopng server in your system, you can do so by utilizing the below query in the shell.
$ sudo ntopng -h
Make sure to open port 3000 for server Ntopng, when you have any firewall running on your system using the below query.
$ sudo ufw allow 3000
Start Ntopng server using the below “systemctl” command followed by the keyword “start”.
$ sudo systemctl start ntopng
Now enable Ntopng service via the below query.
$ sudo systemctl enable ntopng
To access the NtopNG interface open your web browser and type in the following URL: http://your-ip-address:3000. Replace your-ip-address with the IP address of the system you installed ntopng on. It will open the login panel of Ntopng. The default username is ‘admin’ with password ‘admin’.
