LittleBrother
Tech Notes

Recommended Processor and RAM:

• 1 to 25 Machines - Pentium 200 with 64MB 

• 26 to 100 Machines - Pentium II 266 with 128MB 

• 101 to 500 Machines - Pentium III 450 with 128MB to 256MB

• 501 to 2500 Machines - Dual Pentium III 550 with 512MB

• 2500+ Machines - Dual Pentium III 650 with 512MB-1GB

Recommended Storage:

LittleBrother takes about 50MB disk space after installation.
Once installed, you can expect approximately 10KB of data per user per day.

• 100 users at 10KB per day for 30 days = 30MB
• 1000 users at 10KB per day for 30 days = 300MB
• 2000 users at 10KB per day for 30 days = 600MB

In a network with 500 or more users we recommend using UW SCSI for storage rather than IDE though it isn't critical.
A 2GB hard drive should be fine for most networks.

Recommended File Format:

Less than 500 users you can use either the Proprietary database (it is approximately 3x faster than the MS Access database format and approximately 5x faster than the Oracle format) or the MS Access databse.   The MS Access database gives you the ability to see some of LittleBrother's data in a standard file format giving you the ability to create your own custom reports.  We do not recommend using the Oracle format for smaller networks but it can be used without any issues.

If you have more than 500 users we highly recommend using either the Proprietary or Oracle database formats.  The MS Access database has a size limit of 1GB and causes LittelBrother to crash if the database reaches the size limit.  Also, the file often corrupts and becomes unreadable when it reaches that size limit.  

Of the three choices, the Proprietary format tends to be the most stable and least corruptable.  

Networking Requirements:

At this time LittleBrother supports 10 or 100Base-T network adapters with TCP/IP installed.  We also support a number of Token Ring cards.  The list of approved Token Ring cards is available at www.LittleBrother.com/support/lbtroub.htm   If you experience problems with either an Ethernet or Token Ring adapter please contact support@LittleBrother.com or call us at (408)263-9881, M-F, 8am-5pm PST.

At this time LB can not be installed in a computer using a fiber network card although it can monitor users on a fiber network.

As for networking devices, the LB computer can be plugged into several different devices with varying success.  Ideally, it should be plugged into a garden variety hub which is also connected to the Internet router (or inside interface of the firewall or proxy if you use one).  However we realize that it is very common for internet routers to be connected to switches, not hubs.  Several 3Com, Cisco, and Bay Networks switches and routers (depending upon your network configuration) can be configured especially for use with LB.  This normally involves either Port Mirroring, Spanning or Replicating the Internet port to the port that LB is connected to.  A couple of pieces of advice on this:

• This doesn't always work and you can always go out and buy a $29 hub instead and connect the router and LB to the hub and then uplink the hub back into the switch. 
• If you have the choice to make the LB monitoring port either active or passive, it must be an active port on the switch.
• You should set the card speed of the LB computer to the same speed that the router is running at (normally 10BT 1/2 duplex). This goes for users with dual speed 10/100 hubs as well!

OS Requirements:

LB can be installed on the following OS's:

• Win95
• Win98
• WinNT 4.0
• Win2000 (LittleBrother 4.0)

In Win95 and Win98 LB can only installed as a Standalone installation, meaning the LB GUI and the actual monitoring and blocking engine function as one Standalone program.  The program must be running on the desktop for the monitoring and blocking to occur. 

In WinNT or Win2K LB can be installed as either Standalone or Client/Server setup.  The Standalone functions exactly the same way it does in Win95 or Win98.  The Client/Server splits the GUI from the monitoring/blocking engine.  LB will have two components, the Client (GUI) and the Kansmen LB Network Monitoring Service found in the Control Panel >Services applet.  The monitoring and blocking will work as long as this service is started, and it is set to automatically start up when the computer boots up.  The Client/Server components should both be setup on one computer and then the Client alone can be added to other Windows computers for remote access to the LB monitoring and blocking service.

Some Notes For Unix/Linux And Macintosh Users:

Currently we have no plans to add support for these platforms.  However, if LB is correctly installed in a Windows based computer, it will also monitor IP traffic from Unix or Macintosh users.

For Novell based networks, no special configuration is needed at the LB computer itself but sometimes in order for LB to more accurately obtain user names, Client for Microsoft Networks needs to be installed on the other Novell Client computers.