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IF i use active directory for users to log in my domain and that server is the DHCP server. Can i then see how much user is downloading from internet

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What ErikA said.

Also, if you're only worried about internet traffic, try installing a proxy server (it can be transparent, so appears to work the same as a normal NAT box) and setting your DHCP server to point to it as a gateway.

Something like Squid, or ISA (if you have the budget) will give you reporting on which IPs (or users) have use how much traffic, where it went, and when it was used.

A software solution like PFSense with the Squid proxy and LightSquid reporting plugins would be perfect, easy to set up and deploy.

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Agreed about pfsense - great platform. Also, it's true that a web proxy will provide accounting for web traffic. It won't, however, provide data on other types of internet traffic. P2P, bittorrent, etc. come to mind. – EEAA Dec 17 '09 at 2:16
True that... only :80 traffic... – Mark Henderson♦ Dec 17 '09 at 2:39
WHich thing should i install first squid proxy then lightsquid and then Pfsense – John Dec 17 '09 at 2:47
Install pfsense on a spare PC (with two NICs), throw it on your network in place of the current router and then install the plugins Farseeker mentioned. – EEAA Dec 17 '09 at 2:56
Can't i install pfsense on window 2008 – John Dec 17 '09 at 3:03
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Others have suggested pfSense, and there's nothing wrong with pfSense, but almost any enterprise class gateway these days has the ability to link to an AD and work as a proxy. You can even apply different rules to different AD users or groups.

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If you have an enterprise class router then you can use netflow which would be a better solution – Zypher♦ Dec 17 '09 at 5:38
What type of enterprise class gateway u r talking about.e,g – John Dec 17 '09 at 7:33
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Short answer: No.

For that type of information, you'll need to either do some sort of accounting on the user's workstation or (more likely) your router/gateway. Depending on the capabilities of your switchgear, you can use SNMP to poll interface in/out data from your switches. Of course this assumes that you know what port each user is connected to.

Also - Active Directory nor DHCP really have anything to do with this. Once your clients get their lease from the DHCP server, its job is done. It has nothing to do with network traffic from that point on.

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