I'm having some home network speed problems and am seeking advice for
software and/or hardware to help resolve.  I'm having troubles
determining if it is internal traffic only or ISP/internet speed.

I setup bandwidthd and review its generated charts, but I'm not sure
if it sees all traffic, even with the server in promiscuous mode.  It
sees quite a bit though, so maybe it does.  However, I'm having
difficulty ascertaining what it's telling me, especially whether it's
external vs internal traffic; and it's limited charts.  My guess is I
need a different tool but I don't know which one.  I know of tools
like WireShark, but need a higher-level tool that summarizes and
coordinates.

Currently, CenturyLink DSL is my ISP and have the Zyxel Q1000Z DSL
router.  The router is ok, but doesn't offer much
manageability/reporting/monitoring.  And it's stupid enough to not
offer discovered hosts back to DNS (especially the names!).  It was
cheap, so can't complain...

So I'm wondering is it a software tool I should use or perhaps a
better router with it built in (or both of course!).  I wonder about
one of the DD-WRT routers, but not sure if that's still the
recommended approach or are there better ones/approaches now.

I setup Nagios many years ago for fun/to learn and for practical
notification on servers and internet status.  My prior DSL router
(before the high speed upgrade) was a little Cisco and had limited
SNMP support, so I configured Nagios to tell me what it could; current
one has no SNMP or monitoring support.  I mention this as ideally I'd
like to have nagio monitor this stuff again, but also in more detail
than the prior router to know what is going on.


I might change to cable in the future, so isolating the setup with a
new router in bridge mode to the DSL or cable device may be part of
the equation (vs a new DSL router), if a new router is in the
recommended solution.  If so, then my question includes which ones are
the regarded as the better ones for home networking for someone with
much higher desire for monitoring abilities.

So knowing this group has a lot more experience than I do at this
(many of you do this full time!), if anyone has any suggestions based
on my ramblings, I would appreciate them!  The only caveat for me is
it's the home network, so not going to setup something with high cost
as a proper business would.