Network Performance

[appalachian_fox]

All,

 

I am looking to do some load balancing on my network (obviously at work). I am looking for software to help me measure traffic across the network and pinpoint both hot machines and hot times within the following guidelines:

 

1) Must run on Windows machines.

2) Preferably not a protocol analyzer.

 

I'm really looking for something that can simply measure data traffic over time so I can analyze (1) how much traffic my machines use and (2) when they are the busiest. I don't need to know where that traffic is going at this point (educated guesses are good enough) and if it runs on Windows machines I can put it on the boxes in question without resorting to mirrored ports and the like.

 

Yes, I know protocol analyzers can be used to do this, and in combination with a mirrored port I can use nmap on a Linux box (or ethereal) to do REAL load-balancing, but I don't need that kind of data. I am open to any suggestions, but the winning one will be simple. Thanks in advance!