Does it retrieve the router stats by querying the HTML stats page (or via telnet) ?

It gets the information from the HTML source - after jumping through several convoluted hoops in order to logon to the router.
There is no Telnet functionality with the HH2.

I posted the link earlier to the telnet hack.

I don't think it should be a requirement that a user needs to perform some hack on their router in order to use such a tool, although if they want to (and write their own scripts to extract the data), they are of course free to do so at their own risk.

It took me some considerable time to figure out the authentication and logon process for the HH2 and emulate it with perl, but it doesn't create any risk for the user.

The worst that is likely to happen is 'it doesn't work', rather than potentially kill their router in the same way that a hack could if it goes wrong.

True. Sounds like a damn good hack btw.

how do i do it then?

ta

TBH, unless you want to delve into the world of Linux, it will probably be far easier and simpler just to use a different router that Router Stats or RSL works with.

In reply to a post by andyboygsi:

how do i do it then?

ta

It's not easy as so many things are against you. Your PC doesn't run windows, so a lot of free tools aren't available to you. Your router does not simply present the required stats to you so graphing of them will be almost impossible. But all you need to know to do this has been already covered in this thread. However, there may be other ways which I'm unaware of.

short of a step by step guide im [censored]. line issues i can deal with. computers i cannot

Unfortunately, a step-by-step guide would be like the recipe for Moose Mousse:
1. Take one medium-sized Moose.

I mean, steps could be written, but doing them would be challenging.

1. Install MRTG
2. Install PERL.
3. Obtain Panda's hack to get stats.
4. Schedule a task to get and store stats.
5. Configure MRTG to graph stats
6. Display graphs.