How to create a local network with the ability to control and view all traffic?

Question

Computer networks

Online Smartphones, laptops. Is it possible to view traffic from IOS applications. What programs are needed and all that. Explain please for teapot. Thank you.

Answer 1

Every year more and more services use traffic encryption by default, the next versions of http and even more so do not have an option without encryption, plus the widespread use of CDN, anti-ddos services and other things, turn traffic from web / applications into a mess of encrypted streams to different services.
So the general answer is that there is no universal solution. But in special cases (selected services and applications), it can lead, for example, you can perform a MITM attack (if the client does not check the validity of certificates or allows you to install your certificate) and decrypt traffic ... each application has its own troubles.
There is also a ghostly opportunity to determine the type of traffic by packet sizes and timings. Those. you won't know what's going on, but you'll be able to guess that it's the application that's running.
Moreover, having received the decrypted traffic is half the battle, it still needs to be logically parsed, but you want to understand what exactly the application is doing. This task in terms of resource costs is even more high, especially if the application is closed source.
And to backfill, the whole thing needs to be supported somehow, and it won’t be possible to write a traffic analyzer for, for example, one proprietary application and then track its updates for a penny, the costs of each update will be almost comparable to the initial ones.
ps if you are a naive young developer who was approached by a provider/government customer/intermediary with a proposal to write such a system to create a great 'cheburnet', try to explain the futility and senselessness of this activity, coupled with a lot of resources.
Application developers and often users have much more ways to protect themselves from such activities than the provider, and they are cheaper.

Answer 2

Obviously, to make sure that traffic passes through a controlled point - which is impossible in the case of smartphones :)
So, in your conditions, as always, I quote Leonid Reznik's "Magic Triangle":

Ответ Надсистемы мгновенно разрушил радужные надежды: "Задача не имеет решения".