Checking the bandwidth or internet traffic means always keeping under observation the amount of data uploaded (uploaded) and downloaded (download) on the internet. This count is particularly important if you have a consumer internet connection, such as those 5GB subscriptions per month and therefore limited in the available bandwidth. Checking the data exchanged on the internet can also be important for a statistical purpose, to see how long you surf the web, to know how much stuff has been downloaded in a certain period and to check, in real time, if the PC is communicating with the external and how fast your connection is.
After seeing a program to count the kbytes downloaded on the internet, we now see three other tools to check the bandwidth and bytes sent and received, on Windows, Linux and Mac.
READ ALSO: Check connection speed in real time on Windows
1) Networx (Windows only) is a simple, free but powerful tool that helps to measure bandwidth objectively and, therefore, also how many Megabytes can be downloaded, at most, in a second . Networx can also be used to collect bandwidth usage data, count upload and download bytes and measure the speed of your Internet connection or any other network, including wireless.
NetWorx is one of the tools for solving network and internet problems.
In the case of consumer internet connections, with this program you can always check the network traffic and you can set it not to exceed the bandwidth limits imposed by your provider. Thanks to the Netstat tool, you can also see the list of prorgrams and processes that use the internet so as to immediately identify if there is any virus. You can then receive warnings and notifications if you approach the eventual maximum traffic limit or if unusual and heavy data flows occur. Finally, graphical reports can be generated to show internet usage for a day, a week, a month or always.
Networx can be downloaded in the version to be installed and in the portable version and is also in Italian.
2) Glasswire is a program to control internet traffic and use by the various programs running on the computer. The program also works as a basic firewall and we talk about it in another article.
3) NetLimiter is a program that can be downloaded for free and can be used in a limited version (only as a monitor) after registering on the site. This is a truly remarkable program, above all for its very simple and complete interface to read in order to check, in real time, the network connections of each active program on the computer.
5) ShaPlus Bandwidth Meter (for Windows) monitors Internet usage without complicated settings and extra tools.
It is therefore a very essential software that monitors current, daily, monthly and total traffic. When it starts, it acts in the background consuming only 2 MB of computer memory and can be seen from the icon on the taskbar. In the general settings, you can also configure the monitoring of internet traffic at certain times of the day.
The annual bandwidth usage report is very nice, with specific data for each month.
6) BitMeter 2 is a free open source program for Windows, Linux and Mac .
BitMeter is used to monitor internet traffic and network connection bandwidth and displays data via web browser.
Unlike the others, the application does not have one accessible from the icon on the taskbar and works completely invisibly, recording the amount of bytes transferred in a database. The different types of information that can be viewed are as follows:
A real-time graph of network traffic in real time with indication of the upload and download speed.
A history of the amount of data uploaded and downloaded divided into minutes, hours, days and months.
All data can be exported to Excel for a more accurate analysis.
BitMeter 2 also allows you to create alerts to be warned before exceeding the daily or monthly traffic limit.
