Nethogs
Nethogs is a Linux tool that provides real-time network traffic usage by process. It shows bandwidth usage on a per-process basis in an easy to understand format.
bandwidth
network
monitoring
linux
Nethogs: Real-Time Network Traffic Usage
Nethogs is a Linux tool that provides real-time network traffic usage by process. It shows bandwidth usage on a per-process basis in an easy to understand format.
What is Nethogs?
Nethogs is a free and open source software application for Linux that monitors network traffic usage in real-time and displays bandwidth usage per process. It enables users to see which processes on a system are using the most network bandwidth.
Some key features of Nethogs include:
- Real-time visibility into bandwidth usage per process
- Displays upload and download usage separately
- Lightweight and easy to use command line interface
- Does not require modifications to existing system processes or services
- Helpful for diagnosing network performance issues caused by specific applications
Nethogs works by leveraging the netfilter framework in the Linux kernel to capture information about network packets going in and out of the system. This allows it to break down total bandwidth usage by the process associated with each connection.
The simple text-based output of Nethogs makes it well-suited for troubleshooting scenarios where you need to quickly diagnose which process is saturating your network. For example, if you suddenly see high network utilization, you can open Nethogs and immediately see if the traffic is being caused by your web browser, a sync process, etc. without having to dig further or use multiple diagnostics utilities.
Nethogs Features
Features
- Monitors bandwidth usage per process in real time
- Displays network usage in a terminal using a text-based user interface
- Shows program name, PID, sent/received data, and total usage
- Can filter processes by name or PID
- Lightweight and non-intrusive
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Easy to use and understand
Provides granular visibility into bandwidth usage
Helpful for identifying and troubleshooting network hogs
Works on most Linux distributions without setup
Cons
Terminal-only interface lacks graphical view
Can only monitor bandwidth usage, not other metrics
Requires root access to monitor all processes
Not well-suited for remote monitoring
Official Links
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