Reflection of Internet traffic in real time. Review of the best programs for monitoring traffic on a PC

Hello friends! Write about how to monitor traffic I was planning to right after I wrote the article ““, but somehow I forgot. Now I remember and will tell you how to track how much traffic you spend, and we will do this using a free program NetWorx.

You know, when you have unlimited internet connected, there is essentially no need to monitor the traffic, except for the sake of interest. Yes, now all city networks are usually unlimited, which cannot yet be said about 3G Internet, the tariffs of which are usually off the charts.

All this summer I have been using CDMA Internet from Intertelecom, and I know all these nuances with traffic and tariffs first hand. I have already written about how to set up and improve the Internet from Intertelecom, read and. So, their “unlimited” tariff costs 150 hryvnia per month. As you can see, I put the word unlimited in quotes, why? Yes, because there is a speed limit there, though only during the day, but there is nothing to be happy about, the speed there is simply terrible, it’s better to use GPRS.

The most normal tariff is 5 hryvnia per day upon connection, that is, if you don’t connect today, you don’t pay. But this is not unlimited, it is 1000 megabytes per day, until 12 o'clock at night. I have this tariff now, but at least the speed is decent, the real average speed is 200 Kbps. But 1000 MB per day is not very much at such a speed, so in this case it is simply necessary to control the traffic. Moreover, after using this 1000 MB, the cost of one megabyte is 10 kopecks, which is not small.

As soon as I connected this Internet, I started looking for a good program that would control my Internet traffic and could set a warning when the limit was used up. And I found it, of course, not right away, after trying a couple of things I came across the NetWorx program. Which we will talk about further.

NetWorx will monitor the traffic

Now I will tell you where to get the program and how to set it up.

1. Whatever program you are looking for, I have uploaded it to my hosting, so .

2. Run the downloaded file and install the program, I will not describe the installation process, I wrote about this in.

3. If after installation the program does not start on its own, then launch it with a shortcut on the desktop or in the start menu.

4. That’s it, the program already counts your Internet traffic, it hides in the tray and quietly works there. The working window of the program looks like this:

As you can see, the program displays Internet traffic for the current day and for the entire time, starting from the time you installed the program, you can see how much I burned :). In fact, the program does not need any settings. I’ll just tell you how to set a quota in NetWorx, that is, traffic restrictions and how to make the tray icon display the activity of incoming and outgoing Internet traffic.

5. Let's now make sure that Internet traffic activity is displayed in the tray.

Right-click on the program icon in the tray and select “Settings”

On the “Graph” tab, set it as in my screenshot, click “OK” and “Apply”. Now the NetWorx program tray icon will display the activity of the Internet connection.

6. And the last point in setting up this program will be setting a quota. For example, Intertelecom only gives me 1000 MB per day, so in order not to spend more than this amount, I set up the program so that when I use up 80% of my traffic, it warns me.

Right-click on the program icon in the tray and select “Quota”.

You see, today I used up my limit by 53%, below there is a field where you can specify at what percentage to report that the traffic is running out. Let's click on the “Settings” button and configure the quota.

Everything is very simple here, first we set what your quota is, for example, I have a daily quota, then we set the traffic; I selected all traffic, that is, incoming and outgoing. We set the “Clock” and "Units", I have megabytes. And of course, don’t forget to indicate the quota size, I have 1000 megabytes. Click “Ok” and that’s it, our quota is configured.

That's it, the program is fully configured and ready to count your traffic. It will launch along with the computer, and all you have to do is occasionally look in and see for fun how much traffic you have already burned. Good luck!

Also on the site:

NetWorx: how to monitor Internet traffic updated: August 17, 2012 by: admin

This article will look at software solutions that will help you control your traffic. Thanks to them, you can see a summary of the Internet connection consumption of a particular process and limit its priority. It is not necessary to view recorded reports on a PC with special software installed in its OS - this can be done remotely. It won’t be a problem to find out the cost of consumed resources and much more.

Software from SoftPerfect Research that allows you to control consumed traffic. The program provides additional settings that make it possible to see information about megabytes consumed for a specific day or week, peak and off-peak hours. It is possible to see indicators of incoming and outgoing speed, received and sent data.

The tool will be especially useful in cases where metered 3G or LTE is used, and, accordingly, restrictions are required. If you have more than one account, statistics about each individual user will be displayed.

DU Meter

An application for tracking the consumption of resources from the World Wide Web. In the work area you will see both the incoming and outgoing signals. By connecting to the dumeter.net service account offered by the developer, you will be able to collect statistics on the use of information flow from the Internet from all PCs. Flexible settings will help you filter the stream and send reports to your email.

The parameters allow you to specify restrictions when using a connection to the World Wide Web. In addition, you can specify the cost of the service package provided by your provider. There is a user manual in which you will find instructions for working with the existing functionality of the program.

Network Traffic Monitor

A utility that displays network usage reports with a simple set of tools without the need for prior installation. The main window displays statistics and a summary of the connection that has Internet access. The application can block the stream and limit it, allowing the user to specify their own values. In the settings you can reset the recorded history. It is possible to record existing statistics in a log file. An arsenal of necessary functionality will help you record download and upload speeds.

TrafficMonitor

The application is an excellent solution for countering information flow from the network. There are many indicators that show the amount of data consumed, output, speed, maximum and average values. Software settings allow you to determine the cost of currently used volumes of information.

The generated reports will contain a list of actions related to the connection. The graph is displayed in a separate window, and the scale is displayed in real time; you will see it on top of all the programs in which you work. The solution is free and has a Russian-language interface.

NetLimiter

The program has a modern design and powerful functionality. What makes it special is that it provides reports that provide a summary of the traffic consumption of each process running on the PC. The statistics are perfectly sorted by different periods, and therefore it will be very easy to find the desired period of time.

If NetLimiter is installed on another computer, you can connect to it and control its firewall and other functions. To automate processes within the application, rules created by the user are used. In the scheduler, you can create your own limits when using the services of a provider, as well as block access to the global and local networks.

DUTraffic

The special feature of this software is that it displays advanced statistics. There is information about the connection from which the user entered the global space, sessions and their duration, as well as duration of use and much more. All reports are accompanied by information in the form of a diagram highlighting the duration of traffic consumption over time. In the parameters you can customize almost any design element.

The graph that is displayed in a specific area is updated in a second-by-second mode. Unfortunately, the utility is not supported by the developer, but has a Russian interface language and is distributed free of charge.

BWMeter

The program monitors download/upload and speed of the existing connection. Using filters displays an alert if processes in the OS are consuming network resources. Various filters are used to solve many different problems. The user will be able to fully customize the displayed graphs at their discretion.

Among other things, the interface shows the duration of traffic consumption, the reception and upload speed, as well as the minimum and maximum values. The utility can be configured to display alerts when events such as the number of megabytes downloaded and connection time occur. By entering the site address in the appropriate line, you can check its ping, and the result is written to a log file.

BitMeter II

A solution for providing a summary of the use of provider services. The data is available in both tabular and graphical formats. The parameters configure alerts for events related to connection speed and consumed stream. For ease of use, BitMeter II allows you to calculate how much time it will take to download the amount of data you enter in megabytes.

The functionality allows you to determine how much available volume is left provided by the provider, and when the limit is reached, a message about this is displayed in the taskbar. Moreover, the download can be limited in the parameters tab, and you can also monitor statistics remotely in browser mode.

The presented software products will be indispensable for monitoring the consumption of Internet resources. The functionality of the applications will help you create detailed reports, and the reports sent by e-mail are available for viewing at any convenient time.

These are programs that allow you to monitor active connections on all network interfaces.

Modern tools for detailed and detailed traffic monitoring, as a rule:

• are quite affordable;
• allow you to limit the speed of each connection separately;
• give a clear picture of which files and programs load the network and what speed they need to have;
• allow you to determine the sources of the greatest traffic consumption.

The program will help you decide on your priorities when using the network.

Today there are many similar utilities for monitoring and planning traffic consumption.

CommTraffic

This is a program for monitoring Internet traffic both on a local network (monitors the Internet activity of several clients at once) and on a personal computer using a modem connection. Accounting and statistics of Internet work will be displayed in the form of bandwidth graphs. They show the amount of outgoing, incoming and total traffic.

The program can be configured for almost any tariff plan, which is based on the established volume, takes into account the time of day and connection time. The CommTraffic utility is equipped with:

• convenient indication;
• accurate cost calculation;
• possibility of notification in case of overspending.

Moreover, it is simple and easy to use. Once you set a traffic and time limit that matches your tariff plan, you will receive notifications with a sound signal or a message to the specified address when you approach the set limits.

Program for monitoring Internet traffic Network Meter

An application for collecting network information that allows you to monitor all network adapters installed in the system. Also provides detailed statistics about outgoing and incoming traffic. First, configure the downloaded program when you first launch it. To do this, specify what data you want to see in the main window, and the adapters that Network Meter will “monitor”.

Minimize the utility window to the notification panel so that it does not take up space on your desktop. Even in this state, the application continues to work in the background.

The program will plot graphs of network connection consumption intensity in real time. It is not overloaded with unnecessary interface elements and settings. The graphical shell of the utility is clear and simple. You can also use it to see:

• Internet session duration, MAC address and IP;
• connection type;
• Maximum cable throughput.

By downloading Network Meter, you will get a fairly compact, simple and free tool. Great for monitoring traffic and viewing information about network equipment.

Internet traffic counter Simbad Traffic Counter

The utility keeps track of incoming and outgoing traffic, and also calculates its cost, according to the tariff of your Internet provider. The consumed traffic is displayed in various quantities (gigabytes, megabytes, kilobytes). In addition, the application keeps statistics. It will automatically detect the modem connection and display the time spent on the Internet. This program for monitoring Internet traffic consumes virtually no system resources and is small in size. Supports work with a large number of protocols.

Net Activity Diagram Application

The program for monitoring traffic and Internet speed Net Activity Diagram monitors the Internet and network activity of the computer.

Produces:

• tracking of all established connections;
• displaying various warnings in the form of a message;
• traffic analysis for specified periods of time.

Current network activity is displayed both in a separate window and on the taskbar. In addition, the Net Activity Diagram service tracks statistics independently for each port and provides the ability to monitor each type of traffic separately.

The program is quite flexible. It informs the user in cases of exceeding or approaching the established limits.

Traffic accounting using Internet Connection Counter

This program for monitoring Internet traffic will allow you to take into account the cost and time spent on the Internet, the total amount of traffic consumed. Supports various types of connections: Dial-Up, ADSL, LAN, GPRS, etc.

With this utility the user can:

• use several Internet provider tariffs at the same time;
• get acquainted with statistics on the traffic used;
• customize the appearance of the application.

In addition, the application will show all active connections, synchronize the system clock and export a report to Excel format.

Traffic saving program

HandyCache will allow significantly (3-4 times) caching. The next time you visit the site, the application will help you avoid downloading it from the Internet. In addition, you can view these sites without an Internet connection, in offline mode.

To get started, you need to install HandyCache and point it to the browser as a proxy server. After this, all browsers installed on you will use the HandyCache cache. The default settings of this application suit users in most cases.

The utility is equipped with flexible settings for managing a wide variety of parameters. Can load files from cache depending on the HandyCache file type or URL. And if necessary, it will download files from the Internet in case of constant version updates. Before this, the program will check their version and only then decide whether to contact the download source.

The utility is convenient in that to search for any previously used data you do not need to find it again. Just look in the cache for a folder with the same name as the site name. In addition, this Internet traffic monitoring program for Android is ideal.

Clear and accurate accounting of money

And also time and traffic can be done using the StatistXP application. A program for monitoring Internet traffic will allow you to use the network comfortably and economically. For the trial period, 10 launches are given. And for further use, the utility is equipped with the option of prepayment and Internet cards.

The program carries out:

• notification when connecting and disconnecting by voice;
• accounting of time, money and traffic with connection statistics by month and year;
• There is detailed information.

BitMeter II - a program for monitoring Internet traffic

This utility is a traffic counter. In addition, it is equipped with a wide range of tools for collecting and monitoring network connections.

In the main window of the application, you can see a graph of outgoing and incoming traffic in real time. To quickly calculate the time spent downloading, there is a special calculator.

The application supports setting warnings about exceeding the limits of the maximum traffic limit and Internet connection time.

Some features of the program:

• Customizable settings and alerts when the speed drops to a set level or when a certain amount of data is downloaded.
• Uploads and downloads are monitored and recorded. This will allow you to see how much traffic was used during a specific period of time.
• On-screen stopwatch.
• Nice help file.
• Convenient, customizable appearance.
• Possibility of selective monitoring of network cards.

A program for tracking incoming and outgoing traffic on your computer. It will help you not to exceed the traffic limit and not end up without the Internet at all.

ATTENTION: Starting from version 6, the program has become paid, so in order to avoid misunderstandings, do not update it. Here is the latest free version 5.5.5.

Anyone who used the Internet five years ago probably remembers the most important problem for a user - constantly monitoring the amount of traffic. After all, there were no unlimited packages back then, and Dial-Up connections required money for every megabyte of information downloaded.

As a result, if you don’t control traffic consumption, you could end up costing a pretty penny :). But the people are inventive and they came up with many programs for measuring and limiting the flow. Today, the need for such utilities has decreased a little, but they are still in use, because during their existence they have acquired many additional useful functions.

Thanks to such programs, today you can measure the speed of your Internet connection, check all processes that have access to the Internet, measure traffic usage in corporate networks, and much more.

A small program has all the above functions - NetWorx. In addition, it has a number of additional features that will be useful to both the system administrator and the average user. An equally simple but powerful tool can be called a paid program - DU Meter.

Comparison of the free traffic metering program NetWorx with the paid analogue DU Meter

In addition, in NetWorx you can impose a quota on the amount of traffic, as well as launch various applications on a schedule. The program itself comes in two versions: portable and installation. I think it's easiest to use the "portable" version, although if you're a fan of installers, you can easily install NetWorx using the standard installation wizard.

Installing NetWorx

I will assume that you downloaded the portable version. To get started, you need to unpack the archive with the program and run the executable exe file. Before directly launching NetWorx, we’ll make a couple of settings. First, you will need to specify the program language, and second, you will need to enable or disable checking for new versions. That's all:).

After this, a program icon will appear in the tray (a place next to the system clock), with which we will manage it.

NetWorx will be controlled through a right-click context menu.

Here in this menu all the functions of the program are listed, but before use you can make some settings. To do this, click on the menu section of the same name.

NetWorx Settings

“Settings” consists of several tabs. In “General” we can configure the speed units, information displayed in the tray, and also (most importantly!) which connection to monitor (by default, all traffic is counted).

The “Graph” and “Graph Colors” sections allow us to customize the appearance of the graph of incoming/outgoing information packets. In “Notifications” you can enable and configure service messages from the program, and in “Additional” we have the opportunity to configure the collection of statistics.

The very last tab, Dial-up, allows you to set the default connection and add applications that will run with NetWorx.

After the settings are made, first click the “Apply” button for them to take effect, and then “Ok” to exit the settings.

Traffic Monitor

Now let's go directly through the NetWorx tools. The first and main one is a traffic monitor. It is presented in the form of a graph, which is called by the “Show graph” button.

The graph can be presented in the form of a histogram (in my opinion, this is the most convenient), curved lines, or simply numbers. In this case, there will always be two numbers at the bottom. The number with the index “D” (blue by default) shows the amount of incoming traffic (from the English download), and “U” (green) respectively, outgoing traffic (from the English upload).

Velocity change curves are drawn in the corresponding colors on the graph, the numerical value of which can be correlated with the scale on the left.

Speed ​​measurement

The next button - “Speed ​​measurement” - unfortunately, does not measure the overall speed of your Internet connection, but only the current speed of background packet transmission. This may be needed to compare (saving is available) the results under full load on the channel (for example, downloading a file) and at rest.

To start the test, just click the “Start” button and mark a certain period of time. The result can then be saved to a text file, and then compared with the new data obtained when “loading” the channel.

Statistics

System administrators will like this feature most of all, since it is possible to keep both a general count of traffic and display detailed statistics for each of the network users. The results can be exported to xls format (Excel spreadsheets) and saved on a computer.

There are also tools for backup statistics and their further restoration (for example, if you need to save all the data after reinstalling the system).

Traffic quota

Moving on, we move on to the “Quota” section. This function is most suitable for users with a Dial-up connection or limited traffic (for example, mobile Internet). It allows you to set the maximum amount of information received or sent and will always warn the user if the specified limit is exceeded.

By default, the quota is set to 0.00 KB, so if you want to use this function, you will need to “Configure” it first :).

In the settings, we specify the type of quota (daily, weekly, monthly, last 24 hours) and the type of traffic (incoming, outgoing or all). You can leave the clock as is, and then specify the units of measurement and the quota itself.

To save the settings, click “Ok”, and in the quota monitoring window, do not forget to check the box “Notify when the quota is used by %” in order to receive timely information about overspending.

Route tracing

We have already looked at the “Settings” item, so let’s move on to the next one – “Route tracing”. If you suddenly lost access to any Internet resource or you need to find out what path you take before you get to this or that site, try tracing this path. This can be done with standard Windows capabilities, but with NetWorx it is much easier and more visual.

To start tracing, enter the name of the site (remote computer) or its IP address. Now you can set the response time (although often the standard value is more than enough) and you can click “Start”. In this case, we traced the site yandex.ru and saw that to access it you need to go through 11 intermediate servers, and the total time to travel this path is 31 ms.

Ping

The next option is “Ping”. The window interface of this function is very similar to the previous one, but its purpose is somewhat different. Ping, simply put, is the speed at which a remote computer responds to a request you send. The built-in NetWorx ping is inferior in capabilities to the standard one (it is not possible to set your own keys to change parameters), but it copes with the main task.

Another disadvantage of the function is that you cannot enter the website’s Internet address directly - you need to know its exact IP (you can find out from the previous utility). Now specifically about use: enter the address of the remote PC, select the waiting time and the number of echo requests and click “Start”.

In our example, the site was pinged vkontakte.ru. The average response time is not calculated automatically, but it can be calculated in your head by adding all the obtained values ​​and dividing by three :).

It turned out to be about 45 ms, which in principle is good (ping up to 50 ms ± 10 ms is considered good). The TTL value is the “lifetime” of the echo packet. The number 64 means that the sent packet of information can pass through 64 intermediate servers.

Connections

The last tool is Connections. It allows you to monitor all applications that require an Internet connection.

I immediately advise you to enable the “Convert addresses to names” option. This way you can see where this or that application is going and stop its attempt to connect to a suspicious resource. Pay special attention to “established” connections (ESTABLISHED) and listening ports (LISTENING), as they can pose a hidden threat.

If a suspicious connection is detected, you can immediately terminate the application that installs it by right-clicking on it and selecting “End Application”.

conclusions

Thus, we can summarize all of the above. NetWorx is not just a program for monitoring your Internet connection, but also a complex for ensuring security and comprehensive network diagnostics.

Therefore, if you suspect that some application is using traffic irrationally or even transmitting confidential information, try monitoring your network with the NetWorx program and you can easily identify the “spy” :).

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

Traffic accounting programs monitor connections across all interfaces. They count the amount of data received and sent.

Some of them allow you to limit the speed of each individual connection.

Thus, you can distribute Internet traffic depending on the priority of the task.

Another useful feature of such utilities is the ability to maintain statistics.

Advice!

Such software is necessary for corporate structures in which every financial aspect is important. Using a traffic monitor also benefits home networks.

Among all such programs, there are five most common, functional and convenient.

NetWorx

A free traffic accounting program that combines a simple interface and good functionality.

The program's capabilities allow you to monitor multiple connections, which is very useful for monitoring traffic on corporate networks.

Detailed connection monitoring allows you to identify and defeat unauthorized access attempts.

A flexible notification system will allow you not to miss an important event, be it connection problems, suspicious actions or a decrease in connection speed.

The collected data is not only displayed graphically in the program window, but is also saved in a special statistics file.

The statistical data is subsequently easily exported to a spreadsheet, HTML or MS Word document.

Advantages:

Monitoring multiple connections;

Flexible notification system;

Maintaining detailed statistics;

Free distribution model.

Flaws:

True, in this mode you can only observe the dynamics, you will not be able to influence them.

Advantages:

Free distribution;

Possibility of remote monitoring;

Good for home use.

Flaws:

Significant consumption of RAM resources;

Mandatory presence of the .NET Framework (conditional disadvantage).

Internet Count

The program is designed to account for the cost of an Internet connection. Accounting is possible both for time-based pricing and for tariff plans with traffic limits.

The program's universal capabilities allow you to calculate the cost of an Internet connection for users in any region.

All collected data is stored in detailed statistics by day and month.

The collected data can be exported to various document formats for subsequent detailed analysis.

Advantages:

Free distribution;

Possibility of cost accounting regardless of region;

Detailed statistics.

Flaws:

Only cost accounting is carried out;

Only Beta version is available.

TMeter

An excellent tool for traffic accounting. The utility collects maximum information on data exchange processes.

TMeter provides traffic counting as well as the ability to manage multiple connections.

Statistics are collected on a variety of parameters, displayed in accordance with the current state of affairs and saved in graphical and text forms.

The program's powerful functionality allows you to manage connections using its own authentication system, based on IP addresses or other parameters.

Data flow controls allow you to limit the connection speed for each user individually.

Advantages:

Huge tools for managing corporate networks;

NAT mechanism, which provides local network users with Internet access via a single IP;

Built-in authentication service;

Flexible filter system.

Flaws:

Windows-oriented; work in other operating systems is impossible;

Not suitable for home use;

The difficult-to-learn interface is not suitable for ordinary users;

The free version has a limit on the filters used (up to 3).