Network bandwidth monitor?

brazzmonkey · 2009-06-24 08:45:51

Hi everyone,

Hopefully I'll soon move into a new house. Unfortunately, it is in a "white area", where no xDSL connection is available. So I'm on my way to subscribe an satellite internet connection. There are decent offers in terms of speed and price, but they have high latency and bandwidth limitations.

As far as high latency is concerned, I won't be able to do much to improve it. A web cache may help a bit, though.

My main concern is bandwidth. I currently have no idea at all about how much Mb I consume, say, on daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I'm looking for a tool that would allow me to easily get such statistics. My current configuration includes a router running Arch, with privoxy and polipo installed. All web connections go through it, but it only runs about 4 hours a day.

Do you guys know about a simple tool which could monitor internet traffic on a router?

Thx.

*edit* actually ntop seems to be just fine, isn't it?

Last edited by brazzmonkey (2009-06-24 08:52:42)

brenix · 2009-06-24 17:02:41

I was going to recommend ntop. It is fairly easy to configure. Another that looks good, but I haven't tried is bandwithd.

And just out of question, how is your current performance using arch as a router with polipo? I've been wanting to try a similar setup. I've mainly used pfsense and squid for our proxy/router setups..

CursedMonkey · 2009-06-24 17:13:38

If you use Gnome, then the System Monitor shows the total traffic sent, and the total traffic received. Conky can also show the same details.

R00KIE · 2009-06-24 17:17:49

Well, if nothing else then ifconfig can also show you the totals ... not sure how much the counter can count though.

brazzmonkey · 2009-06-24 17:20:05

@CursedMonkey: I don't use GNOME.
@R00KIE: gives total for current session. I'm looking for something that wouls give me daily, weekly and monthly totals.

lucke · 2009-06-24 17:26:16

vnstat.

DonVla · 2009-06-25 10:29:16

i use slurm http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=14935
and pktstat http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=23015
both together do a good job.

I'm looking for something that wouls give me daily, weekly and monthly totals.

i used atop for a time. it's a mixture of top with network monitoring utils and more

Last edited by DonVla (2009-06-25 10:32:51)

sand_man · 2009-06-25 11:37:04

iptraf is what I use at times

JK3mp · 2009-06-25 15:24:29

Not to make ya feel down, but be prepared for FRUSTRATION beyond all measures and NOT being able to watch any videos or play any games w/o going over your bandwidth limitations. i would recommend mobile broadband instead of sattelite and a cheaper startup cost as well. Still have limits and still have to be careful but there a little more lenient and works ALOT faster (no latency)

brazzmonkey · 2009-06-25 21:01:10

JK3mp wrote:

Not to make ya feel down, but be prepared for FRUSTRATION beyond all measures and NOT being able to watch any videos or play any games w/o going over your bandwidth limitations. i would recommend mobile broadband instead of sattelite and a cheaper startup cost as well. Still have limits and still have to be careful but there a little more lenient and works ALOT faster (no latency)

Yes, I'm aware about that. That basically means I won't update my workstations as often as I do now.
Mobile broadband is not a solution as reception is quite bad in this area. I'll mostly use internet for web surfing and sending emails. I know it may frustate me at times, but I guess I'll be busy enough dealing with real life stuff related to this new house. So that's basically a matter of choice. No more webradio, no more p2p. Pleasant stuff, but no necessary if you think about it.

On the other hand, satellite offers are improving over time. There won't be much improvements in terms of latency, but I'm no gamer and I don't skype, so I don't really mind.
There's a window between 10 pm and 4 am during which I'll be able to download with reduced effects on my quota calculations.
In late 2010, a new satellite should be available, providing rates up to 10 Mb. So I expect quotas will become more generous as well. I hope so anyhow.
In the meantime, other technologies may become available (Wimax...)

back to original topic.
First, thanks everyone for your suggestions. vnstat is very nice and simple, and it's actually the closest thing to my needs. I'd like something a little more accurate, something that could identify different types of traffic (HTTP, P2P, mail...). I know ntop almost does that, but I don't seem to be able to get history statistics (only current session statistics are offered...)

jordz · 2009-06-25 21:09:05

nload http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=5347

Procyon · 2009-06-25 21:18:18

Use /proc/net/dev to write your own script.

brazzmonkey · 2009-06-26 07:19:10

Procyon wrote:

Use /proc/net/dev to write your own script.

I don't write scripts. Crazy, huh?

Last edited by brazzmonkey (2009-06-26 07:20:27)

Procyon · 2009-06-26 09:14:01

And I can't seem to find such specific information in /proc or /sys/class/net (like per PID rates, all of /proc/12345/net/dev is unfortunately the same information).

brazzmonkey · 2009-06-26 12:11:17

vnstat is definetely simple yet effective for my needs. If I were able to write a script, I suppose I'd end up with something very similar.

archlinuxsagi · 2009-06-28 16:47:33

brazzmonkey wrote:

Hi everyone,
My current configuration includes a router running Arch, with privoxy and polipo installed.
Do you guys know about a simple tool which could monitor internet traffic on a router?

Me wondering which router allows you to install Arch in it and which kernel version.
Installing Arch in a router seems interesting...

brazzmonkey · 2009-06-28 21:06:20

Don't get me wrong, my router is actually an old PC acting as a router (and many other things).

archlinuxsagi · 2009-06-28 23:44:53

brazzmonkey wrote:

Don't get me wrong, my router is actually an old PC acting as a router (and many other things).

Haha.. Thanks for the info...

pere · 2009-06-30 17:14:04

iftop

kenshis · 2010-01-29 21:52:51

hello, i need somehow distinguish night(free) and day traffic monitoring. i'm thinking of writing script to use vnstat. Maybe someone has already solution? or there is app that can do that. I need app running in daemon mode.

jiros · 2016-07-04 16:55:33

Hi
I have same problem.
i need an application which can monitor my network and all of above packages wasn't there anymore except vnstat.
how can i do it ?

R00KIE · 2016-07-04 18:05:32

Don't necro-bump[1], closing.

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … bumping.22

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-24 08:45:51

Network bandwidth monitor?

#2 2009-06-24 17:02:41

Re: Network bandwidth monitor?

#3 2009-06-24 17:13:38

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#4 2009-06-24 17:17:49

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#5 2009-06-24 17:20:05

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#6 2009-06-24 17:26:16

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#7 2009-06-25 10:29:16

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#8 2009-06-25 11:37:04

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#9 2009-06-25 15:24:29

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Re: Network bandwidth monitor?

#22 2016-07-04 18:05:32

Re: Network bandwidth monitor?

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