How to track LAN usage? (AKA 'top for LAN')

ubuntu networking monitoring linux

8,823

Solution 1

What about nethogs? In my opinion, it is lot more humane. Lists which command/program using network and how much bandwidth for each of them, in realtime.

Install it in ubuntu/debian systems with:

sudo apt-get install nethogs

Run it to monitor your network interface like this:

sudo nethogs eth0

alt text

Solution 2

iftop is a console/shell-based program similar to top that can use the pcap library (also used by tcpdump and wireshark). It is available for Ubuntu from Universe.

sudo aptitude install iftop
sudo iftop

While running an upgrade on an ubuntu system:

alt text

With netstat, you can find out what process is connected to a particular port or IP. For ports, its a good idea to prefix with a colon.

sudo netstat -plantu | grep "some_port_number_or_ip_address"

For example, to look at open connections for ssh:

sudo netstat -plantu | grep :22
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2376/sshd       
tcp        0      0 10.13.37.122:22         10.13.37.105:59130      ESTABLISHED 4033/sshd: jtimberm
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      2376/sshd

You can also look for open port connections with lsof:

sudo lsof -i:22
COMMAND  PID       USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
sshd    2376       root    3u  IPv4   5613      0t0  TCP *:ssh (LISTEN)
sshd    2376       root    4u  IPv6   5615      0t0  TCP *:ssh (LISTEN)
sshd    4033       root    3u  IPv4  11608      0t0  TCP 10.13.37.122:ssh->10.13.37.105:59130 (ESTABLISHED)
sshd    4086 jtimberman    3u  IPv4  11608      0t0  TCP 10.13.37.122:ssh->10.13.37.105:59130 (ESTABLISHED)

You can get more information about the open files from lsof with -p PID.

sudo lsof -p 2376

(Lots of output from that suppressed)

Solution 3

ntop is your friend. Packages are in linux repos and macports.

Solution 4

In addition to using iftop to identify the address and port that's using bandwidth, you can use netstat to identify the process

sudo netstat -ntp

This will show all TCP connections open and the process name/id attached to each.

Solution 5

nload is a great tool for monitoring bandwidth in real time and easily installed in Ubuntu or Debian with sudo apt-get install nload.

Device eth0 [10.10.10.5] (1/2):
=====================================================================================
Incoming:


                               .         ...|    
                               #         ####|   
                           .. |#|  ...   #####.         ..          Curr: 2.07 MBit/s
                          ###.###  #### #######|.     . ##      |   Avg: 1.41 MBit/s
                         ########|#########################.   ###  Min: 1.12 kBit/s
             ........    ###################################  .###  Max: 4.49 MBit/s
           .##########. |###################################|#####  Ttl: 1.94 GByte
Outgoing:
            ##########  ###########    ###########################
            ##########  ###########    ###########################
            ##########. ###########   .###########################
            ########### ###########  #############################
            ########### ###########..#############################
           ############ ##########################################
           ############ ##########################################
           ############ ##########################################  Curr: 63.88 MBit/s
           ############ ##########################################  Avg: 32.04 MBit/s
           ############ ##########################################  Min: 0.00 Bit/s
           ############ ##########################################  Max: 93.23 MBit/s
         ############## ##########################################  Ttl: 2.49 GByte

Another excellent tool is iftop, also easily apt-get'able:

             191Mb      381Mb                 572Mb       763Mb             954Mb     
└────────────┴──────────┴─────────────────────┴───────────┴──────────────────────
box4.local            => box-2.local                      91.0Mb  27.0Mb  15.1Mb
                      <=                                  1.59Mb   761kb   452kb
box4.local            => box.local                         560b   26.8kb  27.7kb
                      <=                                   880b   31.3kb  32.1kb
box4.local            => userify.com                         0b   11.4kb  8.01kb
                      <=                                  1.17kb  2.39kb  1.75kb
box4.local            => b.resolvers.Level3.net              0b     58b    168b
                      <=                                     0b     83b    288b
box4.local            => stackoverflow.com                   0b     42b     21b
                      <=                                     0b     42b     21b
box4.local            => 224.0.0.251                         0b      0b    179b
                      <=                                     0b      0b      0b
224.0.0.251           => box-2.local                         0b      0b      0b
                      <=                                     0b      0b     36b
224.0.0.251           => box.local                           0b      0b      0b
                      <=                                     0b      0b     35b


─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
TX:           cum:   37.9MB   peak:   91.0Mb     rates:   91.0Mb  27.1Mb  15.2Mb
RX:                  1.19MB           1.89Mb              1.59Mb   795kb   486kb
TOTAL:               39.1MB           92.6Mb              92.6Mb  27.9Mb  15.6Mb

Don't forget about the classic and powerful sar and netstat utilities on older *nix!

View more solutions

8,823

Nấm Lùn

Web and mobile Developer, wanterpreneur, Linux user, and Brazilian from Rio de Janeiro but with a foot in Canada :) Currently, I work as a freelancer web developer for Toptal clients, and spend some of my free time as a local Community Leader for the company and helping with meetups @ PHPRio. Toptal is an amazing way to work on projects you like, from all around the world, with a good pay while having fun - and from anywhere you want! If you like the idea, ping me (@igorsantos07) or take a look at the details in the Toptal Application Page :)

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

Nấm Lùn almost 2 years

There's an evil application that is eating ALL my upload bandwidth (I'm brazilian, it's only ~35kbps) for like 80% of the time my PC is turned on.

I would like to know if there's any way to track this usage and discover what app is doing this.
jtimberman almost 15 years

ntop is an excellent program, but it is probably overkill and overcomplicated for this.
Nấm Lùn almost 15 years

In fact i think that using my ADSL router just to solve this small problem is overkill and overcomplicated. I think it's just an easy thing to solve. But thank you for your help!
Nấm Lùn almost 15 years

I think I already have UFW in my Ubuntu.. Anyway I think that this would be a little bit trouble to solve with this approach.. The problem doesn't happen all the time, it, intermitent but a little frequent. But if the other net info apps fails, i'll give the firewall a try! Thank you!
Nấm Lùn almost 15 years

With this program I could determine where IT was eating my connection... and with netstat I could determine who was doing this. I need to mark those both answers as correct! XD
Nấm Lùn almost 15 years

As I can't vote "accepted" for both you and iftop, I'll accept him - that showed me EXACTLY when and how someone was eating my bandwidth - and vote you up 'cos with netstat I could know who I should kill. Thank you!
Nấm Lùn almost 15 years

I don't think it's friendly as I would like to... I think there are so much info for what I need. And your answer is not exactly.... helful. But thank you anyway =]
Admin almost 15 years

Alternatively, you can use lsof -i tcp:80 to concentrate your search on one port. This particular version will list all the processes connected on tcp port 80.
Nấm Lùn almost 15 years

I really don't think it's fair to edit your answer and add a lot of new info... but i can't think about any other solution, so.. thank you again =]
jtimberman almost 15 years

@Igoru Just making the answer better so people get more relevant information if they're searching for questions similar to your own.
Nấm Lùn over 14 years

very interesting! =D Fix my problem better than the combo iftop+netstat. Not that both are not good, they are awesome, but not for what I needed. =D
jtimberman over 12 years

I ssh'd to an ubuntu system from my mac.
Nicholas DiPiazza almost 8 years

this doesn't seem to have a batch mode.