A stable and effective network infrastructure requires constant network monitoring. Using a system that continuously monitors your network and the data flows over it—whether it be hardware or software—is required. The main goal of network monitoring is to alert the network administrator to any potential problems or abnormalities so they can take preventative action to guarantee that network operations go without a hitch.
Table of Contents
This article will examine several network monitoring tools that are available for Linux systems, enabling you to easily keep an eye on all of your network’s activity.
What is Network Monitoring?
Monitoring a network’s operations and performance to maintain its dependability, availability, and security is known as network monitoring. Administrators can spot bottlenecks, spot potential security holes, and avert potential downtime by continuously monitoring data packets and network traffic.
Importance of Network Management and Monitoring
Maintaining optimal network performance requires effective network management. An essential component of this procedure is network monitoring, which enables administrators to proactively address problems and maximize network resources.
Kali Linux Network Monitoring Tools
Nethogs: Tracking Bandwidth Usage by Process
Nethogs is a useful tool for Linux computers that gives information about how much bandwidth each process uses. Nethogs groups bandwidth usage by process ID (PID), which is different from other tools that group data by protocol or subnet. This makes it easy for users to see which app is taking up the most bandwidth.
Nload: Real-Time Network Traffic Analysis
Nload is a command-line program that lets you watch network activity and bandwidth use in real-time. It shows incoming and outgoing traffic on two graphs and gives other information like the total amount of data moved and the busiest time for the network.
Slurm: Command-Line Network Monitoring with ASCII Graphs
Slurm is a network monitoring tool that can be run from the command line and shows data in the form of ASCII graphs. It gives you three kinds of graphs to help you see how network traffic works.
Iftop: Monitoring Bandwidth on Network Interfaces
Iftop lets you check the bandwidth of a network device in real-time. It helps figure out which hosts might be slowing the network down. Don’t forget to run iftop as the root user to make sure that network traffic is being tracked correctly.
Collectl: Comprehensive Performance Monitoring Tool
Collectl is an all-in-one tool for monitoring system performance. It gathers details about things like memory, network, CPU, disk, NFS, and processes. It can run as a service to keep an eye on faraway computers or servers as a whole.
Netstat: Analyzing Network Connections and Ports
Netstat is a well-known tool for tracking networks that can be used in both Linux and Windows. It helps find and figure out network problems by telling you what ports are open and what programs are waiting on those ports.
Nagios: Powerful Linux Monitoring Solution
Nagios is a powerful tracking tool that keeps an eye on all Linux distributions and operating systems. It keeps an eye on things like CPU load, memory usage, disk usage, and services such as HTTP, FTP, and SSH.
EtherApe: Visualizing Network Activity
EtherApe is a graphical network traffic monitoring tool that supports various devices and encapsulation formats. It provides a visual representation of network activity, aiding in troubleshooting and security analysis.
Tcpflow: TCP/IP Demultiplexer for Detailed Analysis
Tcpflow keeps an eye on thousands of links between hosts, grabbing real data and dumping it into files so that it can be analyzed in detail. It is a very useful tool for figuring out and fixing network problems.
IPTraf: Text-Based Monitoring Tool for IP Traffic
IPTraf is a text-based tracking tool that gives information about TCP, UDP, ICMP, non-IP counts, and Ethernet load. It gives managers more information about how IP traffic flows.
Speedometer: Monitoring Network Speed with Graphs
The speedometer shows pictures of the current and past speeds of the network. It’s a good way to keep track of network traffic and file transfers.
Conclusion
Keeping a stable and safe network system requires good monitoring of the network. With the many network tracking tools for Linux systems, administrators can keep an eye on their networks and make sure they are running at their best.