Bandwidth Monitoring Tools

Observium is a network monitoring and management platform designed to provide comprehensive visibility into the network infrastructure. It offers a range of features to monitor, analyze, and manage network devices and services.

Here are some popular bandwidth monitoring tools:

  1. PRTG Network Monitor
  2. SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack
  3. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer
  4. Nagios
  5. Cisco NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
  6. Paessler Router Traffic Grapher (PRTG)
  7. ntopng
  8. NetCrunch by AdRem Software
  9. NetFlow Auditor
  10. Observium

1. PRTG Network Monitor:

PRTG is a comprehensive network monitoring tool that includes bandwidth monitoring features. It provides real-time monitoring, detailed reports, and alerts for bandwidth usage across your network devices.

Key features:

  • Uses NetFlow and sFlow
  • Packet capture function
  • Live traffic flow graphics
  • Identifies overloaded links

2. SolarWinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack:

This tool combines two powerful solutions, NetFlow Traffic Analyzer and Network Performance Monitor, to deliver comprehensive bandwidth monitoring. It enables you to analyze network traffic patterns, identify bandwidth hogs, and troubleshoot network performance issues.

Key features:

  • Detect, diagnose, and resolve network performance issues
  • Track response time, availability, and uptime of routers, switches, and other SNMP-enabled devices
  • Monitor and analyze network bandwidth performance and traffic patterns
  • Find bandwidth hogs on a network and see which applications are using the most bandwidth
  • View visual hop-by-hop analysis for devices along the delivery path with NetPath
  • Enterprise command center
  • Advanced alerting capabilities and more!

3. ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer:

NetFlow Analyzer is a bandwidth monitoring and traffic analysis tool that uses flow technologies such as NetFlow, sFlow, and IPFIX to collect and analyze network traffic data. It provides insights into network bandwidth usage, application performance, and helps in capacity planning.

Key features:

  • Monitor traffic patterns and penetrate details at the interface level.
  • Track network anomalies running through firewalls.
  • Effective video, audio, and data monitoring.
  • Multi-vendor support.

4. Nagios:

Nagios is an open-source network monitoring tool that offers bandwidth monitoring capabilities through its plugins. It allows you to monitor network devices, track bandwidth utilization, and set alerts based on predefined thresholds.

Key features:

  • SNMP-based
  • Live network traffic data
  • Switch port activity monitor

5. Cisco NetFlow Traffic Analyzer:

If you have Cisco devices in your network, you can leverage their NetFlow feature along with the Cisco NetFlow Traffic Analyzer tool. It provides detailed visibility into network traffic patterns, helps in troubleshooting network issues, and assists with capacity planning.

Key features:

  • NetFlow Monitoring: Cisco NTA uses NetFlow, a network protocol developed by Cisco, to collect and analyze network traffic data. It monitors network flows, which contain information about the source and destination IP addresses, ports, protocols, and other traffic attributes.
  • Bandwidth Monitoring: NTA enables you to monitor bandwidth utilization across your network infrastructure. It provides real-time and historical data on network traffic, helping you identify which applications, users, or devices are consuming the most bandwidth.
  • Traffic Analysis: The tool offers in-depth traffic analysis capabilities, allowing you to understand network traffic patterns and trends. It provides insights into top talkers, top applications, and top protocols, helping you make informed decisions about network optimization and capacity planning.

6. Paessler Router Traffic Grapher (PRTG):

PRTG is another bandwidth monitoring tool that supports various protocols such as SNMP, NetFlow, and sFlow. It offers customizable dashboards, real-time monitoring, and historical data analysis to monitor bandwidth usage.

Key features:

  • Real-time Monitoring: PRTG provides real-time monitoring of your network infrastructure, allowing you to track the status and performance of devices, interfaces, and applications in real-time. You can view live data and metrics to quickly identify issues or abnormalities.
  • Bandwidth Monitoring: PRTG enables you to monitor bandwidth utilization across your network devices. It collects and analyzes data on network traffic, allowing you to identify bandwidth-hungry applications, devices, or users. You can track historical bandwidth usage trends and set up alerts for bandwidth thresholds.
  • SNMP Monitoring: PRTG supports Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) for monitoring network devices. It can retrieve and analyze SNMP data from routers, switches, servers, and other SNMP-enabled devices. This allows you to monitor device performance, CPU usage, memory usage, and other important metrics.

7. ntopng:

ntopng is an open-source network traffic analysis tool that provides real-time and historical bandwidth monitoring capabilities. It offers detailed network traffic statistics, supports various flow protocols, and can be used as a standalone application or integrated into existing network monitoring solutions.

Key features:

  • Packet capture
  • Traffic flow statistics
  • Community Edition is free to use

8. NetCrunch by AdRem Software:

A network monitoring tool with bandwidth monitoring features that provide real-time and historical data analysis.

Key features:

  • Real-time Monitoring: NetCrunch provides real-time monitoring of your network infrastructure, allowing you to monitor the status and performance of devices, interfaces, services, and applications in real time. You can view live data and metrics, enabling quick identification and resolution of network issues.
  • Automated Network Discovery: NetCrunch offers automated network discovery capabilities. It can scan your network to discover devices, network topology, and dependencies. This helps in building an accurate and up-to-date inventory of your network assets.
  • Fault and Performance Monitoring: The tool actively monitors the health and performance of network devices, servers, applications, and services. It generates alerts and notifications when issues or performance degradation occur, enabling timely response and troubleshooting.

9. NetFlow Auditor:

A comprehensive network traffic analysis tool that collects and analyzes flow data to monitor bandwidth usage and troubleshoot network issues.

Key features:

  • Flow Collection and Analysis: NetFlow Auditor collects flow data from network devices and performs in-depth analysis to gain insights into network traffic patterns, including source and destination IP addresses, ports, protocols, and other flow attributes. It supports various flow technologies to ensure compatibility with a wide range of network devices.
  • Bandwidth Monitoring: The tool offers comprehensive bandwidth monitoring capabilities. It allows you to monitor bandwidth utilization across your network, identify top talkers, and analyze traffic patterns. You can gain insights into which applications, users, or devices are consuming the most bandwidth and optimize network resources accordingly.
  • Application Performance Monitoring: NetFlow Auditor helps in monitoring and analyzing application performance on your network. It provides visibility into application response times, latency, and throughput. You can identify application-related performance issues and take appropriate measures to optimize performance.

10. Observium:

A network monitoring and management platform that includes bandwidth monitoring features for analyzing network traffic and performance.

Key features:

  • Automatic Device Discovery: Observium automatically discovers network devices in your infrastructure using protocols like SNMP and LLDP. It scans the network and adds devices to the monitoring platform, saving time and effort in manual device configuration.
  • Real-time Monitoring: The platform provides real-time monitoring of network devices, interfaces, services, and applications. It offers detailed graphs, charts, and status indicators to track performance metrics such as bandwidth utilization, CPU and memory usage, latency, packet loss, and more.
  • Network Mapping and Visualization: Observium offers network mapping capabilities to visually represent the network topology. You can view device relationships, connectivity, and interdependencies, helping you understand the structure and layout of your network at a glance.
Rajesh Kumar
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