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Is there a good bit of software on Mac OS X that I can use to monitor incoming and outgoing network activity? Nothing too geeky, I just want something simple to use.
I'm on version 10.6 (Snow Leopard) if that helps.
xentek
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 981
60
Wireshark is widely acknowledged as one of the best network monitor tools available. Distributions are available for OS X.
If you prefer something more simplistic you can use iStatMenus to show incoming / outgoing network traffic speeds.
For the person who doesn't want to install anything you can also use tcpdump in Terminal.
tcpdump -i [interface, en0 is ethernet, en1 is wireless]
Josh K
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 11 754
37
Also check out nettop, a little command line gem that ships with Mac OS.
SengMing
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 479
5There is a useful 'delta output' mode which can be toggled with the 'd' key while app is running. It will show you the actual download/upload rates per second per connection. – Anton Matosov – 2014-09-05T04:54:16.957
Pressing the 'd' key didn't do anything for me (macOS 10.12.3) until I first ran nettop -d. It may have been that my terminal window wasn't wide enough initially. Pressing 'h' while running displays other available options. – MrG – 2017-02-16T07:41:44.953
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Also look at MenuMeters. I tried iStat Menus & MenuMeters and preferred MM. Not saying one is better; just that there are a couple of choices.
A working version of MenuMeters for El Capitan can be found here.
JRobert
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 6 128
Light, functional and open-source application. What more can we ask? :) – Henrique de Sousa – 2015-07-04T12:56:11.093
3+1. MenuMeters beats iStat Menus anyday. – cOle2 – 2010-04-08T14:52:18.600
Unfortunately this no longer works as of osx 10.11.1 El Capitan. – jfountain – 2015-10-25T22:22:41.123
I can confirm that the version of MenuMeters for El Capitan at http://member.ipmu.jp/yuji.tachikawa/MenuMetersElCapitan/ works as expected on that O/S.
– boot13 – 2015-11-27T13:17:45.637Still fully functional in Sierra 12.6. – JRobert – 2017-08-09T12:18:49.340
2MM is also open-source. – Ashley – 2014-03-24T20:51:54.430
15
LittleSnitch! - 30$
It is mainly a software Firewall that may help you to prevent some apps to access the internet. It also has a nice menubar icon with live network usage. Mouseover on it and it displays which app is communicating with which server or ip address.
I have LittleSnitch and iStat Menus installed. Both are complementary.
Arko
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 1 672
LittleSnitch will be a pain unless you're explicitly blocking stolen / cracked programs from calling home. Also the menu item is not nearly as informative as iStat. You'd have to open up the Network Monitor screen to get any benefit. – Josh K – 2010-03-23T17:50:58.927
Well, there is a lot of programs that are calling home and should not. If you are a bit concerned about security you will understand what I mean.
The LittleSnitch's mouseouver pop-up is also great for showing realtime process-host network activity. But yes, it is not as informative as iStat. That's why i use both. – Arko – 2010-03-24T09:05:25.763
little snitch currently shows me my network history graph for one hour. is MenuMeters and Istat show less. do we have anything that shows more than 1 hour, say one day or a week? – nyxee – 2017-08-09T02:40:03.300
7
Commercial (16$) iStat Pro and iStat Menus (dashboard widget and menu bar item respectively) are great for monitoring everything from network activity to CPU temperatures.
And of course there's the network tab of Activity Monitor.
Kevin Yap
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 981
+1 For mentioning Activity Monitor. For anyone with casual requirements who just needs to know their up/down speed this is a great solution, and it ships free with OS X. – Jonathan Nicol – 2014-07-01T09:55:58.747
iStat Pro no longer appears to be supported. – John Mark Mitchell – 2017-12-13T07:24:50.580
2
Network Logger for Mac OS X from Group Mind does a great job of tracking network traffic, downtime (in real time, with timed log), and lots of easy-to-understand stuff. I'm not technical and all I really wanted was to track when my ISP connection went down, and for how long it stayed down. Mac's little Network Utility app would ping endlessly but wouldn't give me a chronological log. Network Logger did, and was easy for a novice to understand.
Cost me $5.99 from the App Store.
user185006
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 21
2Good first post. To round out your answer perhaps you could include a link to the app and a screenshot? Just a thought. – slm – 2013-01-07T04:29:29.383
1
/System/Library/CoreServices/Network Diagnostics Simple green/red LEDs for various layers. I slide it over to the right side of the screen until just the lights show.
CJ1
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 19
Tempted to downvote... How does this help "monitor incoming and outgoing network activity"? (If it does, please let me know; I'd love to use it!) – rinogo – 2014-08-07T04:34:07.067
I don't think this does what you think it does. This tool (command is /System/Library/CoreServices/Network\ Diagnostics.app/Contents/MacOS/Network\ Diagnostics) diagnosis WiFi or Ethernet connection issues. It doesn't monitor network activity. – matty – 2016-06-28T02:28:43.023
0
I've just installed Net Monitor and Net Monitor Sidekick and so far I like them. Nothing you can't get with other tools, but a nice summary display. Each is $10 after a 30 day eval, so YMMV, but I thought I'd mention them.
Fred
Posted 2010-03-23T03:35:52.187
Reputation: 1 205
The URL provided is dead. The URL for Net Monitor and Net Monitor Sidekick has been updated to http://netmonitor.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/
– John Mark Mitchell – 2017-12-13T07:29:00.430
iStatMenus looks like the day to day winner, but I also appreciate the terminal command too for the quick/dirty way of doing it. – xentek – 2010-03-23T08:08:11.677
5Wireshark is a packet analyzer with delusions of grander. It doesn't give a good view of everything going on, but it's great for going through packets with a hex editor. – vy32 – 2012-05-26T19:20:51.807
tcpdump is what I need here - for some reason, Private Eye wasn't showing me FTPS passive connections, but tcpdump did. – Michael H. – 2012-06-06T21:00:17.003