How can I see how fast data is being transferred in Mac OS X?

5

Is there a simple way to measure how the upload or download speed of data leaving my computer, like when I'm backing up the computer, or uploading large files through a browser?

If so, how can I do this?

Chris Adams

Posted 2009-09-05T14:36:18.463

Reputation: 211

Answers

8

Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder will show network usage, disk usage and many other things. You can sort by process as well.

MDMarra

Posted 2009-09-05T14:36:18.463

Reputation: 19 580

4

MenuMeters - sits in your menu bar showing a constant graph and/or numeric values for upload & download on any interface.

JRobert

Posted 2009-09-05T14:36:18.463

Reputation: 6 128

3

You can do it using iStat pro. It shows you how many GB you've downloaded and uploaded since you booted up.

alex

Posted 2009-09-05T14:36:18.463

Reputation: 16 172

1+1. iStat Pro is a nice widget, and perfectly fulfills my simple network monitoring needs (occasionally checking the current upload/download rate) – Jonik – 2009-09-05T15:48:53.950

In this case though, it does not do anything more than the Activity Monitor, which is already installed. – Richard Hoskins – 2009-09-05T17:33:02.930

@Richard, perhaps so, but in my experience it's quicker/handier to access the info from iStat Pro, by just opening Dashboard – Jonik – 2009-09-05T19:55:47.727

@Jonik Not by the time you download, install, update, etc. If there is a good reason to install an application, I'll install one. But it comes at a price, so I prefer to use the tools I already have. iStat Pro just to look at network numbers is not going to save you time. – Richard Hoskins – 2009-09-06T03:01:22.007

1It shows you all the data you might want at a glance. And I'm no sure you can find info on battery cycles, fan RPM and temperature in Activity monitor. That is why I recommended iStat. – alex – 2009-09-06T05:52:12.100

0

For El Capitan and after, the wonderful Menu Meters listed above no longer works. However, there's a fork of it available which does support El Capitan and adds some new features.

Mordred

Posted 2009-09-05T14:36:18.463

Reputation: 479

0

In addition to iStat Pro, Little Snitch will also do this. Little Snitch also provides reverse firewall protection, making sure you know which applications are connecting to the internet.

mmc

Posted 2009-09-05T14:36:18.463

Reputation: 580