INet is one of the best iPhone apps for the WiFi analyzer that offers an extensive array of tools to keep you updated about what’s exactly going on your network. The app seamlessly analyzes a computer network to identify probable risk controls and unauthorized usage. INet shows the devices connected to your local networks such as routers. Network Speed Monitor is a handy application for you to monitor and record your income and outcome data and keep you alert about whatever is running in your computer. Main features: 01. Put the menu item in the leftmost place on the menu bar so that other menu items will not fluctuate. Add to Wishlist WiFi Monitor is a powerful tool that allows you to analyze the state of WiFi networks and track its parameters (signal strength, frequency, connection speed, etc). It is useful for. UltraView Desktop Manager 2.0 now brings the productivity benefits of multiple monitors to large, high-resolution monitors, especially 4K UHD, QHD and ultrawide monitors. Today’s massive LED monitors and 4K TVs are exciting to look at but can be difficult to work with productively.
Network, refers to a group of interconnected computers to allow data exchange. And to make sure that network is constantly checked for slow or failing components, we need an adept Network Monitoring system in place.
Hence in this article, we have listed some of the best free network monitoring software in 2020.
Best Network Monitoring Software 2020
1. Microsoft Network Monitor –
Microsoft Network Monitor is one of the best free network monitoring software that allows to capture, view and analyze network traffic. This tool is very useful for troubleshooting network problems and applications on the network. The updated version is called Microsoft Message Analyzer.
Update app on mac. https://brownlit498.weebly.com/mac-photos-app-yosemite-beta.html. Let’s have a look at the features of the same:
- It supports the latest protocol parsers to capture, display, and analyze the protocol messaging traffic, events, and other system or application messages in troubleshooting and diagnostic scenarios.
- It is a powerful tool for capturing and analyzing protocol messages.
- Message Analyzer also allows you to load, aggregate, and analyze data from a log and saved trace files.
See Also: 10 Best PC Cleaner Software to Optimize Your System
2. OpenNMS –
OpenNMS is a freeware and one of the best monitoring software available in 2020.Let’s look at the features:
- It offers event and notification management, discovery and provisioning, service monitoring, and data collection.
- It provides path outage support and automatic acknowledgment of self-clearing problems
- OpenNMS includes a client app for the iOS which gives you the ability to view outages, nodes, alarms.
3. Advanced IP Scanner –
Yet another good tool for network monitoring for free and the best part is, it doesn’t require installation. Let’s look at its features:
- It is a reliable network scanner to analyze LAN and exports the scan results to CSV.
- The software shows all network devices, gives you access to shared folders, provides remote control of computers (via RDP and Radmin).
- It can also remotely switch the computers off.
4. NAGIOS CORE
Nagios Core is one of the best free network monitoring software which serves as the basic event scheduler, event processor, and alert manager for elements that are monitored. Let’s look at its features:
- It has the capabilities to monitor applications, services, operating systems, network protocols, system metrics and infrastructure components with a single tool.
- It shows trending and capacity planning add-ons to ensure you’re aware of aging infrastructure.
- It has escalation capabilities that make sure the alert notifications reach to the right people.
See Also: 10 Best Driver Updater Software for Windows
5. CACTI –
Cacti is a network monitoring tool that enables you to collect data from nearly any network element, including routing and switching systems, firewalls, load balancers, and servers, and put that data into robust graphs. Let’s look at the features of the same:
- It contains a “data input” mechanism which allows you to define custom scripts that can be used to gather data.
- It enables you to get the tree view which allows users to create “graph hierarchies” and place graphs on the tree making it easy to organize a large number of graphs.
- It has user-based management which allows the administrators to create users and assign different levels of permissions to the cacti interface.
6. WIRESHARK-Network Monitoring Software
Wireshark is one of the best free network monitoring software which allows you to keep an eye on what is happening on the network at microscopic levels.
Let’s have a look at the features:
- It provides deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time.
- It runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD and more.
- It provides Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
7. ZABBIX
Zabbix is an open-source networking tool which also happens to be a freeware which enables you to monitor millions of metrics collected from tens of thousands of servers, virtual machines and network devices at real-time.Let’s have a look at the features:
- Though, it is very difficult to setup but very easy to manage due to its clear and clutter-free interface.
- It supports a number of databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle, and IBM DB2.
- Zabbix VMware’s monitoring capabilities allow you to customize using any scripting or programming language.
See Also: 10 Best Disk Defrag Software for Windows
8. Capsa Free
One of the best network monitoring software, Capsa Free, is a network analyzer that allows you to monitor network traffic, troubleshoot network issues and analyze packets. Let’s have a look at the features:
- It provides support for over 300 network protocols (with the ability to create and customize protocols), which makes it easy for the admin to keep an eye on every network activity.
- It accurately detects DoS (DDoS) attack, Worm activity, ARP attack, TCP port scanning and suspicious conversation and locates the source and target in real-time.
- It captures all network packets transmitted on the network and displays detailed packet decoding information in Hex, ASCII, and EBCDIC.
9. NTOP
NTOP now called as NTOPNG(NTOP of new generation), is a network traffic probe that monitors network usage. Let’s have a look at its features:
- It supports a NetFlow-sFlow emitter-collector, a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) based client interface for creating ntop-centric monitoring applications, and RRDtool (RRD) for persistently storing traffic statistics.
- It can analyze traffic even at 10G speed. Moreover, it can report on IP addresses, volume, and bytes for each transaction.
- Ntop can integrate with external monitoring applications such as Nagios for alerting, and provide data for monitoring.
10. NMAP
NMAP (Network Mapper) is one of the best open source and free network monitoring software used for network discovery and security auditing. Let’s have a look at its features:
- It supports many advanced techniques for mapping out networks filled with IP filters, firewalls, routers, and other obstacles.
- It is multi-platform, it supports Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, IRIX, Mac OS X, HP-UX, NetBSD, Sun OS, Amiga, and more.
- Nmap is the tool that you should use when you need to quickly map the hosts in your network.
These were some of the best and free network monitoring software we could list and hope you find it useful! If we have missed any good names that deserve to be here, please let us know in the comments section below.
Also Read: Software Updater For Windows
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Way back in 2015, we reviewed the must-have top free networking tools. And honestly, those reviews have stood the test of time. But now that time has passed, the landscape has changed, and we think it’s worthwhile to review those old choices and possibly add a few new ones.
Laying the Foundation
To build a network, you start with an architecture, draw the design, and analyze and choose the hardware that meets your requirements. Because many organizations need their network to be up and functioning to generate revenue, having the right set of tools to monitor and manage the one you so lovingly created is critical.
But how do you find the best network monitoring tools when there are hundreds of commercial products, freeware tools, and open-source software to choose from? While the debate about free versus commercial goes on, there are tried and tested, free network monitoring tools that many network admins swear by. Below, we will share some of our favorites with you.
But first…
Open-source choices are good and can even match commercial tools, but you should know that using open-source monitoring requires a high level of involvement with the tool, which may not perfectly suit your needs. As the saying goes, “Open-source is only free if your time is worthless.”
Open-source monitoring solutions often require a significant investment in time and resources. Missing features may have to be built with the help of community support or an in-house IT team. The second consideration is security, which may become an issue, depending on the tool you select and your enterprise’s security guidelines. Additionally, immediate custom fixes may not be available unless you spend time developing and maintaining them yourself.
When we need a network monitoring tool that is easy to install, and supports monitoring and reporting out of the box, we like SolarWinds® Network Performance Monitor (NPM). NPM acts as a single pane of glass to provide complete and comprehensive network monitoring capabilities that complement some of the essential free tools you may already use.
Knowledge Base
Because enterprise networks are becoming bigger and more complex, it’s important to put network monitoring and managing solutions in place early in the implementation phase.
What’s on the list?
Net Monitor Mac
If you do decide to go the free/open-source route, you should check out the following. It’s our list of the best free network monitoring tools available today.
Nagios Core
Nagios® is the great-grand-daddy of monitoring tools, with only ping being more ubiquitous in some circles.
Nagios is popular due to its active development community and external plug-in support. You can create and use external plugins in the form of executable files or Perl® and shell scripts to monitor and collect metrics from every hardware and software used in a network. There are plugins that provide an easier and better GUI, address many limitations in the Core®, and support features, such as auto discovery, extended graphing, notification escalation, and more.
Cacti
Cacti® is another of the monitoring warhorses that has endured as a go-to for network monitoring needs. It allows you to collect data from almost any network element, including routing and switching systems as well as firewalls, and put that data into robust graphs. If you have a device, it’s possible that Cacti’s active community of developers has created a monitoring template for it.
Cacti supports SNMP polling, which itself covers a wide range of network devices. You can also extend Cacti’s capabilities to use scripts, queries, or commands for data collection, and save it as a template to use for polling other devices for similar datasets. Cacti leverages the power of RRDTool, an open-source data logging and graphing system for creating graphs from the stored datasets. RRDTool’s data consolidation lets you store collected data forever and is limited only by the size of your storage. Cacti also allows you to add multiple users and give them access with or without edit permissions, which is perfect for service providers and enterprises with a large NOC team.
Zabbix
Admittedly complex to set up, Zabbix® comes with a simple and clean GUI that makes it easy to manage, once you get the hang of it. Zabbix supports agentless monitoring using technologies such as SNMP, ICMP, Telnet, SSH, etc., and agent-based monitoring for all Linux® distros, Windows® OS, and Solaris®. It supports a number of databases, including MySQL®, PostgreSQL™, SQLite, Oracle®, and IBM® DB2®. Zabbix’s VMware® monitoring capabilities allow you to customize using any scripting or programming language, which is widely regarded as its best feature.
Zabbix is probably the most widely used open-source network monitoring tool after Nagios.
ntop
ntop, which is now ntopng (ng for next generation), is a traffic probe that uses libpcap (for packet capture) to report on network traffic. You can install ntopng on a server with multiple interfaces and use port mirroring or a network tap to feed ntopng with the data packets from the network for analysis. ntopng can analyze traffic even at 10G speeds; report on IP addresses, volume, and bytes for each transaction; sort traffic based on IP, port, and protocol; generate reports for usage; view top talkers; and report on AS information. This level of traffic analysis helps you make informed decisions about capacity planning and QoS design and helps you find bandwidth-hogging users and applications in the network. ntopng has a commercial version called ntopng pro that comes with some additional features, but the open-source version is good enough to quickly gain insight into traffic behavior. ntop can also integrate with external monitoring applications such as Nagios for alerting and provide data for monitoring.
ntopng has some limitations, but the level of network traffic visibility it provides makes it well worth the effort. Free app for mac.
Icinga
Built on top of MySQL and PostgreSQL, Icinga is Nagios backwards-compatible, meaning if you have an investment in Nagios scripts, you can port them over with relative ease.
Icinga was created in 2009 by the same group of devs that made Nagios, so they knew their stuff. Since then, the developers have made great strides in terms of expanding both functionality and usability since then. As the Nagios pedigree might imply, its primary focus is monitoring infrastructure and services.
Spiceworks
Spiceworks offers many free IT management tools, including inventory management, help desk workflow, and even cloud monitoring, in addition to the network monitoring solution I’m focusing on here. Built on agentless techniques like WMI (for Windows machines) and SNMP (for network and *nix systems), this free tool can provide insights into many network performance issues. You can also set up customizable notifications and restart services from within the app.
Wine application mac. Note that Spiceworks is free because most of its revenue comes from the sale of ad displays in its network. It’s a small price to pay for a free solution, but it’s something to think about before you install.
Observium Community
Observium follows the “freemium” model that is now espoused by most of the open-source community—a core set of features for free, with additional options if you pay for them. While the “Community” (i.e., free) version supports an unlimited number of devices, Observium is still careful to say that it’s meant for home lab use. This is bolstered by the fact that the free version cannot scale past a single server. Run this on your corporate network at your own risk!
The free version also enjoys a 6-month patch and update cycle. If you want fixes any faster than twice a year, you’ll have to pay for them. One of the most painful features held back from the free version is the lack of alerting capabilities. Those caveats aside, you get a full auto-discovery of your devices and metrics (using SNMP and standard protocols, as usual).
Related Top Tools for Network Monitoring
There are a few tools that aren’t monitoring solutions per-se but are so incredibly useful to the monitoring professional that we didn’t feel right leaving them out.
Wireshark
Wireshark® is an open-source packet analyzer that uses libpcap (*nix) or winpcap (Windows) to capture packets and display them on its graphical front-end, while also providing good filtering, grouping, and analysis capabilities. It lets users capture traffic at wire speed or read from packet dumps and analyze details at microscopic levels. Wireshark supports almost every protocol, and has functionalities that filter based on packet type, source, destination, etc. It can analyze VoIP calls, plot IO graphs for all traffic from an interface, decrypt many protocols, export the output, and lots more.
Wireshark provides unlimited opportunities to study packets, which makes it a solid go-to for network, system, and security admins.
Nmap
Nmap uses a discovery feature to find hosts in the network that can be used to create a network map. Network admins value it for its ability to gather information from the host about the Operating System, services, or ports that are running or are open, MAC address info, reverse DNS name, and more.
Scalability is the other big reason why network admins love Nmap. It can scan a single host or an entire network with “hundreds of thousands” of machines.
When you need to quickly map the hosts in your network, Nmap is your tool.
Free Network Monitoring Tools
Most of the tools we’ve focused on in this post have been of the “freemium” variety—a limited set of features (or support) for free, with additional features, support, or offerings available for a cost.
But there is a whole other class of tools which are just free-free. They do a particular task very well, and there is no cost (with the exception of the odd pop-up ad during installation). We wanted to take a moment to dig into a few of the tools that are in “network_utilities” directories on our systems and frequently use.
Best Network Monitor App Macbook
Also, we want to be clear that the list below isn’t meant to be (or even appear) exhaustive. There are many, MANY useful free network monitoring tools out there, and which ones an IT pro uses is often up to personal preference or the specifics of their work environment. We’re listing out the ones we’ve found in our travels and use often.
Traceroute NG
Ping is great. Traceroute is better. But both fall short in modern networks (and especially with internet-based targets because the internet is intrinsically multi-path). A packet has multiple ways to get to a target at any moment. You don’t need to know how a SINGLE packet got to the destination; you need to know how ALL the packets are moving through the network across time. Traceroute NG does that and avoids the single biggest roadblock to ping and traceroute accuracy—ICMP suppression—at the same time.
Bandwidth Monitor
If you are doing simple monitoring, the first question you’re going to want to know is, “is it up?” Following closely on the heels of that is, “how much bandwidth is it using?” Yes, it’s a simplistic question and an answer that may not really point to a problem (because let’s be honest, a circuit that’s 98% utilized most of the time is called “correctly provisioned” in our book), but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to know. This tool gets that information quickly, simply, and displays the results clearly.
Response Time Viewer for Wireshark
We mentioned Wireshark over in the non-monitoring monitoring tools section because of its flexibility, utility, and ubiquity. But the “-ity” that was left out was “simplicity.” That sucker can be HARD to learn to use, especially for new network engineers fresh on the job. This utility will take Wireshark data and parse it out to show some important statistics simply and clearly. Specifically, it collects, compares, and displays the time for a three-way-handshake versus the time-to-first-byte between two systems. Effectively, it shows you whether a perceived slowdown is due to the network (three-way handshake) or application response (time to first byte). This can be an effective way to narrow down your troubleshooting work and focus on solving the right problem faster.
IP SLA Monitor
IP SLA is one of the most often-overlooked techniques in a monitoring specialist’s arsenal. Relegated to being “that protocol for VoIP,” the reality is that IP SLA operations can tell you much more than jitter, packet loss, and MOS. You can test a remote DHCP server to see if it has addresses to hand out, check the response of DNS from anywhere within your company, verify that essential services like FTP and HTTP are running, and more.
Mac Network Tools
So, this free tool is something of a secret weapon for engineers who need to get miraculous tasks done on the cheap.
What have we learned?
Here in 2020, monitoring professionals have almost an embarrassment of riches when it comes to free and open-source solutions to help us do our jobs. While none of these free tools are exactly push-button simple to install, maintain, or use, if your budget for tools is close to non-existing and you have the time to invest, they may fit the bill. Otherwise, we’d recommend using a tool like SolarWinds NPM, which is easy to install and supports motioning and reporting right out of the box.