A free program that shows live the amount of traffic generated by each process

[bgd77]

Did ever happen to you to see that there is network traffic generated by your computer (in general something small and constant, for example 10 k) that is unusual and you have never seen before? You probably want to know what program/process/service generates that traffic and why it generates it. So, does anyone know a free program that displays the amount of traffic generated by each process?

[f0dder]

Perhaps http://www.netlimiter.com/ ? Iirc it doesn't log the processes permanently though, it only shows while the apps are active.

[bgd77]

Actually I think it has what I need: "NetLimiter 2 shows list of all applications communicating over network it's connections and transfer rates."

I'll test it tomorrow, anyhow, thanks a lot f0dder!

[f0dder]

Actually I think it has what I need: "NetLimiter 2 shows list of all applications communicating over network it's connections and transfer rates."

-bgd77 (March 11, 2009, 10:57 AM)

I find that it's a useful enough tool, it's interesting seeing how much internet bandwidth I use - and the fact that it can differentiate between the LAN and the Internet zone is important, since there's many gigabytes going back and forth between my workstation and my fileserver (last month: 52gigs received, 16gig sent).

But again: you can only see the individual application traffic while it's happening (the apps are shown as long as they have active connections, though).

[gorinw13]

one of the major benefits of the netlimiter is that if you are more than one person using one connection, and when you have to download large files continuously by several programs, you can limit the connection speed of your computer at that period in order not to prevent the other network users traffic. if you wish, you need not limit the whole computer speed -- only the software you choose.

[f0dder]

one of the major benefits of the netlimiter is that if you are more than one person using one connection, and when you have to download large files continuously by several programs, you can limit the connection speed of your computer at that period in order not to prevent the other network users traffic. if you wish, you need not limit the whole computer speed -- only the software you choose.

-gorinw13 (March 11, 2009, 12:00 PM)

That's only for the paid version, though

Personally, I'd use a download manager (or torrent client) with speed adjustment rather than NetLimiter for this kind of "voluntary" speed limiting. If I was setting up networking for several people, I'd use a gateway with traffic shaping and QoS

[bgd77]

But again: you can only see the individual application traffic while it's happening (the apps are shown as long as they have active connections, though).

-f0dder (March 11, 2009, 11:31 AM)

This is a small drawback, but this is what I was actually searching for: to see the individual application traffic as it's happening. Now I just have to wait and for the "strange" traffic to appear and see what is causing it. Thanks a lot f0dder! 

[f0dder]

But again: you can only see the individual application traffic while it's happening (the apps are shown as long as they have active connections, though).

-f0dder (March 11, 2009, 11:31 AM)

This is a small drawback, but this is what I was actually searching for: to see the individual application traffic as it's happening. Now I just have to wait and for the "strange" traffic to appear and see what is causing it. Thanks a lot f0dder! 

-bgd77 (March 12, 2009, 01:52 AM)

Glad I could be of help

If anybody knows of a similar program that also logs processes doing traffic, that would be kinda neat.

[swashplate]

Did ever happen to you to see that there is network traffic generated by your computer (in general something small and constant, for example 10 k) that is unusual and you have never seen before? You probably want to know what program/process/service generates that traffic and why it generates it. So, does anyone know a free program that displays the amount of traffic generated by each process?

-bgd77 (March 11, 2009, 09:42 AM)

Hi,

Maybe the simplest way is to install a free (for a private use) utility called `Prio': http://www.prnwatch.com/

Among other handy things, it adds a tab to the standard Windows Task Manager, where one can see the current TCP activity of each process. Column captions are clickable, so it is easy to sort the list, say, by the actual `Speed Out' etc.

The full set of features is:

1. Saving the priority of each process.
2. Detecting the full path to the executable file and providing detailed information about it from the name of the process in the list of running processes in Windows Task Manager.
3. Viewing services hosted by processes.
4. Quick access to system services and controlling them.
5. Analyzing the current TCP/IP connections of the computer.

[f0dder]

Didn't know about Prio - I still prefer Process Explorer, though, has even more options

[rgdot]

Something like Nirsoft's SmartSniff that shows ports, 'service name' and the size and content of packets can do some of the things too and it also has a filter to look for specific patterns in the traffic

[swashplate]

If anybody knows of a similar program that also logs processes doing traffic, that would be kinda neat.

Well, some time ago a state-of-the-art freeware tool `NTop-XTRA' was available here: http://www.openxtra....estuff/ntop-xtra.php
Unfortunately, it is not anymore. Yet, there are good chances to find this tool somewhere else, and it is still allowed to use it (if you can get it; weird, huh?).
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One of the download sites may have a copy, though I can`t guarantee exactly what they are storing.
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