Traffic accounting windows 10. Programs for monitoring Internet traffic and their features

Hello friends! Write about how to monitor traffic I was planning to right after I wrote the article ““, but somehow I forgot. Now I remember and will tell you how to track how much traffic you spend, and we will do this using a free program NetWorx.

You know, when you have unlimited internet connected, there is essentially no need to monitor the traffic, except for the sake of interest. Yes, now all city networks are usually unlimited, which cannot yet be said about 3G Internet, the tariffs of which are usually off the charts.

The most normal tariff is 5 hryvnia per day upon connection, that is, if you don’t connect today, you don’t pay. But this is not unlimited, it is 1000 megabytes per day, until 12 o'clock at night. I have this tariff now, but at least the speed is decent, the real average speed is 200 Kbps. But 1000 MB per day is not very much at such a speed, so in this case it is simply necessary to control the traffic. Moreover, after using this 1000 MB, the cost of one megabyte is 10 kopecks, which is not small.

As soon as I connected this Internet, I started looking for a good program that would control my Internet traffic and could set a warning when the limit was used up. And I found it, of course, not right away, after trying a couple of things I came across the NetWorx program. Which we will talk about further.

NetWorx will monitor the traffic

Now I will tell you where to get the program and how to set it up.

1. Whatever program you are looking for, I have uploaded it to my hosting, so .

2. Run the downloaded file and install the program, I will not describe the installation process, I wrote about this in.

3. If after installation the program does not start on its own, then launch it with a shortcut on the desktop or in the start menu.

4. That’s it, the program already counts your Internet traffic, it hides in the tray and quietly works there. The working window of the program looks like this:

As you can see, the program displays Internet traffic for the current day and for the entire time, starting from the time you installed the program, you can see how much I burned :). In fact, the program does not need any settings. I’ll just tell you how to set a quota in NetWorx, that is, traffic restrictions and how to make the tray icon display the activity of incoming and outgoing Internet traffic.

5. Let's now make sure that Internet traffic activity is displayed in the tray.

Right-click on the program icon in the tray and select “Settings”

On the “Graph” tab, set it as in my screenshot, click “OK” and “Apply”. Now the NetWorx program tray icon will display the activity of the Internet connection.

6. And the last point in setting up this program will be setting a quota. For example, Intertelecom only gives me 1000 MB per day, so in order not to spend more than this amount, I set up the program so that when I use up 80% of my traffic, it warns me.

Right-click on the program icon in the tray and select “Quota”.

You see, today I used up my limit by 53%, below there is a field where you can specify at what percentage to report that the traffic is running out. Let's click on the “Settings” button and configure the quota.

Everything is very simple here, first we set what your quota is, for example, I have a daily quota, then we set the traffic; I selected all traffic, that is, incoming and outgoing. We set the “Clock” and “Units of measurement”, I have megabytes. And of course, don’t forget to indicate the quota size, I have 1000 megabytes. Click “Ok” and that’s it, our quota is configured.

That's it, the program is fully configured and ready to count your traffic. It will launch along with the computer, and all you have to do is occasionally look in and see for fun how much traffic you have already burned. Good luck!

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NetWorx: how to monitor Internet traffic updated: August 17, 2012 by: admin

Hello, blog site readers! Many users are thinking about having their own Internet traffic counter on their computer, or otherwise called Internet traffic monitoring, which could show how much traffic you spend. The Internet has long been available in all parts of the planet, but not everyone has unlimited access yet.

Users who are content with the Internet with limited traffic are always surprised at how quickly the existing limit goes away. In principle, nothing surprising: Many users have a large number of programs installed on their computers that are updated in.

Users don’t even notice how they are watching the next video on youtube.com and exchanging files with their colleagues or friends.

Don't be afraid: this problem can be easily solved. There is a specialized program for traffic accounting and control - Networx. It is she who will “tell” you that it’s enough to surf the Internet and it’s time to remember your limit, which is not infinite.

On the website you can download the program installation file and the Portable version. In this article we will analyze the installation version of the program.

To download the program, go to the bottom of the page and click on the “Download NetWorx installer” button. We are waiting for the program to download.

Installation Networx

Let's run the file we just downloaded. Click “Next”.

We agree to the program license, check the “I accept the agreement” checkbox and click “Next”.

In the next window, leave the default installation path. Click “Next”.

Click “Next” again.

In the next window, you can leave or remove “Desk Band” - an addition that clearly shows traffic in real time. For those who are bothered by unnecessary icons on the control panel, it is better to disable it.

In my case, I uncheck “Install an optional NetWorx Desk Band extensional (as show below)”. Click “Next”.

Click “Install”.

The installation of the program is complete. Click “Finish”.

Immediately after installing the program, a settings window will open. Select the Russian language (Russian) and click “Next”.

Selecting an Internet connection: you need to select through which network adapter you connect to the Internet. Click "Forward".

Click “Finish”.

Now you will have a program icon in your tray that looks like a diagram.

Double-click the left mouse button on the diagram. After this, the main window will open.

As we can see, the program has a nice and intuitive Russian interface. And, importantly, the program counts traffic quite accurately. Using it, you can receive Internet traffic reports: daily, weekly, as well as monthly.

The program makes it possible to open/save results in Excel, as well as in the form of visual graphs.

NetWorx is not only a great program for keeping track of Internet traffic, it also has an interesting feature in the form of setting quotas.

This means that the program can be configured in such a way that when the traffic is exhausted, the program automatically notifies you about it.

How to set a quota

For clarity, it is worth analyzing the process of setting a quota. To do this, right-click on the icon and select “Quota...”.

In my case, the quota is already configured: I set a limit of 50 megabytes, and when traffic is used within 85% of 50 megabytes, a message will appear on the screen indicating that the quota is coming to an end.

With this message we will be notified when we should limit our Internet use to avoid financial losses!

Did you think I wouldn't show the settings? Of course I’ll show you: click the “Configure...” button.

The program has a speed measurement function with which you can measure incoming/outgoing traffic. To start measuring, click on the green triangle.

I recommend this program to all users who have access to limited Internet. With it, you can control your traffic in any direction: both incoming and outgoing.

For a number of reasons I installed the program on Windows XP. But those who have Windows 7 installed should not worry, since this program works stably and without failures on any system.

See you soon, dear friends!

There are a lot of programs for tracking traffic on a local network: both paid and free, differing greatly in functionality. One of the most popular Open Source programs is SAMS. It runs on the Linux platform in conjunction with Squid.

SAMS requires PHP5, we will use Ubuntu Server 14.04. We will need Squid, Apache2, PHP5 packages with modules.

Accounting Internet traffic on a local network Linux

Let's try to figure out how it works.

Squid distributes the Internet, accepting requests on port 3128. At the same time, it writes a detailed log access.log. All management is done through the squid.conf file. Squid has extensive capabilities for managing Internet access: limiting access by address, controlling bandwidth for specific addresses, groups of addresses and networks.

SAMS works based on analysis of Squid proxy server logs. The local network traffic accounting system monitors the proxy server statistics and, in accordance with the specified policies, makes a decision to block, unblock or limit the speed for the Squid client.

Installing SAMS

Installing packages.

apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-mysql mysql-server php5-gd squid3

Download and install SAMS

wget https://github.com/inhab-magnus/sams2-deb/archive/master.zip

unzip master.zip

cd sams2-deb-master/

dpkg -i sams2_2.0.0-1.1_amd64.deb

Installing the web interface

dpkg -i apache2/sams2-web_2.0.0-1.1_all.deb

We make changes to the /etc/sams2.conf file.

DB_PASSWORD=/MySql password/

Launching SAMS

service sams2 start

Setting up Squid

We make changes to the /etc/squid3/squid.conf file

http_port 192.168.0.110:3128
cache_dir ufs /var/spool/squid3 2048 16 256

We enable logging and log rotation with storage for 31 days.

access_log daemon:/var/log/squid3/access.log squid

logfile_rotate 31

Stop Squid, create a cache.

service squid3 stop

service squid3 start

For the purity of the experiment, we configure one of the browsers to work with proxy 192.168.0.110 via port 3128. Having tried to connect, we receive a connection refusal - Squid does not have proxy access rights configured.

Initial SAMS setup

In another browser, open the address (192.168.0.110 – server address).

http://192.168.0.110/sams2

He will tell us that he cannot connect to the database and will offer to perform the installation.

We specify the database server (127.0.0.1), login and password for MySql.

The initial setup of the traffic accounting system has been completed. All that remains is to configure the program.

Local network traffic monitoring

Login to the system as administrator (admin/qwerty).

It’s worth mentioning right away about user authorization.

In the Squid branch, open the proxy server and click the “Configure proxy server” button at the bottom.

The most important thing here is to indicate your IP address in the addresses of folders and files where necessary, otherwise the proxy server will not start.

The essence of all changes to SAMS settings is that they are written to squid.conf. Sams2deamon runs in the background, which monitors changes in settings that require entry into the configuration file (you can also set the tracking interval there).

Fill in the “User” and “IP address” fields. Let's take the same IP as the username (the IP of the computer, not the server!). In the “Allowed traffic” field we enter “0”, that is, without restrictions. We omit all other fields.

A new acl will be added for this IP address and permission to work through Squid. If the config has not been changed automatically, go to the proxy branch and click the “Reconfigure Squid” button. Changes to the config will be made manually.

We try to open any URL in the browser. We check access.log and see requests processed by the proxy. To check the operation of SAMS, open the “Users” page and click the “Recalculate user traffic” button at the bottom.

Using the buttons below for managing statistics, you can obtain detailed information on the statistics of user visits to pages.

A program for tracking incoming and outgoing traffic on your computer. It will help you not to exceed the traffic limit and not end up without the Internet at all.

ATTENTION: Starting from version 6, the program has become paid, so in order to avoid misunderstandings, do not update it. Here is the latest free version 5.5.5.

Anyone who used the Internet five years ago probably remembers the most important problem for a user - constantly monitoring the amount of traffic. After all, there were no unlimited packages back then, and Dial-Up connections required money for every megabyte of information downloaded.

As a result, if you don’t control traffic consumption, you could end up costing a pretty penny :). But the people are inventive and they came up with many programs for measuring and limiting the flow. Today, the need for such utilities has decreased a little, but they are still in use, because during their existence they have acquired many additional useful functions.

Thanks to such programs, today you can measure the speed of your Internet connection, check all processes that have access to the Internet, measure traffic usage in corporate networks, and much more.

A small program has all the above functions - NetWorx. In addition, it has a number of additional features that will be useful to both the system administrator and the average user. An equally simple but powerful tool can be called a paid program - DU Meter.

Comparison of the free traffic metering program NetWorx with the paid analogue DU Meter

In addition, in NetWorx you can impose a quota on the amount of traffic, as well as launch various applications on a schedule. The program itself comes in two versions: portable and installation. I think it's easiest to use the "portable" version, although if you're a fan of installers, you can easily install NetWorx using the standard installation wizard.

Installing NetWorx

I will assume that you downloaded the portable version. To get started, you need to unpack the archive with the program and run the executable exe file. Before directly launching NetWorx, we’ll make a couple of settings. First, you will need to specify the program language, and second, you will need to enable or disable checking for new versions. That's all :).

After this, a program icon will appear in the tray (a place next to the system clock), with which we will manage it.

NetWorx will be controlled through a right-click context menu.

Here in this menu all the functions of the program are listed, but before use you can make some settings. To do this, click on the menu section of the same name.

NetWorx Settings

“Settings” consists of several tabs. In “General” we can configure the speed units, the information displayed in the tray, and also (most importantly!) which connection to monitor (by default, all traffic is counted).

The “Graph” and “Graph Colors” sections allow us to customize the appearance of the graph of incoming/outgoing information packets. In “Notifications” you can enable and configure service messages from the program, and in “Additional” we have the opportunity to configure the collection of statistics.

The very last tab, Dial-up, allows you to set the default connection and add applications that will run with NetWorx.

After the settings are made, first click the “Apply” button for them to take effect, and then “Ok” to exit the settings.

Traffic Monitor

Now let's go directly through the NetWorx tools. The first and main one is a traffic monitor. It is presented in the form of a graph, which is called by the “Show graph” button.

The graph can be presented in the form of a histogram (in my opinion, this is the most convenient), curved lines, or simply numbers. In this case, there will always be two numbers at the bottom. The number with the index “D” (blue by default) shows the amount of incoming traffic (from the English download), and “U” (green) respectively outgoing traffic (from the English upload).

Velocity change curves are drawn in the corresponding colors on the graph, the numerical value of which can be correlated with the scale on the left.

Speed ​​measurement

The next button - “Speed ​​measurement” - unfortunately, does not measure the overall speed of your Internet connection, but only the current speed of background packet transmission. This may be needed to compare (saving is available) the results under full load on the channel (for example, downloading a file) and at rest.

To start the test, just click the “Start” button and mark a certain period of time. The result can then be saved to a text file, and then compared with the new data obtained when “loading” the channel.

Statistics

System administrators will like this feature most of all, since it is possible to keep both a general count of traffic and display detailed statistics for each of the network users. The results can be exported to xls format (Excel spreadsheets) and saved on a computer.

There are also tools for backup statistics and their further restoration (for example, if you need to save all the data after reinstalling the system).

Traffic quota

Moving on, we move on to the “Quota” section. This function is most suitable for users with a Dial-up connection or limited traffic (for example, mobile Internet). It allows you to set the maximum amount of information received or sent and will always warn the user if the specified limit is exceeded.

By default, the quota is set to 0.00 KB, so if you want to use this function, you will need to “Configure” it first :).

In the settings, we specify the type of quota (daily, weekly, monthly, last 24 hours) and the type of traffic (incoming, outgoing or all). You can leave the clock as is, and then specify the units of measurement and the quota itself.

To save the settings, click “Ok”, and in the quota monitoring window, do not forget to check the box “Notify when the quota is used by %” in order to receive timely information about overexpenditure.

Route tracing

We have already looked at the “Settings” item, so let’s move on to the next one – “Route tracing”. If you suddenly lost access to any Internet resource or you need to find out what path you take before you get to this or that site, try tracing this path. This can be done using standard Windows capabilities, but with NetWorx it is much easier and more visual.

To start tracing, enter the name of the site (remote computer) or its IP address. Now you can set the response time (although often the standard value is more than enough) and you can click “Start”. In this case, we traced the site yandex.ru and saw that to access it you need to go through 11 intermediate servers, and the total time to travel this path is 31 ms.

Ping

The next option is “Ping”. The window interface of this function is very similar to the previous one, but its purpose is somewhat different. Ping, simply put, is the speed at which a remote computer responds to a request you send. The built-in NetWorx ping is inferior in capabilities to the standard one (it is not possible to set your own keys to change parameters), but it copes with the main task.

The disadvantage of the function is that you cannot directly enter the Internet address of the site - you need to know its exact IP (you can find out from the previous utility). Now specifically about use: enter the address of the remote PC, select the waiting time and the number of echo requests and click “Start”.

In our example, the site was pinged vkontakte.ru. The average response time is not calculated automatically, but it can be calculated in your head by adding all the obtained values ​​and dividing by three :).

It turned out to be about 45 ms, which in principle is good (ping up to 50 ms ± 10 ms is considered good). The TTL value is the “lifetime” of the echo packet. The number 64 means that the sent packet of information can pass through 64 intermediate servers.

Connections

The last tool is Connections. It allows you to monitor all applications that require an Internet connection.

I immediately advise you to enable the “Convert addresses to names” option. This way you can see where this or that application is going and stop its attempt to connect to a suspicious resource. Pay special attention to “established” connections (ESTABLISHED) and listening ports (LISTENING), as they can pose a hidden threat.

If a suspicious connection is detected, you can immediately terminate the application that installs it by right-clicking on it and selecting “End Application”.

Conclusions

Thus, we can summarize all of the above. NetWorx is not just a program for monitoring your Internet connection, but also a complex for ensuring security and comprehensive network diagnostics.

Therefore, if you suspect that some application is using traffic irrationally or even transmitting confidential information, try monitoring your network with the NetWorx program and you can easily identify the “spy” :).

P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

A data counter is not only an interesting program that will be used by Internet users. It works fine on a PC with a network cable installed. Thanks to this, we will be able to analyze all network traffic, even that which is located. Using a program to monitor Internet traffic on a computer, we can easily find out whether our computer is infected and whether it is sending unnecessary packets.

Choosing the best program for monitoring Internet traffic.

Network Meter is a handy desktop gadget and traffic metering program that allows you to easily monitor your Internet connection and distribute it over your local network and Wi-Fi. Most users ignore the features offered by desktop gadgets that were already introduced in Windows Vista and carried over to Windows 7. Some of these applications can be very useful.

Network Meter is an application that monitors your active Internet connection. It allows you to specify an IP address both on the local network and on the Internet. Shows the current data transfer speed, download speed, upload speed and the amount of data that we downloaded and sent during the last session (since Windows was restarted). In addition, in the wireless network monitoring mode, the application shows the SSID of the Wi-Fi network, that is, its name and the percentage value of the signal quality (0 - 100%). An additional element of the gadget is an IP address locator (IP search) and an Internet tester (speed test).

Anyone can use the program:

1. Unpack the gadget installer from the ZIP archive, selecting a location on your hard drive. Double click the extracted file to install Network Meter.
2. You will be prompted to check the manufacturer, click Install. The gadget should appear on our desktop (usually on the right), but it can be placed anywhere by clicking and dragging with the left mouse button.
3. The app is already active, but to make sure it's monitoring the connection you're interested in, go to the "Network Meter" option. To do this, right-click on the gadget and select “Options”.
4. On the main “Settings” tab, you can manage the gadget’s functions. First of all, you need to choose which network to monitor (network type). You can choose to connect to your local network via cable (wired network) or Wi-Fi (wireless network). In the latter case, the gadget will be equipped with additional functions - SSID and a signal quality meter. The function indicated by the marker shows the network card controlled by our local IP address (local area network), as well as the network controlled for data transmission. If used on a personal PC there will be no problems, but on a laptop it is worth making sure that the All Network Meter is currently monitoring the active card - usually you need to choose between an Ethernet LAN and a Wi-Fi card.
5. The “Screen” tab determines how the gadget will display information. For example, it is recommended to change the default unit setting from bits per second to get the speed in kilobytes or megabits. The settings are saved by pressing the “OK” button.
6. Changes to the Network Meter window appear immediately. It is worth noting that the counter represents the current data transfer - at the moment and, thus, monitors network activity. However, another metric counts how much data is downloaded and sent during that session. It may be useful for users using metered networks - for example, 3G mobile Internet. This makes it easy to know if the packet is overdrawn.

License: Free

IMPORTANT. Correct operation of the program requires the .NET Framework 1.1 package installed on the system.

A brilliant program in terms of GUI that can surprise you with some very interesting features. GlassWire is a program for managing the data flow of an Internet connection, the characteristic feature of which is, first of all, a modern animated interface, the appearance of which can be further modified using graphic templates, which increase the readability of the information presented on the graphs. The program allows you to display the names of processes and applications that initiate new sessions and use the network connection. The user is informed about everything through pop-up windows and directly from the program window.

Using GlassWire is intuitive and comes down to switching between successive tabs that correspond to the main functions implemented in the program: graphical data analysis, firewall settings, transfer of consumption data divided into applications and a list of notifications. In them we usually have the following three views, which allow us to customize the screen content to our needs - at the same time more information about individual processes can be displayed, as well as the account presenting the data in charts.

Directly from the program menu, you can contact the technical support section, available online on the manufacturer’s website. It is very clear and contains not only a quick and complete guide to using the program, but also access to a database of frequently asked questions or user forums. Although the program is currently only available in a development version, the manufacturer's commitment to fine-tuning all the details is quickly making it popular. Advantages:

• firewall function;
• very convenient and beautiful interface;
• ease of operation.

Flaws:

• lack of many functions in the free version;
• there is no data transfer tracking schedule.

License: free.

An advanced monitoring utility that allows you to monitor network traffic generated by applications. Creates reports in many formats. This program reports downloading and sending data for the Internet, local network and for certain programs. It also tells you which applications are using the internet. Monitors the quality of the Wi-Fi signal. The latest version is fully compatible with Windows 10. The DU metric clearly tracks data usage. It provides hourly, daily, weekly and monthly reports. Can also warn when fixed limits are exceeded. Data from reports can be exported to Excel, Word and PDF. Stopwatch mode allows you to measure data consumption with a high degree of accuracy at a specific time. Not only can you specify the hours during which transfers should not be counted (which would be useful for people who use plans with free hours).

DU Meter appears as a translucent notification window in the lower right corner of the desktop and shows real-time network traffic information. The DU Meter window can be enlarged by dragging its edges with the mouse. Each vertical line is one second. The red line is incoming traffic, and the green line is outgoing. At the bottom of the window there are tabs “Internet”, “LAN”, “Programs” - by switching between them, you can see the corresponding data. By right-clicking on the program window, you can bring up a pop-up menu that gives access to various reports, a stopwatch mode, or user and administrator options.

To see the main Internet traffic report as quickly as possible, hover your mouse over the DU Meter icon on the taskbar. To view detailed information about programs' online activity, right-click on the semi-transparent DU Meter window and select View Network Connections. In the new window, on the “Programs” tab, there are all applications that use data transfer. The Open TCP Connections tab displays information that will help you identify unauthorized traffic from your computer. Advantages:

• maximum number of report formats;
• simultaneous calculation of data for specific applications and network traffic;
• usage timer.

Disadvantage: trial version.

License: trial.

These are the most popular applications. You can try several others that stand out for their functionality.

A very useful program. Many additional features make it the most versatile application for monitoring data transfer on your PC. Advantages:

• ease of operation;
• tracking specific applications;
• ability to create reports;
• traffic monitoring mode on the router (requires SNMP supported by the router).

Disadvantage: Inaccurate tracking of applications running on the system.

License: free.

Takes up very little space and does not overload the processor during operation. There are not many advanced features, but the application excels in its simplicity. Advantages:

• simple controls;
• stopwatch function.

Flaws:

• uninteresting appearance;
• Lack of application-specific data tracking.

License: free.

It works without problems in almost all versions of Windows, and has features that are only available in paid versions of this type of program. Advantages:

• firewall function;
• schedule with the ability to disable tracking at a certain time;
• remote management of statistics via the network.

Disadvantage: Quite difficult to use.

License: free.

Of course, the list of programs for tracking traffic on a computer can be continued for quite a long time. We have collected the best and most popular applications. If you already have experience using other software, share it in the comments.