iftop

When administering servers or networks, it's crucial to understand where bandwidth is being used. Tools like iftop provide a real-time view into network bandwidth utilization by connection. Unlike some other tools that aggregate total traffic, iftop focuses on individual connections, making it easier to see who is consuming your bandwidth. In this article, we'll explore how to install and use iftop on various Linux distributions. iftop is a command-line tool that provides a live view of network traffic between hosts. It displays a list of network connections from your system to other systems, showing data such as the amount of data being transferred, the source and destination addresses, and overall bandwidth usage.

As network administrators or just curious users, it’s vital to keep an eye on the bandwidth usage to ensure efficient network operations. Whether you're troubleshooting a slow network or ensuring no unauthorized traffic is consuming your bandwidth, knowing what's happening on your network interface is essential. This is where iftop becomes an indispensable tool. iftop is a real-time console-based network bandwidth monitoring tool, perfect for visualizing network traffic as it shows a list of network connections from or to your system. In this blog, we'll explore how to install and use iftop on various Linux distributions using apt, dnf, and zypper package managers, and provide a quick guide on how to interpret the data it presents.

In today's interconnected world, understanding the flow of network traffic within an infrastructure is vital for system and network administrators. This knowledge is essential not only for troubleshooting network issues but also for sufficient capacity planning and making informed optimization decisions. One tool that stands out for real-time network bandwidth monitoring is iftop, a powerful command-line tool that gives a live view of network bandwidth usage. iftop, which stands for Interface Top, is an open-source tool used for monitoring network traffic. It displays a list of network connections from and to your system in a real-time terminal interface, similar to the way top command shows CPU utilization.