Screenshots: Five easy-to-use IP traffic monitors

Introduction

For system\r\nadmins, one of the most important tasks is keeping an eye on the network. When\r\nthings go bad in your world, a rogue ne’er-do-well could be the cause. Whether\r\nthat malicious entity is a hacker, a compromised system, or a bad piece of\r\nhardware, it’s essential to sniff out the issue.

To that end,\r\nyou need the right tools. One of the first tools you might turn to is an IP\r\ntraffic monitoring tool. The good news is that there are tons of these tools\r\nready to serve you. The bad news… some of them are a bit complex. That’s why I\r\nthought I’d find the easiest IP traffic monitoring tools and list five of them\r\nfor your network monitoring pleasure.

Note: This gallery is also available as an article.

Microsoft Network Monitor

This tool gives you quick network monitoring\r\nin just a couple of clicks. You won’t find too many bells and whistles getting\r\nthe way as you sniff out issues. The application is free and will work on\r\nWindows XP/Vista/7/8/2003/2008.

Umit

Umit might\r\nseem a bit familiar, because it resembles the more popular nmap front end, Zenmap. The main difference between the two is that\r\nUmit places all the necessary tools in an easily accessible toolbar–whereas\r\nZenmap places the same tools in menus. Umit is free, but unlike the\r\ncross-platform Zenmap, it’s available only for Linux.

Capsa Free

The free\r\nversion of this tool does suffer from a number of limitations not found in\r\neither Capsa Professional or Capsa Enterprise. For a comparison matrix of the three versions, check here.\r\nCapsa includes a much busier user interface, but that highlights some of the\r\noutstanding features (especially the real-time graphing tools). I highly\r\nrecommend giving the free version a try and then, if it fits your needs,\r\npurchasing either the Professional or Enterprise edition to gain even more\r\npower.

The Dude

One handy\r\nfeature is the ability to manually add devices and even set up various types of\r\nmonitors for each device. This means you can set up specific monitors to keep a\r\ngranular watch on every machine attached to your network. The Dude is free and\r\nfor Windows only.