Linux Tactic

Monitor Your Network Bandwidth with Iftop on Linux Mint 21

Iftop is a fantastic tool that allows you to view informative network information. It is a command-line tool that provides information on network connections and bandwidth.

In this article, we will discuss two methods of installing iftop on Linux Mint 21 and how to use iftop to check network bandwidth. Method 1: Installing through apt package manager

Step 1: Open the terminal and update the package list.

You can execute the following command for this:

`sudo apt-get update`

Step 2: Install iftop using the below command:

`sudo apt-get install iftop`

Step 3: Once the installation process is complete, type iftop in a terminal window and press Enter, and the iftop command line application will start. Method 2: Installing through Linux Mint Software Manager

Step 1: Open the Linux Mint Software Manager

Step 2: Search for iftop in the Software Manager.

Step 3: Click on Install to download the software. Step 4: Wait until the installation process is complete, and then you can execute the iftop command by typing iftop in a terminal window and pressing Enter.

Verifying installation

To verify that iftop has been installed successfully through either of the above two methods, you can execute the following command:

`iftop -v`

Executing this command will display the version of iftop installed on your Linux Mint 21 system.

Using Iftop to Check Network Bandwidthto iftop

Before proceeding to use iftop to monitor the network bandwidth, let’s discuss a brief introduction of iftop. Iftop is a network monitoring tool that provides real-time information about the network connections used by your system.

It displays the data in a terminal window and shows which host is using a specific network connection.

Monitoring Network Bandwidth

To monitor the network bandwidth using iftop, you need to execute the following command:

`sudo iftop`

Once iftop is running, you will see live data in the terminal, including a list of hosts that are connected to your system, the amount of data they are transmitting and receiving, and the ports they are using. The output of iftop is divided into three sections:

The network interface

A list of hosts

The transfer rates for each host

Executing iftop Command

The iftop command line tool can also be executed with various filters. To filter the iftop output by port, you can use the following syntax:

`sudo iftop -P -i eth0 -f “port 80″`

In this example, the ‘-P’ tells iftop not to resolve hostname, ‘-i’ specifies the network interface to listen on, and ‘-f’ is used to filter the network traffic by a particular port number.

Conclusion

In conclusion, iftop is an excellent tool to monitor network bandwidth and is easy to use. We hope this article has helped you to install iftop on your Linux Mint 21 system and learn how to use it to monitor your network.

Whether you use iftop for basic network monitoring or troubleshooting, it’s a valuable tool for any Linux user. In summary, this article discussed two methods of installing iftop on Linux Mint 21 and how to use it to check network bandwidth.

The first method is through the apt package manager, and the second method is via the Linux Mint Software Manager. After the installation, you can verify it using the iftop -v command.

The article also provided an introduction to iftop and its benefits in monitoring network connections and bandwidth. Lastly, the article discussed how to execute the iftop command and provided a filter option to display port-specific data.

If you want to monitor your network accurately, iftop is an essential tool that will provide all essential network information that you require.

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