Network Bandwidth Monitor

A bandwidth monitor provides informative, real-time status updates on network traffic and bandwidth utilization levels. In many cases, when network traffic is slow, overutilization of bandwidth or insufficient bandwidth availability is to blame. To understand if this is the case, you need the visibility offered by a bandwidth monitor tool.

To better understand bandwidth availability, you can use a bandwidth monitor to track bandwidth usage by specific applications or interfaces. This can help you identify “top talkers”, or applications or interfaces using the most bandwidth. If high traffic levels are being caused by inappropriate network use, a bandwidth monitor can give you the insight you need to address the issue and free up additional bandwidth for business-related traffic.

Based on your contract, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will give your business a certain amount of bandwidth. But do you have enough bandwidth to support all your business needs? If your network has been slow lately, you may be wondering how to check your network bandwidth usage to determine (1) whether bandwidth usage is the cause of the problem and, if so, (2) which interfaces are using excessive bandwidth.

To manually check network bandwidth usage, you’ll have to examine bandwidth usage levels for individual devices on the network. However, if you’re tasked with managing bandwidth for a business network, manually checking each device can be a time-consuming and often unreliable task. An automated network bandwidth monitoring tool is designed to track traffic network usage to give you a real-time, centralized overview of bandwidth utilization across a network, and can provide you with other critical performance details about the devices connected to your network.

Bandwidth monitoring can help you address and prevent network slowdowns. Business productivity relies in large part on network and application performance. If bandwidth is overutilized, it can impair the functioning of an entire business.

Network traffic speeds can also suffer when users or applications are monopolizing bandwidth. In some cases, bandwidth hogs aren’t actually serving a legitimate business purpose but may simply be watching videos or downloading unnecessary files. 

A network monitoring tool can provide visibility with the easy-to-read charts and tables, so you can quickly and accurately identify the business applications, IP address groups, and protocols using the most bandwidth. You can also identify the non-business applications causing unnecessarily high levels of traffic, so you can block activity to help improve network speeds.

Tracking bandwidth consumption is also critical when planning bandwidth provisioning for your business network. Over time, you can use network bandwidth monitoring to ensure your usage is sufficient for your business needs—or you can gain the insight you need to increase your bandwidth levels.

It’s also important to check network bandwidth usage regularly to ensure your business network is secure. If traffic spikes suddenly or flows are directed at port 0, you can be alerted immediately and investigate the root cause, as this can be a sign of malicious or malformed traffic.

Devices likely to use the most bandwidth are typically those heavily used and high-traffic devices hosting several applications or types of applications. For instance, virtualized devices may also demand more network bandwidth if they support the functioning of multiple interfaces.

To identify the devices on your network using the most bandwidth, start by looking for types of high-demand applications and services, such as streaming video services. Video chat and voice calls also tend to generate high levels of traffic. File sharing can be another common high-bandwidth activity, and uploading or downloading large files at a rapid rate can also quickly cut into your bandwidth.

Using a network bandwidth monitoring tool, you can more easily identify the types of activities and devices on your network using most of your bandwidth—and gain the insights you need to determine whether they’re doing so appropriately.

There are some simple steps you can take to minimize bandwidth consumption:

• Block bandwidth-heavy websites. Many organizations trust employees to use the internet as they see fit, but this can lead to some users accessing sites that consume excessive bandwidth. You may choose to block sites known to cause heavy bandwidth consumption.
• Scan for malware. When malware infiltrates your network, it may run repetitive processes that use up bandwidth. Make sure you have tools in place to continuously check your network for malware. 
• Monitor VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a common method for making calls using an internet connection instead of a phone line. You should monitor these potentially bandwidth-intensive programs if you’re worried about overall network performance.
• Reserve bandwidth with QoS. Quality of Service (QoS) is a way to reserve bandwidth for critical applications when they’re in use.
• Gain insights to optimize bandwidth usage with charts and alerts. A network bandwidth monitor can give you the built-in tools you need to minimize bandwidth consumption. You can set up filters for continuous data, so you can always view current bandwidth levels within the monitor’s dashboard. 

SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer monitors bandwidth by turning flow data into easy-to-use charts, tables, and alerts. NTA is designed to give you the ability to easily monitor bandwidth and traffic patterns at the interface level, all from a single centralized tool.

NTA gathers flow data every minute (or more frequently) through Cisco NetFlow v5 or v9, Juniper J-Flow, IPFIX, sFLOW, Huawei NetStream, or other means. For CBQoS implementation, NTA polls devices through the Orion^® Platform and the devices return data to the dashboard.

With this in-depth traffic information, it can be easier to pinpoint the endpoints and protocols consuming too much bandwidth. You can even set up threshold alerts, so you receive instant notifications regarding excessive bandwidth levels.