Operation and Maintenance
Linux Operation and Maintenance
How to monitor network traffic in real-time on Linux? (iftop and nload)
How to monitor network traffic in real-time on Linux? (iftop and nload)
iftop监控每连接实时流量(需root权限),nload显示接口级总带宽(无需root);前者适用于定位高流量主机或服务,后者适合快速检查链路饱和情况。

Real-time network traffic monitoring on Linux is straightforward with tools like iftop and nload. Both are lightweight, terminal-based, and show live bandwidth usage — but they serve slightly different purposes. Here’s how to use each effectively.
Monitor per-connection traffic with iftop
iftop shows real-time bandwidth usage per connection (source/destination IP and port), similar to top for network sockets. It’s ideal for spotting which hosts or services are consuming the most bandwidth.
- Install it: sudo apt install iftop (Debian/Ubuntu) or sudo yum install iftop (RHEL/CentOS)
- Run it: sudo iftop — requires root to capture raw packets
- Press P to pause updates, T to toggle display mode (connections vs. totals), o to sort by port, and q to quit
- Add -P to show ports, -f "port 80" to filter (e.g., HTTP only)
Track overall interface throughput with nload
nload gives a simpler, graph-based view of total inbound/outbound traffic on a selected network interface — great for quick health checks or spotting sustained spikes.
- Install it: sudo apt install nload or sudo yum install nload
- Run it: nload — auto-detects first active interface; use nload eth0 to specify
- Press → / ← to cycle between interfaces, d to switch between kbit/s, Mbit/s, etc.
- No root needed — works with standard user privileges
Quick comparison and when to use which
Use iftop when you need to identify *who* or *what* is talking (e.g., “Is that backup process flooding the network?”). Use nload when you just want to see *how much* is flowing overall (e.g., “Is this link saturated?”).
- iftop = connection-level detail, needs sudo, text-heavy
- nload = interface-level summary, no sudo required, visual + numeric
- They complement each other — run both side-by-side in separate terminals if troubleshooting deeply
Basically just install, launch, and adjust with keyboard shortcuts. No config files or setup needed — they’re ready to go out of the box.
The above is the detailed content of How to monitor network traffic in real-time on Linux? (iftop and nload). For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!
Hot AI Tools
Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free
AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.
Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos
ArtGPT
AI image generator for creative art from text prompts.
Stock Market GPT
AI powered investment research for smarter decisions
Hot Article
Popular tool
Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor
SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use
Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment
Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools
SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)
Hot Topics
20519
7
13632
4
How to manage software packages using Dnf and Rpm in Linux?
Mar 07, 2026 am 01:50 AM
dnfinstall prompts packagenotfound because it queries the enabled warehouse rather than the local installation status; rpm-q queries the local RPM database, and the scopes of the two are different.
How to setup file sharing using Samba on Linux? (SMB Protocol)
Mar 13, 2026 am 12:33 AM
The main reason why Windows cannot see the Samba share is that the firewall blocks UDP137–139/TCP445 or NetBIOS name resolution fails; it is necessary to confirm that the workgroup is consistent, the interfaces are configured correctly, the file permissions match forceuser/forcegroup, and set doscharset=UTF-8 to solve Chinese garbled characters.
How to monitor system performance and resources in Linux? (Top & Htop)
Mar 06, 2026 am 01:04 AM
The total top CPU usage is not 100% because it is calculated based on a single core, and the maximum is 800% for an 8-core system; the htop terminal size error needs to be fixed with eval$(resize); the real memory pressure is available rather than used; top command line truncation can be solved with the -c parameter.
How to extend a Logical Volume (LVM) in Linux without downtime?
Mar 13, 2026 am 12:53 AM
Logical volumes and file systems can be expanded online. You need to expand the LV first and then the file system. It is recommended to use lvextend-r for automatic synchronization adjustment, but you must ensure that the LVM and file system tool versions are compatible.
How to check open ports and listening services in Linux? (Netstat & SS)
Mar 10, 2026 am 01:08 AM
Netstat displays fewer LISTEN ports than ss because it does not display process information by default that non-root users do not have access to; ss can read all listening sockets by default without process names, and sudonetstat-tulpn is required to display them completely.
How to set up SSH key authentication on Linux? (Passwordless Login)
Mar 11, 2026 am 12:46 AM
It is recommended to use ssh-keygen-ted25519 to generate a key pair, because it is faster, more secure, and has a shorter key than the default RSA; it is necessary to strictly set the ~/.ssh directory permissions to 700 and authorized_keys to 600, and use ssh-v to confirm whether the client is Offering public key and whether the server rejects it.
How to format disk partitions using the command line in Linux?
Mar 15, 2026 am 12:01 AM
When fdisk is stuck at the Command prompt, it is normally waiting for input. Enter q to exit safely; you must umount before mkfs, otherwise it may fail silently; partedmkpart does not support the specified file system type, and mkfs needs to be executed separately.
How to configure a static IP address on Linux? (Netplan & NetworkManager)
Mar 14, 2026 am 12:02 AM
Netplan reports "InvalidYAML" when configuring a static IP due to indentation errors, missing spaces after colons, or mixed tabs; gateway4 has been deprecated and routes to:default must be used instead; NetworkManager needs to be modified before down/up takes effect; the renderer field is used to determine the backend during coexistence; incorrect DNS configuration will cause ping to succeed but curl to fail.





