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  1. Home>
  2. IT Topics>
  3. Performance>
  4. Bandwidth Meter
PRTG Logo

Free Bandwidth Meter PRTG

Track your bandwidth comprehensively and for free

  • Monitor download and upload speeds & detailed data traffic in real time
  • Identify bandwidth bottlenecks and optimize resource allocation
  • Proactively address issues before they slow your internet connection to a crawl
Free download
product overview

Our users give top ratings for monitoring with Paessler PRTG

Gartner peer insights
spiceworks
Capterra
G2
Trustpilot

PRTG bandwidth meter: What you will find on this page

Table of content
  • It's how you use your network's bandwidth that counts
  • 4 reasons why to choose PRTG as your bandwidth meter
  • What bandwidth metering looks like in PRTG
  • Complete, accurate, in-depth bandwidth usage data, 24/7
  • Explore our preconfigured PRTG sensors for storage performance monitoring
  • Bandwidth meter: FAQ

PRTG makes measuring bandwidth as easy as it gets

Custom alerts and data visualization let you quickly identify and prevent network congestion, latency, jitter, and other online connectivity problems.

Free download
PRODUCT OVERVIEW

It's how you use your network's bandwidth that counts

How much bandwidth speed does your organization need?

If you think what you have is nowhere near enough to maintain optimal network performance, we're here to tell you that’s not necessarily the case.

You can improve download speeds, upload speeds, and have more stable, reliable LAN, WAN, and WiFi connections through optimization. The catch is that, to make effective adjustments, you need to know which hardware and software components on your network are using the most bandwidth, when they’re doing so, and why. Otherwise, you're just going in blind and hoping for the best.

Paessler PRTG's bandwidth meter makes the process quick and painless. Tracking and categorizing bandwidth consumption, alerting you if there are performance issues, and even helping you analyze long-term trends.

That means you can run a faster, more stable network, without having to constantly plead with your higher-ups for more money to throw at the problem.

Table of content

 

4 reasons why to choose PRTG as your bandwidth meter

icon dashboard

User-friendly dashboards

Setting up and using PRTG's bandwidth meter couldn't be simpler if you tried. The automatic network discovery adds every device and application within your chosen IP range and assigns the appropriate sensors. And the interface feels instantly familiar, with data displayed in easy-to-understand charts and graphs.

Icon Gauge

Comprehensive monitoring

Much more than an internet speed test. PRTG gives you a complete picture of network traffic and the amount of bandwidth used. Preconfigured sensors monitor processes, applications, and the performance of your network devices, making troubleshooting bottlenecks and optimizing network performance a breeze.

icon boost

Proactive planning

Optimizing bandwidth and ensuring a high-speed network is easy… when you have the right data. PRTG tracks usage across your network in real time, so you can make adjustments and optimize performance on the fly. Plus, you'll get automatically alerted the second your network's at risk of exceeding capacity.

Icon Statistics

Long-term visibility

PRTG’s bandwidth meter gives you an in-depth view of usage peaks and throughs, as well as other issues that might be impacting internet connection speed, throughput, and functionality or performance. And the sooner you spot patterns and trends, the better you can plan for future bandwidth requirements

What bandwidth metering looks like in PRTG

Diagnose network issues by continuously tracking bandwidth usage on modems, routers, switches, servers, and other connected hardware in your ethernet or wireless network. Show packet loss, latency, jitter, network traffic by IP address or protocol, and other key metrics in real time. Visualize monitoring data in clear graphs and dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the overview you need to troubleshoot bandwidth bottlenecks and network congestion.

PRTG Screenshot device tree view

Device tree view of the complete monitoring setup

PRTG screenshot map entire it infrastructure

Custom PRTG dashboard for keeping an eye on the entire IT infrastructure

PRTG screenshot graph live data traffic

Live traffic data graph in PRTG

Start bandwidth measuring with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.

Free download
PRODUCT OVERVIEW

IT experts agree: Paessler PRTG is a great solution for IT infrastructure monitoring

PCMag

“All-around winning
 network monitor”

IT Brief

“The real beauty of PRTG is the endless possibilities it offers”

ITPro

“PRTG Network Monitor 
is very hard to beat”

Complete, accurate, in-depth bandwidth usage data, 24/7

 

PRTG tracks your hardware and software components' bandwidth usage data using a variety of protocols.

Our preconfigured bandwidth monitoring sensors support monitoring via SNMP, WMI, flow technologies – including NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, and jFlow – SSH, HTTP and HTTPS, ping, and others, which means they work with most major enterprise network vendors and manufacturers, including Cisco, Dell, and HPE. 

Every sensor tracks a parameter that could impact your bandwidth, including availability and utilization, CPU load and memory usage, data packets, response time, jitter, latency, quality of service (QoS), speed, and traffic, alerting you if performance dips so you can make adjustments and optimize your internet connections (or send an angry email to your internet provider).

Explore our preconfigured PRTG sensors for storage performance monitoring

PRTG comes with more than 250 native sensor types for monitoring your entire on-premises, cloud, and hybrid cloud environment out of the box. Check out some examples below!

SNMP Traffic v2

The SNMP Traffic v2 sensor monitors bandwidth and traffic on a device. It can show the following:

  • Number of incoming and outgoing broadcast, multicast, unicast, and non-unicast packets
  • Number of incoming and outgoing discards and errors
  • Total, incoming, and outgoing traffic
  • Number of incoming, unknown protocols
SNMP Traffic v2
SNMP Traffic v2

Packet Sniffer

The Packet Sniffer sensor monitors the headers of data packets that pass a local network card using a built-in packet sniffer. You can choose from predefined channels. It can show the following and more:

  • Traffic from Citrix applications
  • Traffic from file transfer (FTP/P2P) and various other protocols (UDP, TCP)
  • Traffic from network services (DHCP, DNS, Ident, ICMP, SNMP)
  • Internet mail traffic (IMAP, POP3, SMTP)
  • Traffic from remote control applications (RDP, SSH, Telnet, Virtual Network Computing (VNC))
Packet Sniffer
Packet Sniffer

NetFlow v9

The NetFlow v9 sensor receives traffic data from a NetFlow v9-compatible device and shows the traffic by type. This sensor has several filter options to divide traffic into different channels. It can show the following and more:

  • Traffic from Citrix applications
  • Traffic from file transfer (FTP/P2P) and various other protocols (UDP, TCP)
  • Traffic from network services (DHCP, DNS, Ident, ICMP, SNMP)
  • Internet mail traffic (IMAP, POP3, SMTP)
  • Traffic from remote control applications (RDP, SSH, Telnet, Virtual Network Computing (VNC))
NetFlow v9
NetFlow v9

Windows Network Card

The Windows Network Card sensor monitors the bandwidth usage and traffic of a network interface via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or Windows performance counters. It can show the following:

  • Number of incoming and outgoing discards, errors, and unicast and non-unicast packets
  • Total, incoming, and outgoing traffic
  • Number of packets total, sent, and received
  • Number of unknown protocols
Windows Network Card
Windows Network Card

See the PRTG Manual for a list of all available sensor types.

PRTG is compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems

compatible with all major vendors, products, and systems

PRTG makes measuring bandwidth as easy as it gets

Custom alerts and data visualization let you quickly identify and prevent network congestion, latency, jitter, and other online connectivity problems.

Free download
PRODUCT OVERVIEW

“PRTG helps us to keep control of our IT by making issues visible immediately – and everywhere. We always have an eye on the performance and availability of our IT and can react in time if any failures occur. On a long-term perspective, the monitoring data helps us with capacity planning so that we can deliver the required resources for our own systems as well as for our customers, without wasting money on unwarranted redundancies.”

Stein Erik Høybakk, Senior Network Engineer
TAFJORD

“All our production and business processes depend on SAP. But, of course, IT and production systems also play a crucial role in securing these processes. By incorporating SAP, production, and IT into one centralized monitoring system, we can quickly detect critical drops in performance and identify the causes of these issues. In fact, thanks to PRTG and itesys, this couldn’t be any easier.”

Andreas Schmidt, Senior Systems Engineer
Truma

“Any downtime could be detrimental to our customers. We also strive to provide the best possible service to our customers. PRTG allows us to see the health and performance of the network. Using these measurements we can make decisions on how to repair a piece of equipment before it fails and causes a service interruption.”

James Ott Jr., Communications System Technician and IT Administrator
Federal Radio

Your bandwidth meter at a glance – even on the go

PRTG is set up in a matter of minutes and can be used on a wide variety of mobile devices.

device overview
Gartner peer insights

“Excellent tool for detailed monitoring. Alarms and notifications work greatly. Equipment addition is straight forward and server initial setup is very easy. ...feel safe to purchase it if you intend to monitor a large networking landscape.”

Read the complete review at Gartner Peer Insights

Create innovative solutions with Paessler’s IT partners

Partnering with innovative IT vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.

Rittal

Rittal

IT that works constitutes a business-critical basis for a company's success. Availability and security must be defined for the respective purpose and closely monitored – by OT and IT alike.

Read more
NetBrain

NetBrain

Integrating monitoring results from PRTG into NetBrain maps makes the foundation for network automation.

Read more
ScriptRunner

ScriptRunner

With ScriptRunner Paessler integrates a powerful event automation platform into PRTG Network Monitor.

Read more

Find the root cause of the problem with our PRTG bandwidth meter solution

Real-time notifications mean faster troubleshooting so that you can act before more serious issues occur.

Free download
PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Paessler PRTG

Paessler PRTG

Network Monitoring Software – Version 24.4.102.1351 (November 12th, 2024)

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Hosting

Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available

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Languages

English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese

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Monitor everything

Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more

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Pricing

Choose the PRTG Network Monitor subscription that's best for you

Discover more monitoring insights and stories

Resources Solution

Solutions for all your monitoring needs

  • Bandwidth monitoring
  • Bandwidth management
  • Network traffic tracing
Resources Content

Powerful stories from the monitoring world

  • PRTG and Sonoff smart meter part 2 - MQTT strikes back
  • Paessler Blog - All about IT, Monitoring, and PRTG
  • PRTG + Sonoff = Smart Meter
Resources Solutions

Resources to master your monitoring challenges

  • How can i increase kb/s range on graph meter?
  • How to change bandwidth unit from Kbps to Mbps in SNMP Traffic Sensor.
  • SNMP Traffic sensor wrong bandwidth values

Bandwidth Meter: FAQ

 

What is bandwidth?

In enterprise networks, bandwidth is how much data can be transferred between two endpoints in a given time-frame. It's typically measured in megabits per second (Mbps) or, more and more, in gigabits per second (Gbps).

Higher bandwidth means your network can handle more data more quickly, which helps your internet connections run faster and be more stable and reliable. When bandwidth is low, your internet connections can slow down or become unstable. It may also not be able to support all the connected devices, applications, internet services, and other components your organization needs to operate effectively.

What is a bandwidth meter?

A bandwidth meter (or bandwidth tester or bandwidth calculator) is a tool that measures the amount of data being transmitted or received over a network connection, typically in real time. It is used to monitor network bandwidth usage, which refers to the data transfer rate measured in bits per second (bps) between devices on a network.

Key purposes of a bandwidth meter include:

  • Monitoring internet usage: It shows how much data is being used over a network or internet connection, helping users keep track of their data consumption.
  • Speed testing: It helps users measure the speed of their connection by showing how fast data is uploaded and downloaded from the internet.
  • Network performance diagnostics: A bandwidth meter can help identify network bottlenecks or issues that are slowing down a connection.
  • Traffic analysis: It allows for the analysis of network traffic, showing the bandwidth needs of different applications or devices at any given time.
Bandwidth monitoring vs bandwidth management: what's the difference?

Bandwidth monitoring means tracking how much data your network is processing, while bandwidth management means controlling and optimizing the available bandwidth. Think of it this way. If your network were a highway, monitoring would be traffic cameras, and management would be traffic control measures such as bus lanes, speed limits, and traffic lights.

Both are critical if you want to manage your network effectively. Bandwidth monitoring shows you how much bandwidth is being used and by which network components. Bandwidth management is the process of assessing whether bandwidth usage suits your needs and, if not, prioritizing where it should go.

How does PRTG's bandwidth meter help with bandwidth management?

PRTG's bandwidth meter monitors all your network components round the clock, enabling you to see exactly how much bandwidth specific software, hardware, or other components are using at any point in time. Better still, it alerts you automatically if bandwidth usage goes above a predetermined threshold, so you can make adjustments on the fly, before your network's performance starts to suffer.

What is a sensor in PRTG?

In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive. On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.

We asked: would you recommend PRTG? Over 95% of our customers say yes!

Paessler conducted trials in over 600 IT departments worldwide to tune its network monitoring software closer to the needs of sysadmins. The result of the survey: over 95% of the participants would recommend PRTG – or already have.

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Still not convinced?

Love

More than 500,000 sysadmins love PRTG

Paessler PRTG is used by companies of all sizes. Sysadmins love PRTG because it makes their job a whole lot easier.

PRTG

Monitor your entire IT infrastructure

Bandwidth, servers, virtual environments, websites, VoIP services – PRTG keeps an eye on your entire network.

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Try Paessler PRTG for free

Everyone has different monitoring needs. That’s why we let you try PRTG for free.

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Start bandwidth measuring with PRTG and see how it can make your network more reliable and your job easier.

Free download
PRODUCT OVERVIEW

Products

  • Paessler PRTG
    Paessler PRTGMonitor your whole IT infrastructure
    • PRTG Network Monitor
    • PRTG Enterprise Monitor
    • PRTG Hosted Monitor
    • PRTG extensions
      Extensions for Paessler PRTGExtend your monitoring to a new level
  • Icon Features
    FeaturesExplore all monitoring features

Monitoring with PRTG

  • Network monitoring
  • Bandwidth monitoring
  • SNMP monitoring
  • Network mapping
  • Wi-Fi monitoring
  • Server monitoring
  • Network traffic analyzer
  • NetFlow monitoring
  • Syslog server

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  • PRTG Manual
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  • PRTG Consulting

Contact

Paessler GmbH
Thurn-und-Taxis-Str. 14, 
90411 Nuremberg 
Germany

info@paessler.com

+49 911 93775-0

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