Network monitoring tools can help to identify issues before they escalate to emergency status. This type of software is not only useful for network administrators. Home users with a small network or even just a single computer will benefit from the software featured in this article.
The purpose of this article is to identify small console based utilities that show network usage in a way reminiscent to what the top utility does for processes. Rather than borrowing code from top, the small tools here borrow ideas from that troubleshooting tool, such as providing instant real-time data about a system that updates as the situation changes.