Check your bandwidth with PRTG:
reliable, comprehensive, and user-friendly
PRTG uncovers bandwidth hogs
PRTG provides detailed statistics on bandwidth consumption
PRTG warns you when your bandwidth is too low
Why should I check my bandwidth?
Looking to optimize the performance of your network? If so, sufficient bandwidth is a must.
A “bandwidth check” will immediately show you how much bandwidth is available in your network.
Such a check is especially important to rapidly growing businesses. These companies have more
and more end devices and eventually reach their capacity limits. A bandwidth check lets them
determine if it’s time to upgrade their networks. Not to mention avoid costly crashes and the
losses in sales that come with them.
Where’s all the bandwidth going?
PRTG monitors bandwidth usage directly on the router and displays all incoming and outgoing data traffic. You’ll see which applications, servers, and users are consuming the most bandwidth. You might also learn that your router is configured incorrectly.
Trusted by 500,000 users and recognized
by industry analysts as a leader
by industry analysts as a leader
“Fantastic network and infrastructure monitoring solution that is easy to deploy and easier still to use. Simply the best available.”
“Software is absolutely perfect, Support is superior. Meets all needs and requirements, this is a must have solution if you are needing any form of monitoring.”
“The tool excels at its primary focus of being a unified infrastructure management and network monitoring service.”
Bandwidth usage test
The PRTG Bandwidth Monitoring Tool checks your bandwidth around the clock and provides detailed statistics on bandwidth consumption. Do peak loads occur at certain times? Could these loads be avoided via the efficient use of automated processes? Are unnecessary services or processes consuming unreasonable amounts of bandwidth?
PRTG displays bandwidth usage in easy-to-read lists and charts. Our Packet Sniffer and Flow sensors filter results by port number, IP address, protocol, and more.
PRTG comes with a user-defined alert function, allowing you to be informed of bandwidth bottlenecks by SMS, email, or push notification. You can therefore quickly take action and eliminate most problems before they become severe – and cost your company money.
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| WMI | SNMP | Packet Sniffer | Flow (IPFIX, NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow) |
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| Setup | Medium | Easy | Easy to complex (depending on filter rules used) | Can be complex (e.g., the switch must be configured) |
| Traffic can be filtered |
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| Differentiate bandwidth usage by protocol or IPs |
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| PRTG can show Toplists (Top Talker, Top Connections, Top Protocols, custom) |
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| Filter bandwidth usage by IP |
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| Filter bandwidth usage by MAC address |
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| Filter bandwidth usage by physical network port |
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| Monitor network parameters other than bandwidth usage |
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| CPU load on the machine running PRTG | Medium | Low | Higher, depends on the amount of traffic | Higher, depends on the amount of traffic |
| Excess bandwidth usage of monitoring | Small | Small | None (except when monitoring switch ports are used) | Depends on the traffic |
3 situations where bandwidth checks come in handy
Scheduling backups
Most backups or database synchronization processes require lots of bandwidth. PRTG shows you the time of day when the least amount of bandwidth is consumed. By scheduling backups during low peak periods, you'll optimize your capacities and prevent important business processes from coming to a halt.
Verifying the terms of contracts
Is your ISP really providing the amount of bandwidth that was promised? PRTG will show you exactly how much bandwidth is being delivered to your network. Comprehensive statistics can help you prove that the terms of a service level agreement (SLA) are not being met.
Expanding your network
Getting ready to install new ERP software that requires 5 Mbps of bandwidth? PRTG will let you know if you have enough bandwidth to run the software on a sustained basis or if you’ll need to upgrade.
Sensors to help you check your bandwidth
Packet Sniffer
Monitors the headers of data packets that pass a local network using a built-in packet sniffer. It can show the following traffic types (analyzes only header traffic!):
- Chat (IRC, AIM)
- Citrix
- FTP/P2P
- Mail, WWW
- Remote control (RDP, SSH, Telnet, VNC)
SNMP
Uses a MIB library file to create sensors that monitor a device via SNMP and provides custom monitoring beyond the standard SNMP sensors of PRTG.
Monitors traffic on a device using the RMON standard via SNMP and can show i.a.:
- Transmitted kbit/s
- Packets, CRC Errors, Fragments, Jabbers, and collisions per second
Monitors traffic on a device using SNMP.
NetFlow V9
Shows traffic for NetFlow v9-supported devices, split by type and is able to divide traffic into channels. Traffic types include:
- Chat (IRC, AIM)
- Citrix
- FTP/P2P
- Mail, WWW
- Remote control (RDP, SSH, Telnet, VNC)
NetFlow V5
Shows traffic for NetFlow v5-supported devices, split by type and is able to divide traffic into channels. Traffic types include:
- Chat (IRC, AIM)
- Citrix
- FTP/P2P
- Mail, WWW
- Remote control (RDP, SSH, Telnet, VNC)
IPFIX
Shows traffic for IPFIX-supported devices, split by type and is able to divide traffic into channels. Traffic types include:
- Chat (IRC, AIM)
- Citrix
- FTP/P2P
- Mail, WWW
- Remote control (RDP, SSH, Telnet, VNC)
jFlow
Shows traffic for jFlow-supported devices, split by type and is able to divide traffic into channels. Traffic types include:
- Chat (IRC, AIM)
- Citrix
- FTP/P2P
- Mail, WWW
- Remote control (RDP, SSH, Telnet, VNC)
sFlow
Shows traffic for sFlow-supported devices, split by type and is able to into channels. Traffic types include:
- Chat (IRC, AIM)
- Citrix
- FTP/P2P
- Mail, WWW
- Remote control (RDP, SSH, Telnet, VNC)
Cisco ASA VPN
Monitors the traffic of an IPsec VPN connection on a Cisco ASA using SNMP and shows the incoming and outgoing traffic.
Cisco ADSL
Monitors ADSL statistics of a Cisco router using SNMP. It can show:
- Speed of downlink and uplink
- Remote and local attenuation, SNR and local power output
NetApp Storage
Monitors a network card of a NetApp storage system via SNMP and can show:
- Traffic in and out
- Number of errors per second (in and out)
Windows Network Card
Monitors bandwidth usage and traffic on a network interface using WMI or Windows Performance Counters and can show among others:
- Total traffic on the network card
- Number of received and sent packets
- Number of discards, errors, unicast packets and unknown protocols
A firsthand look at the PRTG bandwidth check
Live Traffic Sensor
Packet Sniffer Sensor
PRTG "Sunburst” View
Create innovative solutions with Paessler’s partners
Partnering with innovative vendors, Paessler unleashes synergies to create
new and additional benefits for joined customers.
With ScriptRunner, Paessler integrates a powerful event automation platform into PRTG Network Monitor.
ScriptRunner
PRTG in a nutshell
PRTG monitors your entire IT infrastructure
Use PRTG to monitor, for example, network traffic, applications, bandwidth, cloud services, databases, virtual environments, availability & uptime, ports, IP addresses, hardware status, network security, web services, and much more.
PRTG supports the most important technologies
Monitor your network for example via SNMP, flow protocols (NetFlow, jFlow, sFlow, IPFIX), SSH, WMI, or ping. PRTG also supports technologies used in Industrial IT & OT environments, such as OPC UA, MQTT, or Modbus. Use the powerful PRTG API for custom integrations (for example via Python, PowerShell, or REST).
PRTG can be used for any operating system
Download and install PRTG Network Monitor on a Windows system or use our cloud-based product PRTG Hosted Monitor for all other operating systems. What’s more: our native PRTG Desktop application runs on Windows or macOS – for even quicker access & multi-server views.
Still not convinced?
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.
Still not convinced?
Monitor your entire IT infrastructure
Bandwidth, servers, virtual environments, websites, VoIP services – PRTG keeps an eye on your entire network.
Try Paessler PRTG for free
Everyone has different monitoring needs. That’s why we let you try PRTG for free. Start now with your trial.
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PRTG |
Network Monitoring Software - Version 24.2.94.1400 (April 10th, 2024) |
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Hosting |
Download for Windows and cloud-based version PRTG Hosted Monitor available |
Languages |
English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese |
Pricing |
Up to 100 sensors for free (Price List) |
Unified Monitoring |
Network devices, bandwidth, servers, applications, virtual environments, remote systems, IoT, and more |
Supported Vendors & Applications |
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