Why is network traffic monitoring important?
Network traffic monitoring helps organizations track and analyze the volume of data that flows through a network. Network admins can effortlessly identify potential bottlenecks and outages with real-time information about bandwidth metrics in a network.
Site24x7's network traffic monitoring tool offers complete visibility into your network with stats on peak traffic, surges in traffic volumes, application and interface traffic, and bandwidth-hogging conversations. Also, our network traffic monitoring tool can help you analyze flows based on various technologies like NetFlow, sFlow, and J-Flow.
A network traffic monitoring tool for all your needs
Optimize data use across your network
Identify bandwidth hogs and block or restrict them in your environment to optimize data usage across the network.
Improve network security
Detect traffic anomalies and drill down to the IP addresses causing spikes in conversations.
Leverage dashboards to identify top users
View exclusive dashboards for top devices or interfaces organized by traffic, volume, and bandwidth utilization to identify high network bandwidth users.
Classify and manage traffic using templates
Use application and differentiated services code point (DSCP) templates to classify and manage network traffic, and obtain the relevant stats.
Receive alerts about busy interfaces
Configure threshold limits at the device or interface level for all key metrics and receive alerts on breaches so that you can execute corrective measures on time.
Leverage support from multiple vendors
Collect and analyze flows from multiple vendors, like Cisco, HP, Juniper, Fortinet, SonicWall, Dell, Palo Alto, 3Com, and Foundry Networks.
Know the top N traffic generators
View the applications, protocols, and conversations with the highest interface-level traffic flows.
Organize your traffic analysis using reports
Extract tabular data or easy-to-interpret graphs as reports, which you can generate periodically, and export to different formats.
Supported flow technologies to monitor network traffic
Site24x7 supports all leading flow technologies available on the market.
Benefits of network traffic monitoring
As a network administrator, you need a network monitoring tool to keep an eye on device-to-device traffic within your network and to flag any bandwidth hogging, intrusion, slowness, or unauthorized access. Here's where our network traffic monitoring tool comes in handy.
By using our network traffic monitoring tool, you can:
Spot traffic peaks or clogs
Identify surges in traffic volume and bandwidth hogging conversations.
Obtain detailed reports
View in-depth reports on application and interface traffic.
Identify traffic sources
Monitor the traffic hotspots in your network.
Track traffic between nodes
Monitor traffic moving between the main office and branch offices.
Detect anomalies
Perform custom pings and synthetic tests using the Site24x7 On-Premise Poller.
Monitor network quality
Test the quality and optimize allocation with network bandwidth monitoring.
How to monitor network traffic
Adverse network performance can result in losses in terms of costs or resources. You can prevent this with network traffic monitoring, which enables you to track any suspicious activity and optimize your network traffic.
Here are the steps to monitor network traffic:
Identify the nodes where you would like to monitor the traffic
Select the devices or nodes that require monitoring. For instance, if you select a router and a switch, you can monitor the interface traffic data for all connected devices.
Discover NetFlow interfaces in your network
Site24x7 discovers and adds new NetFlow interfaces in your network if you've enabled your devices to export flows. These devices also reflect in topology maps with the help of our network mapping tool.
Use Site24x7's network traffic analyzer
Use Site24x7's network traffic monitoring tool, which monitors your source and destination devices, their interfaces, and the traffic flowing through them. With interface-level details along with insights based on the IP address, application, and protocol, you can view your monitoring data from dashboards and consolidated reports.
Why Site24x7 is the best network traffic monitoring tool
Full-stack Monitoring
Site24x7 offers full-fledged, all-in-one monitoring for websites, servers, applications, logs, and cloud and virtualization with out-of-the-box reporting and dashboard capabilities.
Network Monitoring
Site24x7's comprehensive network monitoring portfolio comprises features such as SNMP trap processing, mapping, and custom SNMP monitoring.
Mobile App
Monitor your network resources on the go with our Android and iOS apps.
Customizable alerting
Get SMS messages, emails, voice calls, or push notifications through the Android and iOS apps and RSS feeds.
Third-party integrations
Route your alert notifications through Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, and more.
One solution for all your network management needs
Site24x7 offers network monitoring for device and interface monitoring; network traffic monitoring to analyze flows based on different technologies like NetFlow, J-Flow, and sFlow; and network configuration management to manage network configuration backups. Accomplish hassle-free control over your network from a single, SaaS-based monitoring console, without switching between software packages.
Overview of network traffic monitoring
What is network traffic?
Network traffic is the amount of data transferred through a network from a source to a destination at a specific time. This data is transmitted in the form of packets, which are the basic building blocks of network data transfers, and are reassembled at the destination.
Types of network traffic:
- Real-time traffic: Time-sensitive traffic that requires high-quality data transmission.
- Non-real-time traffic: Traffic consumed by an application for daily activities.
- Busy or heavy traffic: Traffic that consumes a high amount of bandwidth.
What is network traffic monitoring?
Network traffic monitoring is the process of analyzing the flow of data across a network to gain insights into network behavior, analyze traffic patterns, and identify potential issues. It involves tracking the source, destination, and other metrics of network traffic and is usually achieved through specialized software tools that collect and analyze network traffic data in real time.
Benefits of network traffic monitoring:
- Analyze bandwidth issues
- Identify top talkers
- Improve user experience
What is a network traffic monitor?
A network traffic monitor in Site24x7 is any network device, such as a router or switch, for whichyou can observe and analyze traffic flows within your network. This enables you to get immediate insight into the use of network bandwidth, traffic patterns, and protocols being utilized. Site24x7 also displays the relevant measurements in an easy-to-use dashboard.
By analyzing traffic data, you can:
- Identify potential issues like bandwidth hogs within the network.
- Spot applications and device conversations that use high amounts of traffic.
- Plan for bandwidth allocation based on usage patterns.
What is NetFlow?
NetFlow by Cisco is the most commonly used flow technology. It tracks and records all traffic as it enters and exits an interface. NetFlow is often used for flow data analytics. NetFlow datagrams carry information like the source address, destination address, source port, destination port, and protocol values in the flow record. NetFlow versions 5 and 9 are most commonly used.
With NetFlow traffic analysis, you can:
- Identify bottlenecks in the network.
- Analyze instances of poor network performance.
What is J-Flow?
Juniper Networks developed the data flow sampling technique known as J-Flow, which is supported by SRX Series Devices. The sampled data includes all network activities, such as conversations inside enabled ports, and helps identify top talkers. J-Flow monitors each packet as it flows through a network. It allows packets in the input stream to be sampled when enabled on an interface.
With J-Flow traffic analysis, you can:
- Analyze and classify real-time network traffic.
- Assess network usage parameters.
What is sFlow?
Sampled flow, commonly known as sFlow, is the standard technology for packet export in Layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection model. As a packet sampling technology, sFlow samples IP packets moving from a source to a destination through a particular port. It provides the means of exporting truncated packets together with the interface counters. sFlow uses sampling to achieve scalability and is used for high-speed networks.
sFlow has two types of sampling:
- Packets or application layer operations (random sampling).
- Counters (time-based sampling).
How does the Site24x7 network traffic monitor work?
Site24x7 uses the On-Premise Poller to monitor network traffic. Once you install the On-Premise Poller (the NetFlow collector) and configure your devices to export flows to it, the On-Premise Poller starts receiving the flows. Then, it processes raw data and presents it intuitively in a custom dashboard or graphical reports.
Can I see what others are doing on my network?
Yes. Using NetFlow monitoring, you can view your network's IP and application traffic stats, which help you observe which particular IP and application has generated or consumed the most traffic.
How do I control network traffic?
You can control network traffic by configuring threshold limits for all the critical metrics, like incoming and outgoing traffic and bandwidth utilization. With these thresholds in place, you will receive alerts whenever the traffic or bandwidth breaches your configured values. Based on these alerts, you can identify the particular applications or ports that are responsible and block them.