Even if you don’t use the internet for work (and a lot of us do), you’ll tend to be online quite a bit. You probably wouldn’t have found this article if you weren’t at least a fairly active browser of the internet.
If you do use the internet for work, whether it’s something that helps your business, or you’re running your own tech company or website, and the internet is your entire livelihood, it’s important to monitor your usage for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, you want to get a deal with your service provider that works with your usage. You don’t want to pay extra when you’re not using the service as much, but you don’t want to get your connection throttled or owe hundreds of dollars extra because you went over.
When you have a lot of employees, you want to keep track of where you’re using a lot of your digital resources to plan logistics and infrastructure as well – someone who puts a lot of stress on the network would need priority access to a LAN cable for example, whereas someone who doesn’t may be able to survive on the system’s wifi.
Without further adieu, here are the seven best tools you can find for managing and tracking your internet usage.
1. GlassWire
Allow me to introduce you to the wonderful world of GlassWire. Imagine a firewall that not only protected your network better than most competitors but monitored your usage as well.
That’s GlassWire. GlassWire lets you see and monitor your bandwidth usage on a connection-to-connection basis, so you can see where you’re putting the biggest strains on your network. The app updates in real-time, and shows incoming and outgoing figures.
You can even use GlassWire to see what apps are using the most bandwidth and what type of traffic is going where.
You can get a basic version for free or a paid version with extra features.
2. ManageEngine
ManageEngine is described as an infrastructure management service. It’s a big, powerful system that can help you with IT, managing your network, monitoring usage, and APM. It’s a great tool for IT departments everywhere and is made for bigger companies to use.
You can use the ManageEngine software to help you see where the traffic is going around the office – it’s perfect for planning and managing the virtual and networking infrastructure you’ll need for your business.
ManageEngine offers a free trial, so if you’re an IT company, give them a shot. They may be everything you’ve been looking for.
3. WebWatcher
If you want a network bandwidth monitor that really digs deep, you’ll enjoy WebWatcher’s thorough system. It’s perfect for the IT department of any company, and it works wonders for a home network as well.
For example, there’s a system called the Alert Word System, which essentially scans for certain keywords, and lets the admins know when they pop up and on which user and computer. This system also screencaps the user’s desktop at the time the alert goes off.
You can block websites, and you can view statistics for traffic going through your network. See who’s visiting which sites, how often, and for how long.
You can even monitor search engine entries with the system.
This is a complete cell phone and computer bandwidth monitoring software. It works for Mac, Windows, Android, and iPhone devices.
4. Networx
Networx allows you to monitor multiple PC’s at a time all from one location. It’s good for small businesses and home networks.
You can use it to track the data being used across every PC on the network (but only PC, not Mac or mobile devices), which will be displayed for you in convenient bandwidth reports.
Despite its drawbacks, the program is very user-friendly, making it great for a small office with a relatively small group of employees to manage.
5. Nagios
If you’re looking for something versatile – something that really works for your admiration –then you’ll want to take a gander at Nagios. The oddball name aside, this is one of the most useful programs following this theme.
The primary motivation of Nagios is to keep the systems, apps, and services that are essential to you up and running no matter what. The program has an alerting and reporting system that allows you to find and track potential problems and monitor the system efficiently.
Nagios allows you to install plugins as well, so you can expand the things it is capable of monitoring. They have a great free version out that can effectively be used to manage the network usage for a small office, and the premium version can support even larger enterprises.
6. GFI LanGuard
This monitoring tool is compatible with the three major OS’, so right off the bat, you’ll be able to integrate it into your company’s IT department seamlessly.
It using a simple, easy to understand interface that allows you to watch over your network and keep track of your usage, plus it lets you know of any vulnerabilities in the network that it finds.
LanGuard’s watchful eyes will keep your network secure while you use the information it provides on usage to plan out your company’s digital infrastructure.
7. LogicMonitor
Welcome to the brilliant world of LogicMonitor. This excellent bit of software is everything you’d want to get in a good program to monitor your Internet Bandwidth usage. This is a complicated program to use. There is no denying that. You will have to spend a lot of time getting to know the ins and outs. But despite that, this program is number one because of how much you can do with it.
You can use it to monitor usage coming from apps, networks, cloud servers, infrastructure, virtual machines, and pretty much anything else you can think of. If it’s using your network resources, this app can keep track of it.
Not only that, but it is very compatible with other IT software, so it won’t cause problems when you introduce it to the office. You can use it effectively with your existing infrastructure with almost no growing pains at all.
The pricing of the software is based on what you and your business need. The customer service staff will work with you to ensure you get the package that fits your business.
