How to monitor network traffic

You can use a tool which is provided by Microsoft to monitor traffic on your network. You can download this tool, Network Monitor, from Microsoft’s website. This tool provides you with statistics in regard to your network, such as the source and destination address for packets, protocols in sending transmissions, and data contained in packets. This tool is free and is ready for immediate download.

Download and install Network Monitor

Navigate to the Microsoft website and download Network Monitor. You can do a Google search for Network Monitor and find the page you need to navigate to so that you can download this tool on your computer. Click the Download button at the bottom of the page for the appropriate installer, depending upon your compute system. For example, you would choose the x86 installer if you have a 32-bit operating system, or the x64 installer if you have a 64-bit operating system. Choose to save the file to your desktop, or a place where you will remember. Double-click the installer icon located on your desktop, or where you saved it, to start the installation. Follow the onscreen instructions to install Network Monitor on your computer. Follow the onscreen prompts as the installation continues.

Open and use Network Monitor

Open Microsoft Network Monitor by double-clicking the icon on your desktop that was created during the installation. Alternately, if you did not create a desktop icon, open Network Monitor by clicking the Start button in the lower left corner of the screen, click All Programs, and then click Microsoft Network Monitor. Select the network that you want to monitor under Selected Networks located on the lower left panel of the screen. Click the New Capture button located below the main menu. Click the Start button to start capturing packets and monitoring your network. You can also start the capturing process by press the F5 button located on your keyboard. When Net Monitor starts to monitor your network, it will give you a packet analysis, traffic analyser, and show you the network packets being monitored. Right-click anywhere on the bar which contains the Start button at the bottom of the network monitor. Do not click the Start button but any blank space where there is no icon, and then click Start Task Manager. Click the Networking tab to open the Network Monitor. Look at the graphs in the top portion of the window to view the current speed of your network. Look at the bottom of the window to see the internal networking devices on your computer, and what network they are connected to.