bwm-ng
bwm-ng (Bandwidth Monitor NG) is a lightweight, real-time network bandwidth monitoring tool that displays current data transfer rates for all network interfaces on a system. Designed to be simple and efficient, bwm-ng shows transmit and receive speeds for each interface with optional colour highlighting and multiple output formats including plain text, CSV, and HTML.
Key Features
- Multi-interface display — Shows all active network interfaces simultaneously
- Real-time updates — Configurable refresh interval for live bandwidth tracking
- Output formats — Terminal, plain text, CSV, and HTML output modes
- Unit conversion — Auto-scales between bits, kilobits, megabits per second
- Colour highlighting — Colour-coded output for quick visual assessment
- Total counters — Cumulative received and transmitted byte totals
- Lightweight — Minimal CPU and memory footprint
Why Use It
bwm-ng is one of the lightest bandwidth monitoring tools available, making it ideal for embedded systems and low-resource environments where even iftop or nload would be overkill. The CSV output mode makes it scriptable for logging and alerting pipelines.
Use Cases
- Quick bandwidth check — See current network utilisation across all interfaces
- Interface activity monitoring — Verify that network interfaces are active and passing traffic
- Scripted monitoring — Capture bandwidth data to CSV for trend analysis
- Embedded systems — Monitor network on Raspberry Pi and other resource-constrained devices
Platform
Linux, BSD, Solaris
Licence
GNU General Public License v2.0