Monitor and Control Your Internet Bandwidth With NetLimiter
Would you like to see what programs on your Windows computer is accessing the Internet? How about determining who is the bandwidth pig? NetLimiter can help.
Take Control Of Your Computer
Windows programs and websites attach to lots of IP addresses while you run them. Most of the time its to other websites who have advertising links and sometimes even worse (like a virus). All of that data comes at a cost to you, especially if your ISP has bandwidth limits. If you over abuse your allocation, you could get penalized by automatic down throttling and even lose your account.
There is something you can do about it. By running a network monitor and bandwidth shaper, you can take control of your system.
NetLimiter Is A Network Monitor
NetLimiter 3 is an essential application that now runs on one of my desktop monitors. While I use my computer, I watch the upload and download activity coming across the wire. By doing so, I can determine which applications are attaching and sending information up and down my Internet connection, as well as how much they are abusing it.
It is pretty interesting watching applications and websites connecting to all sorts of IP addresses. You would never think that they communicate with so many. But NetLimiter will show you each and everyone of them and let you determine appropriate action.
Here is a snapshot of what happens when you visit Youtube with the Mozilla Firefox browser:
As you can see, a lot of connections are made to various IP addresses. And believe it or not, this is only 1/3rd of the IP addresses that were listed! By doing a reverse IP lookup, you can determine who those IP addresses belong to.
NetLimiter Is A Bandwidth Shaper
NetLimiter is not only a network monitoring tool, but also a bandwidth shaper as well. What's a bandwidth shaper?
A bandwidth shaper allows you to control the upload and download speed for each known Internet application that runs on your computer. Think of it as a way to throttle your connection. Now I say "known" because NetLimiter will remember applications that connected to the Net and keep them in it's application list for you to review. This lets you tune down apps that put high demand on your Internet connection as well as give more bandwidth to apps that need it.
In the picture below, you can see what applications NetLimiter has monitored to be sending information in and outside my computer:
Let's take an example. Suppose you use video teleconferencing software and are talking to your parents across the country. At times you may get laggy video and broken up voice. To prevent this, you are going to want to high priority bandwidth to your Skype service to prevent hiccups in communication and lower priority over less intensive Internet applications.
Like to play online games? Many of these require lots of Internet resources.. I'm sure if you ever played these games like World of Warcraft or Call of Duty, you have experienced lag even on a 5Mbps service. Wouldn't it be nice if even your Farmville play could get a little boost too?
On the flipside, there's no need to give premium bandwidth to websites like Facebook or Twitter. Why? Because it is not critical, real time data. So tune the bandwidth down and free it up so other Net programs running in the background can get more juice.
Have an office or home network that has lots of computers? Run NetLimiter on a gateway computer attached to the main router. Then, you will be able to use it as a bandwidth shaper and monitor to all computers on the network. If your little brother is hogging up the network then throttle his application down so you can use the Internet too.
NetLimiter is also a firewall. You can specify rules to control both inbound and outbound connections.
NetLimiter runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. It also runs on Windows Server 2003 and 2008. The software consists of the NetLimiter 3 client interface that you use to control your bandwidth settings, a Windows O/S service that runs automatically at boot up, and a driver that captures all networking activity.
About Kerry Kobashi
Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.
