Tell me more ×
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite

I see suddenly that my downstream bandwidth is 400 KBps which is the maximum my ISP gives me, so there's an application downloading at its top capacity.
The thing is I didn't start any download, so it's doing it in the background without telling.
How can I know which app or process is using it?
Or, basically, how can I determine how much bandwidth each open process or application is using?

share|improve this question
I've stumbled across a firewall app before that can graph network usage per app and per user... but I can't seem to find it anymore. :/ – Jason Salaz♦ Jun 29 '11 at 5:12
HandsOff shows per-app usage – hsmiths Jun 29 '11 at 12:21
was the automatic software update? – jm666 Jun 29 '11 at 14:47
@jm666: That was my first suspect, but it wasn't – Petruza Jun 29 '11 at 18:50

5 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

This help at all? Take a look at the NetMonitor Sidekick add on. Have not tried it myself but will probably load on virtual machine to see how it works.

http://homepage.mac.com/rominar/net.html

share|improve this answer
thanx!......... – Petruza Nov 7 '11 at 19:33
up vote 2 down vote

lsof and iftop (direct Link to install package) are the best tools that come to mind.

Also, take a look at this question.

share|improve this answer
But it doesn't show which app is using the bandwidth – Petruza Jun 29 '11 at 21:07
@Petruza, you can identify the program associated with a particular connection using lsof and then monitor the bandwidth of the connection with iftop. It should be enough information to audit the suspect connections/programs. – Somantra Jun 30 '11 at 15:31
@Petruza, in your case you would probably start with iftop to identify the connection using up your bandwidth then trace the connection to the owning app with lsof or netstat. – Somantra Jun 30 '11 at 15:53
up vote 1 down vote

Rubbernet is a really great app that allows you to see the per application network usage of your Mac plus it supports Remote Monitoring. You can install a Rubbernet plugin any Mac that you have administrative access and then monitor the per application bandwidth utilization of all the Macintosh on your network from your own computer.

It does cost money (30 Euros on their website but for some reason its $19.99 on the Mac App Store but they have a fully functional Free Trial on their website. I haven't bought the app yet, so I can not confirm that you can buy one license for the app and then install the plugin on any number of Macs for now additional charge. But that seems to be the situation.

The Developers are the same folks who do the Linkinus IRC Client.

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

Another option that is not quite as good as it does not have any kind of remote monitoring mechnaism and didn't seem to do as good a job is OS Track. Its also available on the Mac App Store for free. I didn't really like this app as it seemed to consume a lot of resources itself. But that might be something they fixed in a later version.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

sudo fs_usage might id the process

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.