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For a while I used network monitor that comes with MacOS to understand the network activity of apps. But things don't add up there. For example, in the attached screenshot total “Data received“ is 1.4 GB and total ”Data sent” is 52.8 MB. However, if I accumulate the “Sent Bytes” and “Rcvd Bytes” columns of individual process, it does not come close to the overall number.

I would like to have summary of my network activity which includes

  1. Process that upload / download the data
  2. How much data is that process has uploaded / downloaded.
  3. What are the URLs / ip address the process is uploading the data to or downloading the data from.

And I want the data to match up to the number in bottom right corner of the network activity tool. Is there any tool for MacOS that will give me the information I am looking for?

Edit (Additional context): When I took the screen shot, my Mac was turned on for less than an hour and activity monitor was open the whole time.

enter image description here

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  • What are the accumulated totals?
    – Allan
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 17:02
  • @Allan I did not add them individually, I could see that they differ in higher order of magnitude.
    – aokot
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 17:20
  • You need to remember “bytes sent/received” is not the same as “upload/download”. Local traffic (DHCP, Bonjour, etc.) contributes to the sent/received number and won’t be part of up/download numbers.
    – Allan
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 22:03
  • 1
    If you want a proper tool, look at Wireshark on one end and Little Snitch on the other
    – Allan
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 22:06

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I wouldn't use Activity Monitor for this, as anything more than a very rough guide.

It doesn't differentiate between LAN & WAN traffic. Also, the totals are since boot, the individual figures are since you first opened the tab.

I usually reboot every month or two, but this has only been up a week. Look at the massive discrepancy already present. I load Activity Monitor at boot, but almost never use the Network tab. This picture was taken about a minute after switching to it. mDNS seems to have a large usage, so perhaps that's constantly being recorded, but I have other processes down the list that I know for certain have shifted gigabytes of data since last boot.

enter image description here

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