iptraf equivalent for OS X

H

hhuberla

Registered
Hi,

As a recently switched Linux and Windows user I really miss the curses based iptraf utility for linux. There must be an equivalent and I've tried a couple but most of themare tricky to install and don't give the one feature that I really need.

I really need to see how much bandwidth is being used by a certain port/protocl. eg: HTTP is using 100kb/s SMTP is 10kb/s and FTP 2Mb/s.

We have a slow leased line in use and it seems the totally used up and I need to know where to start looking.

Thanks
Hans
 
IPtraf isn't available for OS X apparently as a binary. I've been looking and can't find it, even through Fink. You could try and compile from source, just make sure that you have the necessary compilers and libraries to do so.

Incidentally, have you tried the Network Utility in Applications-->Utilities to see if that has what you need?
 
Thanks - I thought as much.

I will try to compile it (should be a riot) and will post my results here. I tried the network utility but only gives a total summary of the packets on your interface not the ports themselves. To add to it I need info from the whole network not traffic headed to this interface only.

Hans
 
Compiling from source is proving a pain. I don't have the developer tools installed and will need to get this to get a compiler I think... but anyway.

In the meantime I have found StreamWatcher. It can track the transfer rate based on the connection but not on the protocol/service. This will at least help me to highlight problems to a larger extent.

Thanks for the help so far.
Hans
 
Sorry Hans, I don't have any info for you on iptraf on Mac OS X. I think I tried to see if it would work on Solaris 8 a few years ago. If I remember correctly, it is tied into the linux kernel so porting is difficult.

Take a look at ntop, http://www.ntop.org.

It is a web server so it is much heavier than iptraf but it gives a lot of nice statistics. They have a binary package for Mac OS X.

I haven't used it on Mac OS X because I don't consider Mac OS X good for anything but mail, music and web surfing. All the important stuff I keep on Linux/Solaris servers.

Good luck.
 
You're right - I do believe it has some deep ties into the linux kernel. I've tried ntop though and it's really amazing. I needed a little help installing it but found a great walkthrough here: http://homepage.mac.com/duling/halfdozen/ntop-Howto.html

It's a pity it has to run on a web interface and that there is not front-end for it. I use my powerbook to do network diagnostics and I'd hate to have to have use a PC just for that...

Hans
 
Just in the event anyone else is still looking for something respectable to use in place of iptraf - iftop is available through brew and is about the closest you'll get from what I can tell.
 
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