>

Per-Host Bandwidth With iftop

See which remote hosts are using the most bandwidth in real time.

LinuxnetworkmonitoringbandwidthMedium risk
Run sudo iftop -i eth0 to watch traffic grouped by host pair.

01Command

Command
$ sudo iftop -i eth0

02What it does

iftop borrows tcpdump's capture engine and pretty-prints a live table of the busiest connections, with cumulative totals and peak rates. It is ideal for answering 'what is saturating this link' without a full packet trace.

03Risk

RiskMedium risk
Requirementssudo apt install iftop
!Warning: It needs packet-capture privileges and shows hostnames, which can reveal browsed sites on a shared screen.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • iftop
    Official project · vendor-doc · 2026-09-20
    Evidence: Debian packages iftop, which displays per-host bandwidth on an interface.
  • Debian package: iftop
    Debian · vendor-doc · 2026-09-20
    Evidence: Debian packages iftop, which displays per-host bandwidth on an interface.

Last verified: 2026-09-22 · Category: Network

06Related solutions

Check RAM Usage with free -h
Linuxmonitoringmemoryfree

Use free -h to see used, free, and available memory plus swap in GB/MiB instead of raw kilobytes.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-17
Show IP addresses in a compact table with `ip -br a`
Linuxifconfignetworktroubleshooting

One command that prints every interface with its state and IPv4/IPv6 addresses in a short table — the modern, memorable replacement for digging through `ifconfig` or the verbose `ip addr` output.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-17
Trace the route to a host with `traceroute`
Linuxroutingnetworktraceroute

The classic forgotten-syntax command: `traceroute` shows every router between you and a destination plus the round-trip time of probes to each hop.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-17