A Deep Dive Into Top 10 Home Network Monitoring Tools

In this article, we will explore the 10 home network monitoring tools that cater to a spectrum of needs, from basic connectivity checks to advanced traffic analysis and device-specific monitoring.

• Faq’s on Home Network Monitoring
• Current top tools

A few decades ago, at the dawn of the microcomputer revolution, the concept of a personal computer was seen as something hard to justify. Computers were huge, extremely expensive machines, secluded in purpose-built rooms and tended to by a cadre of highly trained operators. Why would a home need that?

Fast-forward a few years, and home computers became the norm. But a home network? Networks were something reserved for businesses and institutions, requiring expensive cabling, dedicated engineers, and skilled administrators. Why would a home need that?

But times change, and home networks are now everywhere. They may be simple ones, resulting from connecting a computer and a bunch of smart devices to your broadband router, or purpose-designed, with a clear topology and even their own internal servers. Doesn’t matter. Just like in business settings, home network monitoring is crucial for ensuring seamless functioning and security, even more so if you are a remote worker.

Discover why investing in home network monitoring is beneficial, learn about the key features to consider when selecting monitoring tools, and get insights into effective home network monitoring practices.

Whether you’re a novice or an experienced user, this article provides a comprehensive guide to empower you with the knowledge needed to choose the right home network monitoring tool that aligns with your specific requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions About Home Network Monitoring

What are Home Network Monitoring Tools?

Home network monitoring tools, as the name says, are tools designed to monitor the status and performance of your domestic network. The requirements for these tools vary with network complexity: while some networks may be comprised of a laptop, a couple of smartphones, and a shared printer, others may include dozens of devices and even internal services.

At a minimum, these tools should be able to monitor your connectivity, both to the external world (your ISP connection) and between internal devices. Traffic analysis features are also nice to have since they can help you find the root cause of issues like slowdowns or intermittent connectivity.

If you run internal services, you might want to monitor aspects of these, like the print queue on a print server or storage space available on a NAS. Lastly, you may also include in your monitoring strategy any external services your home network depends on, like cloud storage for backups or an external email server that provides mailboxes for your family.

In this article, we will cover monitoring tools for a wide range of scenarios, from those dedicated to a single aspect to the ones that cover the full spectrum of needs for the most sophisticated networks. Keeping in line with the needs of domestic budgets, we will be focusing on low-cost tools or those that offer a free license for domestic use.

Why Should You Invest in Home Network Monitoring?

There are many reasons to invest in home network monitoring. Here are five of them, in no particular order.

1. Performance optimization: continuous monitoring can help you pinpoint issues and identify opportunities for optimization that will improve the performance of your home network, sometimes without the need for hardware upgrades.

2. Security: monitoring allows you to spot early signs of uncommon behavior or usage patterns indicative of an intrusion attempt or ongoing cyberattack. This will give you time to react and deploy countermeasures before a data breach occurs.

3. Resource allocation: find out where resources are being underutilized or overutilized, allowing you to redistribute them according to real needs to ensure the most effective usage of your equipment.

4. Proactive maintenance: monitoring allows you to detect and fix potential issues before they become critical and result in outages that may affect the performance of your home network.

5. Device management: monitoring your home network lets you keep track of all connected devices. Knowing which devices are connected allows you to manage and control their access, troubleshoot issues, and ensure that only authorized devices are using your network.

What to Look for When Choosing Home Network Monitoring Tools?

Broadly speaking, there are 5 main features you need to look out for when choosing network monitoring tools. Keep in mind that this may vary according to your specific needs.

• The capability to monitor many aspects of your home network at once.
• A centralized display of information from many sensors for better observability.
• Customizable alerts and automated notifications when alerts are triggered.
• Native and automated reporting features, so you can keep everyone “in the loop”.
• A free trial period, so you can attest to how the tool works with your network infrastructure.

How to do Home Network Monitoring?

There are a few tips for those who wish to do home network monitoring effectively. For convenience purposes, your chosen monitoring tool should cover all the aspects required by your network setup.

Ideally, you should set apart one device to be a dedicated monitoring station. This device should have a wired connection with your home router, since this avoids the instability inherent to wireless connections, which can be affected by the environment (like objects between the computer and the router) or even factors beyond your control, like a neighbor setting up a wireless router in the same channel as yours.

When selecting a network monitoring tool, pay attention to the system requirements. Some require Windows Server or a specific database server (like Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server), and the licensing costs for either one will surely blow your home monitoring budget sky-high. Choose tools that can run on “home” versions of Windows, or Linux, and which use free database solutions such as MySQL.

The Best Home Network Monitoring Tools

PRTG, Glasswire, Capsa, Portmaster, Nagios Core, OutagesIO, Icinga, NetData, Zabbix, Site 24/7

PRTG

Paessler PRTG is often called the Swiss army knife of the monitoring world. It is based on basic monitoring elements called “sensors”. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, e.g. the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, the free space of a disk drive, and so on.

With more than 250 built-in sensors for various tasks, device types, and use cases, you would be hard-pressed to find something you can’t monitor with PRTG. Plus, you can mix and match sensors, and even deploy custom ones, to create monitoring solutions specific to your needs.

PRTG has everything you need for home network monitoring, from a simple “ping” sensor that can monitor latency and packet loss in your connection to your ISP to sophisticated sensors for traffic analysis using protocols such as Netflow, jFlow, sFlow, or IPFIX. You can also monitor printers, storage devices, connectivity to SaaS (Software as a Service) providers (like Dropbox, Google Apps, and Office 365, among others), IoT devices, and much more.

The information gathered by PRTG is shown on a centralized dashboard with all the relevant metrics. You can set alerts based on threshold values, with notifications delivered by text (SMS) or email if those values are exceeded. There is also an automatic reporting feature.

PRTG Network Monitor is available in a free version that lets you monitor up to 100 sensors at no charge. The software can run under Windows 10, 11, or Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2, 2016, or 2022. 64-bit operating systems are recommended.

GlassWire

GlassWire is a network monitoring and security tool that provides users with a visual representation of network activity, allowing them to see which applications are using the network and the amount of data they are consuming.

This tool can help users detect potential security threats, monitor bandwidth usage, and identify suspicious or unexpected network behavior, and send alerts and notifications to users when certain events occur, such as a new application accessing the network for the first time or unusual network activity.

It displays a real-time graph of your current and past network activity, showing which applications and hosts are consuming data, and provides detailed statistics on data usage by application, helping users identify bandwidth-hungry applications and manage their network resources more effectively.

GlassWire includes a built-in firewall that allows users to block certain applications from accessing the network. Users can set different firewall profiles for different usage scenarios (for example, when at home or on a public Wi-Fi connection) and even see what IP addresses apps are connecting to, and in which countries those hosts are.

GlassWire requires 32 or 64-bit versions of Windows (7, 8, 10 or 11). There is a free version that should be enough for monitoring a home network, and a Premium one with extra features, that can be used on up to 5 machines. There is also a version for Android devices, like smartphones and tablets.

Capsa

Colasoft Capsa is a portable network performance analysis and diagnostics tool that provides packet capture and analysis with an easy-to-use interface. It offers real-time packet capturing capability, 24×7 network monitoring, in-depth packet decoding, and automatic diagnosis.

With features such as advanced protocol analysis (including the capability to dcode more than 1,800 network protocols), this tool is geared toward those who need a deep understanding of their home network behavior and performance.

It can monitor network traffic and network bandwidth, showing detailed performance data in graphs and numbers, and also do network security analysis, including the detection of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, Worm activity, ARP attacks, TCP port scanning attempts, among other threats, being capable of locating the source and target in real-time.

There is a free, but feature-limited, version of Capsa that can be used to monitor up to 10 IP addresses, enough for a small home network. Operating system requirements include 64-bit versions of Windows 7 (and 7 SP1), 8.1, 10 or 11, or Windows Server (2012, 2012 R2, 2016 or 2019).

Portmaster

Portmaster is a free and open-source application firewall that promises to help you “restore privacy and take back control over all your computer’s network activity”. It can monitor every connection your applications make and detect potentially malicious ones, allowing you to act accordingly.

It can also block ads and trackers across all your applications, not just your web browser, and allows you to write your own rules and block individual domains. There are also options to block malware, “not safe for work” (usually adult) content, and deceptive services that may try to trick users into believing they are genuine.

You can also route DNS queries to a secure provider, and set global or per-app settings, allowing you to cut off applications from the Internet, block all p2p connections globally, but allow them for certain apps, or never connect to specific countries.

Portmaster is available in a free edition for home use or Plus and Pro editions, with monthly or annual billing, extra features, and technical support. There are versions for Windows (7, 8, 10, or 11) and Linux distributions based on Debian or Fedora.

Nagios Core

Nagios Core is a complete, Open Source IT infrastructure monitoring tool that can monitor applications, services, operating systems, network protocols, system metrics, and infrastructure components. It is the base for commercial solutions such as Nagios XI, widely used in enterprise network monitoring.

This tool offers a centralized view of your entire IT infrastructure, with detailed status information available through a web interface, fast detection of infrastructure outages, and a notification system that can deliver alerts via email or SMS.

The outstanding feature of Nagios Core is its extensibility, There is a true ecosystem of add-ons, configuration tools, and front-ends that can be used to add new features or change its appearance and behavior, making it a tinkerer’s paradise.

Nagios Core is free, but only runs natively under Linux, more specifically distributions like CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Ubuntu, or Debian. However, it can be run on Windows systems using virtualization solutions like VMWare, Virtual Box, or Hyper-V.

OutagesIO

In contrast to other software mentioned in this article, OutagesIO is built to do one thing: monitor an internet connection for outages and performance issues, and tell you if the source of the problem is at your location or your ISP.

The overview dashboard shows the last 50 events, pointing to when the connection was down, for how long, and where the issue was located. Need more? Extended reports provide ongoing historical data, which helps you drill deeper for clues and trends.

The software is also capable of running automated speed tests (with alerts in case the speeds deviate from an established baseline) and has a flexible alert system, with notifications displayed on the dashboard or sent via SMS or email.

OutagesIO runs on Windows (7, 8, 10, and 11) or Linux, with Linux support for ARM-based systems like the Raspberry Pi. It is available in two versions, a free Community Edition and an Extended Edition costing only a few dollars a month, which adds extra features like automated security scans.

There is also an optional hardware monitoring device, which runs the same software you get on other platforms while adding a number of additional features like wireless network monitoring, environment monitoring, video surveillance, and more.

Icinga

Icinga is another open-source monitoring tool packed with features. Originally developed as a fork of Nagios in 2009, Icinga has a web-based interface and is expandable, with plugins, add-ons, and modules available on the Icinga Exchange. The software is also compatible with Nagios plugins available on the Nagios Exchange.

Icinga can monitor your network performance and internal services, and even do device-specific monitoring, with support for devices from all popular vendors, so you can detect issues caused by problems or misconfiguration on equipment such as switches and routers.

Metrics, such as the availability, bandwidth usage, and errors on every interface are collected and can be stored on a database of your choice, simplifying tasks such as capacity planning and identification of usage trends.

Icinga runs on Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Raspbian, SLES, RHEL, and Amazon Linux 2) and also Windows Server 2012 R2 and up. The software is free on most platforms, but some packages (for RHEL and Amazon Linux 2) and support are only available through subscriptions, offered on a three-tier system (Basic, Premium, and Enterprise).

Netdata

Netdata is an infrastructure monitoring solution designed to run on various platforms, including physical/virtual servers, containers, cloud deployments, and edge/IoT devices. It provides fast, real-time insights into the micro-behavior of systems and applications, allowing users to track changes and pulses as they happen.

This tool offers a quick setup with a single command and offers user-friendly, powerful visualizations and dashboards that allow users to delve deep into their data, pivot, filter, and understand datasets without complex queries.

It features real-time, comprehensive, and intelligent alerting with dozens of preconfigured alerts, covering various aspects of systems, and the ability for fully automated actions. There is also AI-driven anomaly detection that is automated and unsupervised, providing insights and anticipating unforeseen issues.

Last, but not least, Netdata has 1000+ plugins and supports a wide range of integrations for systems, containers, and applications, using open standards to seamlessly integrate with different software stacks.

Netdata is Open Source, and there is a free version available. You will need to install agents on every machine you wish to monitor, and those ar available for Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows.

Zabbix

Zabbix is a free and Open Source monitoring package that can do a lot, including server, cloud, application, services, and network monitoring into one tool.

This tool claims to be able to collect data from “any” source, using push or pull methods for data retrieval and a polling interval that can go as low as one second. With auto-discovery, your network components will be discovered in a matter of minutes, and discovered components can be filtered by their attributes.

When problems occur, Zabbix can do root-cause analysis, anomaly detection, and trend prediction. The alerting system is very flexible, supporting not only SMS and email, but also modern communication platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, and more. Messages can even be customized according to the type and role of the recipient.

Zabbix may be Open Source and free, but you pay for the technical support if required. The server software requires a UNIX operating system (including Linux, BSD variants, and macOS), and the monitoring agents are available for most platforms, including every version of Windows since XP.

Site24x7 Server Monitoring

Site24x7 offers a complete set of monitoring tools for all needs. But, for those who need just the basics, Site24x7 Free Server Monitoring may fit the bill.

This is a “basic heartbeat check monitoring solution” that allows you to monitor the uptime and availability of up to five servers. This is not a trial: you can use this tool for unlimited time, but it will only provide availability percentage and downtime history.

Since this is cloud-based, it supports all the major operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, mac OS, and FreeBSD. If you like what you see, You can also “upgrade” to a 30-day free trial of the full Site24x7 Server Monitoring solution.

Conclusion

Among all these, our favorite home network monitoring tool is Paessler PRTG, as it “ticks all the boxes” in our list of desired characteristics, and streamlines your workflow by enabling you to monitor all of your infrastructure with a single tool.

The built-in sensors cover many of the main use cases, without the need to purchase extras, so it can monitor your home network and much more. And it is extensible, which means you can deploy third-party sensors, or even develop your own, to cover specific needs.

That means you can do away with having to rely on a variety of individualized solutions, which can carry potential risks such as conflict with your current workflow and even network security issues. It really is a “Swiss army knife” of the monitoring tools.