How to Monitor Network Usage On Mac
Are you experiencing issues with your network connection on Mac? This might not always be an issue caused by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or network configuration. Often, a background process or application may be consuming way too much network resources, therefore hindering the performance of other Internet-connected services. Thankfully, there are neat ways to monitor network usage on Mac. This will help you determine which software is hoarding network resources, and it is up to you whether you want to terminate it or not.
Keep in mind that one of the top reasons why users experience Internet speed issues on Mac is because they are using WiFi. Maybe your WiFi network is being used by multiple devices simultaneously? Or maybe there is an issue that you need to check on – How to Troubleshoot the WiFi on your Mac.
Monitor Network Usage on Mac via the Activity Monitor
The Mac Activity monitor is the equivalent of the Windows Task Manager. It provides valuable insight about the way your hardware and network resources are being utilized. You can open it by going to Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor. Alternatively, you can also find it through Spotlight Search.
Once the Activity Monitor is open, you can access the Network Tab. Finally, choose to sort apps by Sent Bytes to see, which processes are using the most bandwidth. Typically, media streaming services use a lot – Netflix, Spotify, iTunes, etc. Your Web browser is also likely to have used a lot of resources. However, if a strange process is taking too much network bandwidth, then you might want to look into the issue.
Do not forget that specific software updates might be very hungry for network resources – it is not uncommon for game updates through Steam or Origin to take most of the available network bandwidth.
