How to Install nload to Monitor Real Time Network Traffic

Nload is a command-line based real-time network traffic and bandwidth usage monitor. It displays the amount of incoming and outgoing traffic in terms of the current, average, minimum, and maximum values. It also displays the total data transferred over the network since the last reboot.

In this post, we will install nload to monitor real-time network traffic on Ubuntu OS. We will cover:

• Installing nload using apt
• Installing nload using source code

Note: We have demonstrated both installation methods on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Installing nload using apt

Nload is available in the Ubuntu repositories. In this procedure, we will install nload using the apt package manager.

1. Update package repositories in your system using the command below:

$ sudo apt update

Provide sudo password.

2. Then to install nload, use the command below:

$ sudo apt install nload

After that, it will start installing nload on your system.

Once installed, you are ready to use nload on your system.

Installing nload using source code

The source code of nload is also available for installation. In this procedure, we will install nload using the source code.

1. Download nload source code using the command below:

$ wget http://www.roland-riegel.de/nload/nload-0.7.4.tar.gz

2. The downloaded file will be in tar.gz format. You can extract it using the command below:

$ tar xvf nload-0.7.4.tar.gz

The archive will be extracted to nload-0.7.4 directory.

3. Now navigate to the extracted directory using the command below:

$ cd nload-0.7.4/

4. Once you are inside the nload-0.7.4 directory, run the configure script using the command below:

$ ./configure

5. Then run the commands below to compile and install the nload package:

$ sudo make

$ sudo make install

Now nload will be installed on our system.

Launch nload

To launch nload in your Ubuntu system, use the command below in Terminal:

$ nload

This will display the real-time statistics of network devices. The left and right arrow keys or Tab/ Enter keys can be used to switch between network devices.

To display network statistics of all the devices at the same time, use the -m option as follows:

$ nload -m

This will display all the available network interfaces statistics on the Terminal window.

To view help regarding the usage of nload tool, you can use the command below:

$ nload -h

Uninstall nload

In case you need to uninstall nload from your system, use the methods described below:

If you have installed nload using the apt utility, use the command below to uninstall it:

$ sudo apt remove nload

If you have installed nload using the source code, use the commands below to uninstall it:

$ cd nload-0.7.4/

$ sudo make uninstall

Using either of the methods described above, you can easily install nload on your Ubuntu system. We have also shown here the method to uninstall nload in case you need to remove it.