vnStat For Linux

vnStat is a console-base network traffic monitor that keeps a log of daily and monthly network traffic for the selected interface. vnStat isn't a packet sniffer. The traffic information is analyzed from the /proc -filesystem, so vnStat can be used without root permissions. However at least a 2.2.x kernel is required.

This program is open source/GPL'ed and can be installed in 'single' and 'root' mode. Better instructions are included in the README. Feel free to send comments by email (remove the spamfilter) or try contacting me from irc (Vergo @ IRCNet). Announcements about new versions can be obtained by subscribing to the vnStat list at freshmeat.net. Also a discussion forum is available for comments / suggestions / support.

Some time ago I felt that I needed some kind of network traffic monitor to see how much traffic my server/router generated in reality. I had been using mrtg for a while but the problem with it was that it didn't tell how many megabytes the daily traffic was.

Next I tested ntop, but it had far too many features compared to my needs. Then I found darkstat that was much smaller and stabler, but after using it for about a week, I came to a conclusion that a packet sniffer wasn't what I needed since it generates too much cpu load when the network traffic is near 10MB/s and requires the process running with root permissions. Since I needed something really simple but stable, I decided to write it by myself.