Bandwidth Gauges - Bandwidth Meters

Bandwidth monitoring tools to track real-time network bandwidth usage

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Track Bandwidth Usage

Monitor Multiple Interfaces

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Track bandwidth usage in real time with a bandwidth meter

Why is using tools designed for network engineers important?

Tracking real-time bandwidth usage is an important part of an engineer’s job. SolarWinds^® Engineer’s Toolset™ (ETS) is built to make it easier to start collecting real-time traffic load of an interface. Simply create your own bandwidth gauge and start collecting statistics of sent and received data.

With ETS, you can:

Set the polling frequency of the selected device to update the gauges at desired intervals
See the current data in table format below the meters
See historic bandwidth meter data as graphs and charts

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Set up bandwidth gauges for multiple interfaces

With SolarWinds ETS, you can create multiple gauges and save their configuration as a file you can load any time. Then you can monitor multiple interfaces by running several bandwidth gauges simultaneously.

The Bandwidth Gauges application is ideal for monitoring a range of interfaces to assess load distribution. You can also run Bandwidth Gauges as integrated gadgets in the Engineer's Toolset (ETS) Workspace Studio^®, enabling you to monitor a few interfaces and analyze their historical graphs.

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Easily deploy user-friendly bandwidth gauges

What types of tools do network engineers need?

Bandwidth Gauges is a key tool in SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset, built for at-a-glance insight into performance issues with dials that include color-coded warning zones. Once you install ETS, you can quickly locate Bandwidth Gauges in the Network Monitoring folder and start monitoring without delay. While the dials are designed for visibility and ease of use, the dashboard also allows you to see both current and historical data in graphs or charts, as needed.

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Get over 60 time-saving tools designed specifically for engineers

In the fast-paced world of IT, you need easy access to the right tools to monitor, optimize, and quickly troubleshoot your network. With the Engineer’s Toolset’s 60+ tools, you’ll be able to comprehensively and effectively manage and troubleshoot your network, with notifications and robust functionality, including in network monitoring, diagnostics, discovery, config management, log management, IP address monitoring, downtime, traffic patterns, SNMP, network health, and security. These tools are easily accessible from one unified desktop console, compatible with Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac operating systems, making integration into your existing IT infrastructure simple and effective.

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Get More on Bandwidth Meters

Do you find yourself asking…

What is bandwidth?
What is a bandwidth meter?
What metrics do bandwidth gauges show?
How to optimize bandwidth using a bandwidth meter
How to create a bandwidth gauge in SolarWinds ETS
More tools from the Engineer's Toolset

Bandwidth is one of the most used terms in the technology world. Bandwidth is essentially the capacity of a given network. It’s defined as the maximum amount of data that could hypothetically be transferred from a source at a given time. It’s a theoretical amount—not a measure of the actual amount of data being transferred.

Bandwidth exists in both physical and wireless communication networks, like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks. More specifically, it’s the bit-rate measure of transmission capacity over a comprehensive network communication system. Efficient communication and transmission depend on having similar data rates at both ends. Otherwise, there will be delays in communication on critical applications when data is sent from a source with one data rate to a destination with a different data rate.

Though seemingly straightforward, bandwidth is often mistaken for other key concepts like speed, latency, and throughput. To understand bandwidth, you need to understand the distinctions between the following concepts:

Bandwidth vs. Throughput: The difference between throughput and bandwidth is the difference between the real and the theoretical. Throughput tells you how much information was transferred in a certain amount of time, while bandwidth is how much could hypothetically be transferred. Bandwidth represents the maximum amount of data that could be transferred, while throughput is how much of the data makes it to the destination, taking factors like latency, packet loss, network speed, and more into account.

Bandwidth vs. Latency: Latency, sometimes referred to as ping rate or delay, is the lag you experience when you’re waiting for something to load. If bandwidth is defined as the amount of information designed to be sent per second, latency represents the amount of time it takes for information to get to you from its source.

Bandwidth vs. Speed: Bandwidth measures the amount of information you can receive every second, while speed represents how quickly information is received and downloaded. In short, speed measures time, while bandwidth measures volume.

A bandwidth meter can help you improve performance by offering insight into usage, allowing you to make more informed decisions about adjusting usage to ensure you’re making the most of your existing bandwidth. Improving bandwidth usage can include everything from rebalancing loads to identifying and addressing bandwidth hogs. A bandwidth gauge can tell you when bandwidth usage is approaching warning or critical levels, so you know exactly when and where you need to act to avoid an emergency.

Some of the useful features of a quality bandwidth monitoring software, like the one included in SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset, include:

A traffic analyzer for real-time visibility into network traffic data on any device on any remote network, and to compare current data with historic data on bandwidth usage.
The power to run multiple instances of Bandwidth Gauges in parallel to assess load distribution.
The capacity to monitor any interface or subinterface of a frame relay.

With a bandwidth meter tool, you can set up different bandwidth gauges to be run on multiple interfaces and select and associate different styles of gauges with different devices. For example, routers can appear as one type of gauge, and servers can be defined to appear as a different gauge. You can even save your layouts to quickly load a list of monitored interfaces/ports.

With these bandwidth meters in place, engineers are better equipped to monitor bandwidth usage across their networks. This can help ensure that you make the most of your existing bandwidth and can help you see whether network bandwidth issues like speed or throughput problems are tied to bandwidth problems, supporting faster troubleshooting.

There are many benefits to using a bandwidth meter. It can help engineers boost network performance and prevent delays and latency, and help organizations save money because often what seems like a problem with a lack of bandwidth may really be a problem with load balancing. By using a bandwidth gauge, you can identify if the underlying problem affecting performance is a lack of bandwidth or if it’s related to bandwidth hogs, load balancing, or a problem only indirectly related to bandwidth. Without identifying the cause of the issue, an organization may find itself spending money on more bandwidth without solving the underlying problem.

Bandwidth is one of the most used terms in the technology world. Bandwidth is essentially the capacity of a given network. It’s defined as the maximum amount of data that could hypothetically be transferred from a source at a given time. It’s a theoretical amount—not a measure of the actual amount of data being transferred.
Bandwidth exists in both physical and wireless communication networks, like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) networks. More specifically, it’s the bit-rate measure of transmission capacity over a comprehensive network communication system. Efficient communication and transmission depend on having similar data rates at both ends. Otherwise, there will be delays in communication on critical applications when data is sent from a source with one data rate to a destination with a different data rate.
Though seemingly straightforward, bandwidth is often mistaken for other key concepts like speed, latency, and throughput. To understand bandwidth, you need to understand the distinctions between the following concepts:
Bandwidth vs. Throughput: The difference between throughput and bandwidth is the difference between the real and the theoretical. Throughput tells you how much information was transferred in a certain amount of time, while bandwidth is how much could hypothetically be transferred. Bandwidth represents the maximum amount of data that could be transferred, while throughput is how much of the data makes it to the destination, taking factors like latency, packet loss, network speed, and more into account.
Bandwidth vs. Latency: Latency, sometimes referred to as ping rate or delay, is the lag you experience when you’re waiting for something to load. If bandwidth is defined as the amount of information designed to be sent per second, latency represents the amount of time it takes for information to get to you from its source.
Bandwidth vs. Speed: Bandwidth measures the amount of information you can receive every second, while speed represents how quickly information is received and downloaded. In short, speed measures time, while bandwidth measures volume.
A bandwidth meter can help you improve performance by offering insight into usage, allowing you to make more informed decisions about adjusting usage to ensure you’re making the most of your existing bandwidth. Improving bandwidth usage can include everything from rebalancing loads to identifying and addressing bandwidth hogs. A bandwidth gauge can tell you when bandwidth usage is approaching warning or critical levels, so you know exactly when and where you need to act to avoid an emergency.
Some of the useful features of a quality bandwidth monitoring software, like the one included in SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset, include:
A traffic analyzer for real-time visibility into network traffic data on any device on any remote network, and to compare current data with historic data on bandwidth usage.
The power to run multiple instances of Bandwidth Gauges in parallel to assess load distribution.
The capacity to monitor any interface or subinterface of a frame relay.
With a bandwidth meter tool, you can set up different bandwidth gauges to be run on multiple interfaces and select and associate different styles of gauges with different devices. For example, routers can appear as one type of gauge, and servers can be defined to appear as a different gauge. You can even save your layouts to quickly load a list of monitored interfaces/ports.
With these bandwidth meters in place, engineers are better equipped to monitor bandwidth usage across their networks. This can help ensure that you make the most of your existing bandwidth and can help you see whether network bandwidth issues like speed or throughput problems are tied to bandwidth problems, supporting faster troubleshooting.
There are many benefits to using a bandwidth meter. It can help engineers boost network performance and prevent delays and latency, and help organizations save money because often what seems like a problem with a lack of bandwidth may really be a problem with load balancing. By using a bandwidth gauge, you can identify if the underlying problem affecting performance is a lack of bandwidth or if it’s related to bandwidth hogs, load balancing, or a problem only indirectly related to bandwidth. Without identifying the cause of the issue, an organization may find itself spending money on more bandwidth without solving the underlying problem.
Creating bandwidth gauges is built to be simple using SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset. All you need to monitor bandwidth usage with a bandwidth meter is to have enabled SNMP communication on your devices, and your devices need to support MIB-II. The number of gauges is determined by the memory on the computer with the software installed on it. The steps to creating a bandwidth gauge are:
Click Gauges, then select New Gauge.
Specify the device hostname or IP address.
Select to use SNMPv3 credentials or a community string, then click Next.
Select discovered ports or interfaces, then click Next.
Specify your own speed or confirm that the automatically discovered speed is correct. You can specify different speeds for transmit and receive as needed. The bandwidth gauge will use the port speeds to calculate the interface's percent utilization and define the upper scale of the gauge.
Select either 64-bit or 32-bit traffic counters.
Finally, click Finish.
As soon as a bandwidth gauge is created, it measures a baseline. From there, it immediately starts monitoring bandwidth usage. Real-time utilization is based on the number of octets received or transmitted through an interface over the last few seconds. By default, the bandwidth gauge polls the remote interface about once every fifteen seconds and calculates the average bits per second since the most recent poll. With a bandwidth meter tool, you can select any interface or even a subinterface of a frame relay to monitor.
Once you have defined a set of gauges, you can save their configuration as a file you can load at any time, so you don’t need to keep redefining them whenever you need them.

"It is a feature-complete suite of utilities to diagnose and manage your network[…]..[I am] Able to remotely troubleshoot network issues to ensure maximum uptime. I can produce reports for management quickly with this tool."

Roger M

Sole Proprietor

Enterprise (1001-5000 employees)

Track bandwidth usage with a bandwidth meter

Engineer's Toolset

Gain insight on real-time traffic load on any device on remote networks.
Run multiple instances of bandwidth gauges in parallel to assess load distribution.
Select any interface or subinterface of a frame relay to monitor.

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