The Windows built-in command netstat allows you show all current TCP/IP network connections, however it’s not a graphical utility, and its function is very limited. Today I’ll show you five free network connections monitor freeware, they are graphical and powerful, you can use them to explore suspicious connections of spyware / rootkit / adware or other malicious software ), it’s a good choice to use them together with antivirus / spyware blocker software to diagnostic your system.
1, TCPView by Sysinternals
TCPView could enumerate and refresh all active TCP/IP & UDP connections, for each connection, TCPView displays its name, PID, protocol( TCP, UDP, RCPV6, UDPV6 ), local address, local port, remote address, remote port, state( TIME_WAIT, LISTENING ), sent packets, sent bytes, received packets, received bytes.
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TCPView allows you end specified process or close its connection. You could customize the update speed, font, export all connection’s information to a text file. TCPView ships with a command-line version program named Tcpvcon.
TCPView is portable, it supports Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista.
Download TCPView now: http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/TCPView.zip
2, NetBalancer Free Version
NetBalancer is not only a free active connections monitor, it’s also a bandwidth limiter and traffic meter. It gives you the ability to view details of every active connections, including process info( file name, file path, description ), active connections( remote IP address, remote port, protocol, state, local IP address, local port ). It allows you limit each process’s upload/download bandwidth easily.
NetBalancer works on Windows XP and Windows 7( 32bit & 64bit ).
Download it from CNET.
3, CurrPorts
Currports’s user interface is similar to TCPView, it has all the function of TCPView, and supports filters, you can use it to include or exclude specified process / protocol / port / IP. Currports supports finding connections through specified string.
Currports is portable, it’s compatible with Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista.
Download it now: 32bit, 64bit.
4, NetLimiter 2 Mon
NetLimiter Mon is a network traffic monitor, it could display the incoming speed and outgoing speed of every processes and connections. It does NOT support killing process or connection.
NetLimiter 2 Mon works on Windows XP, Windows 2000 / 2003 / 2008 / Vista. It does NOT support Windows 7.
Download from the developer’s website.
5, COMODO Personal FireWall
Currently it’s the best free personal firewall for Windows, it also supplies the tool to view all internet connections.
COMODO Personal FireWall supports Windows 7, Windows XP and Vista. ( 32bit & 64bit )
Download it from COMODO.