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Examples

Basic Usage

1. Monitor with auto-detected interface

bandwidthmon

This will automatically select the network interface with the most traffic.

2. Monitor specific interface

# Ethernet
bandwidthmon -i eth0

# WiFi
bandwidthmon -i wlan0

# Loopback
bandwidthmon -i lo

3. List available interfaces

bandwidthmon -l

Output:

Available Network Interfaces:
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  eth0 (RX: 1234567890 bytes, TX: 987654321 bytes)
  wlan0 (RX: 5678901234 bytes, TX: 4321098765 bytes)
  lo (RX: 1000 bytes, TX: 1000 bytes)

Chart Customization

4. Custom chart height

# Tall chart (20 lines)
bandwidthmon -H 20

# Short chart (5 lines)
bandwidthmon -H 5

5. Custom chart width

# Fixed width of 100 columns
bandwidthmon -W 100

# Auto-fit terminal width (default)
bandwidthmon -W 0

6. Combined size settings

bandwidthmon -H 15 -W 80

Display Modes

7. Show only download

bandwidthmon -d

Output:

═══ Bandwidth Monitor (eth0) ═══
Download: 1.24 MB/s  │  Upload: 456.78 KB/s

DOWNLOAD
   1.50 │
   1.25 │      ╭─╮
   1.00 │    ╭─╯ ╰─╮
   0.75 │  ╭─╯     ╰─╮
   0.50 │╭─╯         ╰─╮
   0.25 ╰╯             ╰─

Press 'q' or Ctrl+C to quit

8. Show only upload

bandwidthmon -u

9. Show both (default)

bandwidthmon

10. Enable summary statistics

bandwidthmon -s

Output:

═══ Bandwidth Monitor (eth0) ═══
Download: 1.24 MB/s  │  Upload: 456.78 KB/s
Peak DL: 2.50 MB/s  │  Peak UL: 1.00 MB/s
Avg DL: 1.15 MB/s  │  Avg UL: 450.00 KB/s
Total RX: 1.25 GB  │  Total TX: 456.78 MB
Runtime: 125.5s

DOWNLOAD
...

UPLOAD
...

Press 'q' or Ctrl+C to quit

Advanced Usage

11. Monitor with all options

bandwidthmon -i eth0 -H 15 -W 100 -s -d

This will:

  • Monitor eth0 interface
  • Use 15 lines for chart height
  • Use 100 columns for chart width
  • Show summary statistics
  • Show only download chart

12. Monitor WiFi with custom settings

bandwidthmon -i wlan0 -H 20 -s

13. Quick bandwidth check

# Show only download with summary
bandwidthmon -d -s

# Show only upload with summary
bandwidthmon -u -s

14. Custom history size

# Keep 300 data points (5 minutes)
bandwidthmon --history 300

# Keep 60 data points (1 minute)
bandwidthmon --history 60

Using bandwidthmon2 (Manual Rendering)

All examples work the same with bandwidthmon2:

# Basic usage
bandwidthmon2

# With options
bandwidthmon2 -i eth0 -H 20 -s

# Custom rendering with full options
bandwidthmon2 -i wlan0 -H 15 -W 100 -s -d

Real-world Scenarios

15. Monitoring during downloads

# Start monitoring before download
bandwidthmon -d -s

# Then start your download in another terminal
# Watch real-time bandwidth usage

16. Checking upload during backup

# Monitor upload only
bandwidthmon -u -s

# Start backup in another terminal
# Monitor upload speed

17. Comparing interfaces

# Terminal 1
bandwidthmon -i eth0

# Terminal 2
bandwidthmon -i wlan0

# Compare performance side by side

18. Debugging network issues

# Monitor with tall chart for better visibility
bandwidthmon -H 25 -s

# Watch for:
# - Sudden drops in bandwidth
# - Consistent low speeds
# - High peak vs low average (unstable connection)

19. Server monitoring

# Monitor server interface with wide chart
bandwidthmon -i eth0 -H 10 -W 120 -s

# Useful for:
# - Web server traffic monitoring
# - Database replication monitoring
# - Backup job monitoring

20. Data usage tracking

# Run for extended period with summary
bandwidthmon -s

# Check Total RX/TX at end of session
# Calculate data usage over time

Tips and Tricks

Terminal resize handling

The charts automatically adjust to terminal width changes (when using -W 0).

Keyboard shortcuts

  • q - Quit
  • Q - Quit
  • Esc - Quit
  • Ctrl+C - Quit

Performance tuning

For long monitoring sessions:

# Reduce history to save memory
bandwidthmon --history 60

# Reduce chart height for faster rendering
bandwidthmon -H 5

Color schemes

The tool uses:

  • Cyan for download
  • Yellow for upload
  • White for values
  • Green for positive indicators

Best practices

  1. Always use -s for production monitoring - Summary statistics help identify trends
  2. Use -d or -u to focus - Reduces visual clutter when you only care about one direction
  3. Adjust -H based on terminal - Taller terminals benefit from taller charts
  4. Let -W 0 auto-size - Unless you need consistent output for screenshots
  5. Use --history wisely - More history = more memory usage

Troubleshooting

Interface not found

# List interfaces first
bandwidthmon -l

# Then use exact name
bandwidthmon -i <exact-interface-name>

Chart looks distorted

# Increase width
bandwidthmon -W 100

# Decrease height
bandwidthmon -H 8

Terminal too small

# Use minimal settings
bandwidthmon -H 5 -W 50