Unfortunately, not all of us have access to unlimited data plans on our devices, which means we need to keep track of every incoming and outgoing byte. At the same time, it's never a bad idea to review the available speeds to confirm everything is working correctly. With that in mind, we come to OpenNetMeter, a very easy-to-use and interpret open source network monitor, with options to select internal or external networks, and details of data consumed by each process on the system.
At the beginning of 2022, I talked about NetSpeedMonitor, a solid tool for measuring real-time data consumption, generating historical logs of downloaded gigabytes, and avoiding any quota conflicts with our demonic provider. Now, NetSpeedMonitor is freeware and works wonderfully, but its development was interrupted a long time ago (apparently its creator is working for Apple), so it's very unlikely to receive updates.
Generally, all the alternatives are premium or work as very limited trialware, but programmer and GitHub user Ashfaaq Riphque offers us OpenNetMeter, a free and open source network monitor that is shaping up to be an excellent replacement for NetSpeedMonitor and other closed applications.
Free and open source network monitor
Once installed, OpenNetMeter presents us with an interface showing the data usage of the current session, the data usage recorded in recent days, and a real-time graph with upload and download activity. When we switch to the Detailed tab, we see a list of the main processes that sent and/or received data, and an option to choose another network interface (for example, switch from Ethernet to WiFi).
The Settings section includes a feature for OpenNetMeter to start with Windows, and another to monitor internal or external networks (if you only want to measure data coming from the Internet, choose External here). Finally, we find a checkbox to enable dark mode, and the possibility of viewing network speed in the taskbar. The developer warns that this widget doesn't work on Windows 11, but you can always restore lost support with the help of Explorer Patcher.
OpenNetMeter has a portable profile and doesn't require a traditional installation, but it has one technical dependency: version 5 of the .NET Desktop Runtime, with a download close to 60 megabytes.
Official site and download: Click here
