4 Tools to Find Which Linux Process Is Using Your Bandwidth
TecMint, Wednesday, June 17th, 2026
Learn to identify bandwidth-consuming processes using nethogs, iftop, ss, and the /proc filesystem.
When server network performance degrades, standard tools like top or htop won't reveal which process consumes bandwidth.
This guide presents four methods: nethogs displays bandwidth usage by program, iftop shows live traffic between connections, ss maps open connections to process IDs, and the /proc filesystem offers a built-in fallback for minimal environments.
The article recommends starting with nethogs for quick identification, then using ss and iftop to confirm connections and destinations. Most issues stem from unexpected backup jobs, misfiring cron tasks, or applications stuck in retry loops.