The only Linux command you need for monitoring network traffic - and how to use it

Recently, I needed to check on incoming and outgoing traffic to one of my Linux machines. Fortunately, there's an easy way to do just that.

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• There are several ways to monitor network traffic on Linux.
• You should regularly check on incoming and outgoing traffic.
• One of the best tools for this is iftop.

Linux has a tool for everything. Sometimes those tools come in the form of an easy-to-use GUI, and other times a command is necessary. For monitoring network traffic, your best bet is the command line.

Once you dive down the rabbit hole of possible commands for this task, you could become overwhelmed with choices -- and with the complexity of some of those commands. 

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