<%NUMBERING1%>.<%NUMBERING2%>.<%NUMBERING3%> PRTG Manual: Bandwidth Monitoring Comparison

The following table shows the differences between PRTG's four methods available for bandwidth monitoring:

	WMI	SNMP	Packet Sniffer	xFlow (IPFIX, NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow)
Setup	Medium	Easy	Easy to complex (depending on filter rules used)	Can be complex (e.g., the switch must be configured)
Traffic can be filtered	No	No	Yes	Yes
Differentiate bandwidth usage by protocol or IPs	No	No	Yes	Yes
PRTG can show Toplists (Top Talker, Top Connections, Top Protocols, custom)	No	No	Yes	Yes
Filter bandwidth usage by IP	No	No	Yes	Yes
Filter bandwidth usage by MAC address	No	No	Yes	No
Filter bandwidth usage by physical network port	Yes	Yes	No	No
Monitor network parameters other than bandwidth usage	Yes	Yes	No	No
CPU load on the machine running PRTG	Low	Low	Higher, depends on the amount of traffic	Higher, depends on the amount of traffic
Excess bandwidth usage of monitoring	Small	Small	None (except when monitoring switch ports are used)	Depends on the traffic

Knowledge Base: Should I use SNMP, xFlow (IPFIX/NetFlow/sFlow) or Packet Sniffing for my monitoring?

Knowledge Base: How do I discern excessive bandwidth usage with PRTG?

Sensor Technologies—Topics

Keywords: Bandwidth Monitoring Overview