How to Monitor Network Traffic on Your Android Device

Network monitoring tracks how much traffic you consume on your Android device using both built-in and third-party software. This process can be vital if you have limited network data on your phone as it prevents you from wasting any precious megabytes.

Why Should You Monitor Your Network?

Our smartphones and tablets are connected to the internet most of the time. The apps on our phones need an internet connection to work. Even the apps that don’t require a constant internet connection sometimes require updates using internet data.

Sometimes you don’t have to worry about the internet data. For example, if you are at home on unlimited bandwidth, this is a non-issue. But imagine you are on a business trip abroad, and suddenly one of your apps starts downloading a big update. That would cause a massive problem for your limited mobile data plan and your phone bill as well.

Luckily, Android has a lot of apps that help you track all your network consumption.

What Can You Monitor?

All users can track their outgoing and incoming network activity with different apps from the Play Store. This software gives you information about the services, connections, and apps that use your internet traffic.

You can track which IP address your device is using. The data you send and how much gets sent back to your device appears with every connection. Some of these apps also help track and prevent suspicious or malicious network activities.

You can limit your device’s data usage in certain hours and set various limits. Also, you can see who is connected to your Wi-Fi hotspot or see which apps eat the most of your network data. All this enables you to monitor and manage your network consumption more efficiently.

How Can You Monitor Your Network?

The best way to monitor your network is to use third-party data monitor apps. In this section, we’ll look at some of the best such apps for your Android device.

1. Fing

Fing is one of the best network monitors for Android. With this app, you can see all the essential information that concerns your device connections. Examples include a list of users connected to your Wi-Fi, information about unauthorized data consumption, and any potentially malicious behavior on the network.

With Fing, you can also test your internet bandwidth and compare it to see if your provider gives you the speed you’re account specifies. You can also check your network’s IP address, troubleshoot network problems, and set up security notifications.

2. PingTools

PingTools has a lot of network monitoring features that you’ll like. You can ping the network, check all your ports, Wi-Fi networks, and their configuration, see your IP address, etc. This app can also tune your network and make it a bit faster.

The app allows tracerouting and gives you access to several extra features, including Whois, a TCP port scanner, and GeoPing, which shows you the availability of resources worldwide.

3. WiFi Analyzer

Whenever you want to connect to a nearby Wi-Fi, you will want to consult the Wifi Analyzer. Instead of just listing all the available Wi-Fi networks around, you will see all the relevant data about each one.

This app provides information on how crowded each network is and how strong the signal is. All this data gets illustrated with colorful and eye-catching graphs that are easy to understand.

4. NetCut

NetCut is an app that gives you complete control of your network and cuts off any unwelcome guests. If you don’t want a weak connection because your roommate is downloading a huge file or your neighbor is streaming a movie from your network, this app is for you.

When you open this app, give it Root access and scan the network. It will list all the users currently using the connection, and you can block anyone not supposed to be there. This app can protect your network from intruders and users with malicious intent.

5. 3G Watchdog

3G Watchdog is a complete data usage monitoring app. It will monitor your mobile and Wi-Fi data and show the results as a table, graph, or text.

You can set a limit for your usage (daily, hourly, monthly), and the application notifies you once you get close to the limit. You can always see the network usage in the status bar. There is also the possibility to import and export usage history in a CSV file.

3G Watchdog also lets you see how much data each app consumes. Based on this feature, you can manage your apps by priority and disable some functions if you have limited bandwidth.