ntop is a network traffic Probe that shows the network usage, Similar to what the popular top Unix command does. ntop is based on libpcap and it has been written in a portable way in order to virtually run on every Unix platform and on Win32 as well.
ntop users can use a a Web Browser (e.g. Netscape) to navigate through ntop (that acts as a web server) traffic information and get a dump of the network status. In the latter case, ntop can be seen as a simple RMON-like agent with an embedded web interface. The use of:
* a web interface
* limited configuration and administration via the web interface
* reduced CPU and memory usage (they vary according to network size and traffic)
make ntop easy to use and suitable for monitoring various kind of networks.
