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Application/Network Monitoring Software?

d4m1r

d4m1r

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 1, 2011
199
0
Bosnia
Hey guys, I am basically looking for an OS X equivalent to a Windows piece of software I use. It generates a list of currently open applications and I am able to view which are connecting to the internet to exactly what IPs and through what ports....Very useful for security and monitoring your PC from infections and other intrusions.

Anyway, are there any popular/free OS X applications that can simply do what I described above or similar? Let me know!
 
d4m1r said:
Hey guys, I am basically looking for an OS X equivalent to a Windows piece of software I use. It generates a list of currently open applications and I am able to view which are connecting to the internet to exactly what IPs and through what ports....Very useful for security and monitoring your PC from infections and other intrusions.

Anyway, are there any popular/free OS X applications that can simply do what I described above or similar? Let me know!
Click to expand...

Don't worry about the bold, it's a Mac you know, they are far, far, FAR less likely to get infected than a PC, there are no (known Viruses for OS X, if you practice safe browsing as mentioned in the link I give you here the change is almost zero yoou will get into problems.
In all my 12 years on OS X I never had any problem.

So, no software needed for this.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ - Mac Guides
 
*sigh*

Thanks for the reply but I KNEW someone would respond with the above myth. Anyway, please disregard WHY I need this application. If you know of a similar application to that of the one I outlined, please recommend it to me here via this thread.
 
d4m1r said:
*sigh*

Thanks for the reply but I KNEW someone would respond with the above myth. Anyway, please disregard WHY I need this application. If you know of a similar application to that of the one I outlined, please recommend it to me here via this thread.
Click to expand...

:p
Little snitch has a monitor and so does the new iStatMenus, I had some Monitoring Apps before on My PPC Powerbook, but none of them worked on intel, those might have Intel Arch now so worth a look into, but, non of them are free.(AFAIK)
These are the ones I had/have on PPC mac, you have to see if they run on Intel yourself.

IPNetMonitorX
IPNetSentryX
IPNetShareX
IPNetTunerX
Net Monitor Sidekick
Net Tool Box
NetFinder
NetOctopus
VisualRoute
WhatRoute
 
d4m1r said:
Thanks for the reply but I KNEW someone would respond with the above myth.
Click to expand...
It's not a myth. Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 10 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below).

3rd party antivirus apps are not necessary to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as a user practices safe computing, as described in the following link. Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.
 
I use LittleSnitch. It's a firewall app that also monitors all internet access.
 

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Is there REALLY no such similar software for OS X? There is even a free and open source counter part I use under linux....

Littlesnitch looks kinda like what I am looking for but based on that screenshot I have to say it is ugly and still does not report IPs and ports which are key from a network security standpoint. Please note I'm an advanced unix user and a network engineer so my requirements and expections are probably different from typical users. I only wish this was the only piece of software that I can't seem to replace under OS X but that I even have access to under linux....
 
Weaselboy said:
You can run Linux X11 apps under OS X. You might try the Linux app you were using with X11.
Click to expand...

True, but for the time being I don't want to have to deal with virtualization and OS X/linux kernel incompatabilities.

chrise2 said:
netstat or lsof -i in terminal can show you some info.
Click to expand...

Thank you for lsof -i! Provides me with the exact information I am looking for....I am still shocked however that there is no app for OS X that will simply parses this data in a more user friendly way, especially since it appears to be a native OS X command :rolleyes:
 
So what's the Windows piece of software you're looking to duplicate? Might help some of us narrow the recommendations.

There's stuff out there, just not as prevalent for OSX.
 
Ccrew said:
So what's the Windows piece of software you're looking to duplicate? Might help some of us narrow the recommendations.

There's stuff out there, just not as prevalent for OSX.
Click to expand...

Good point...Opps :D

It is called Process Explorer. I like it because it is a small install, clean/simple interface, and let's me drill into each .exe running and to see what connections it is making and most importantly, to what IPs specifically and through which ports.

lsof -i is ugly and doesn't update in real time but it at least provides me with similar information....I have also since found tcpdump -<interface> also provides additional information, but again, I haven't been able to find any OS X equilvalent to Process Explorer :(
 
d4m1r said:
Good point...Opps :D

It is called Process Explorer. I like it because it is a small install, clean/simple interface, and let's me drill into each .exe running and to see what connections it is making and most importantly, to what IPs specifically and through which ports.

lsof -i is ugly and doesn't update in real time but it at least provides me with similar information....I have also since found tcpdump -<interface> also provides additional information, but again, I haven't been able to find any OS X equilvalent to Process Explorer :(
Click to expand...

If you use that command together with geektool it will show you that Information on the desktop.:D
 
You think the Little Snitch network monitor is ugly, and that Process Explorer is an example of pleasing aesthetics? We all have different tastes, I suppose...

I use Little Snitch as well, but I've heard of another program called Rubbernet (also available in the Mac App Store) that is geared more toward what you're looking for. Little Snitch is meant to be more of an outbound firewall, whereas Rubbernet is designed purely for network monitoring. I don't use it or have any usage experience with it (and its price tag might be shocking to you), but it may be more aesthetically pleasing and should be easier to use compared with Little Snitch's network monitor.
 
Thank you! Something like Rubbernet was exactly what I was looking for....A pretty UI with a per program break down of which IPs and ports it is connected to. As a bonus, it breaks down the connections that it runs under root (which OS X initializes itself) and which originated from my user.

The only problem is the price....25 euro even for a student license?! :eek: I cannot justify the price given the app would only recieve occasional use.
 
d4m1r said:
Thank you! Something like Rubbernet was exactly what I was looking for....A pretty UI with a per program break down of which IPs and ports it is connected to. As a bonus, it breaks down the connections that it runs under root (which OS X initializes itself) and which originated from my user.

The only problem is the price....25 euro even for a student license?! :eek: I cannot justify the price given the app would only recieve occasional use.
Click to expand...

And geektool together with the lsof command is not an option?
 
d4m1r said:
Looked into geektool, and it wasn't something I was interested in running or setting up.

Anyway, good news guys! For anyone else interesting, I have finally found a free alternative that provides pretty much the same functionality and ease of use UI. See link below and enjoy ;)

http://radiosilenceapp.com/private-eye
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

So, you found an App yourself, good.

But, something odd happened right now.
First, I went to the link you provided, I then clicked download, it's a .pkg file, when it finished I clicked on the show file Icone several times, it did not show me the file.
I then opened the folder in the Dock, show all files, it then opened the Download folder, but when I right clicked on it to open with Pacifist it crashed the Finder.
When I went back the file was only 100+ KB instead of the downloaded 500+ KB, right clicked again to open with Pacifist it opened and I dragged the file to the desktop, it got extracted.

Then, when I open the App nothing shows up (blank window), weird behaviour, never had this happen before, I will try to download it again with iGetter and see if this solves the problem.

Edit: It works now, forgot to install another file which showed up in Pacifist.
 
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I'm a big fan of lsof, but I admit it's ugly. There are a couple of free lsof parsers out there; glsof Queries might be to your liking. The source code is available through git/sourceforge, if you want to tweak it a bit.
 
Interesting discussion here on options for network monitoring on Mac.

There are many reasons one would want to have a sniffer at least available. The most obvious is that it helps newbies understand how their computer is interacting with the world outside. There's a sense of security as a user in knowing what and who is trying to contact your computer.

The "stealth mode" setting in the Security preference pane is a nice one. If you run any of those sniffers while your en0 or en1 is in stealth mode, you will be able to observe a noticeable drop in contact attempts.

Try Wireshark, which started on Linux, and runs in X11 on Mac (which was mentioned earlier here).

Wireshark also has a cli called tshark, which runs much like tcpdump.

tcpdump is the most useful of the bundled utilities, I think.

And here's a question: Has anyone here actually succeeded at getting a working geeklet for tcpdump? I've been trying for days to get a tcpdump tail on my desktop in Geektool, but no luck yet. It seems the permissions access needed to run tcpdump are not implemented in Geektool.

If anyone here has a solution, I'd be most grateful.
 
d4m1r said:
Please note I'm an advanced unix user and a network engineer so my requirements and expections are probably different from typical users. I only wish this was the only piece of software that I can't seem to replace under OS X but that I even have access to under linux....
Click to expand...
Then why are you asking on a consumer board??
 
sectime said:
Then why are you asking on a consumer board??
Click to expand...

It's a valid question for a consumer board, not a developer board.

What the poster was looking for is commonly available in user download sites such as MacUpdate. Nothing mysterious going on here. The poster wanted an application firewall, but wasn't sure how to go about looking on a Mac. The fact is there are several options. The poster found Private Eye, a free, but limited, option, and others mentioned the shareware Little Snitch.

For non-interactive sniffing, there are several options, as well: HenWen/Snort, Wireshark/tshark, the built-in tcpdump.
 
d4m1r said:
Please note I'm an advanced unix user and a network engineer so my requirements and expections are probably different from typical users.
Click to expand...
And you don't even know about lsof? :lol:

Sounds like you need an advanced firewall that can tell you these things instead of running it on your host. That way you can monitor everything on your connection and not just one laptop.

And what's wrong with little snitch? I'm sure you can change it so it doesn't do DNS looksup if you want to see IP's for some reason.
 
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