8 Best Network Packet Loss Monitoring Tools [Tested 2024]
Packet loss monitoring is essential for the network health
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Key notes
- Network packet loss monitor software helps a great deal to identify errors in data transmission across a wireless network.
- To prevent this problem, check your local resources and software and troubleshoot any disruptions.
- Dedicated network monitoring tools address owners of medium to large networks, or business clients, mostly.
Having a stable connection is important, and one common problem that can affect your connection’s stability is packet loss.
To keep an eye on these types of issues, it’s advised to use a packet loss monitor, and in this article, we’re going to show you the best software for this task.
How can I prevent packet loss?
Packet loss is a network disruption problem when some of the data packages fail to reach their destination and it’s usually caused by network congestion.
Of course, there are many other reasons for this phenomenon like problematic software, interferences, or even network hardware issues.
Before getting to the list where we included the best network monitoring software, let’s see how you can prevent this inconvenience:
➡ Check the local connection
First of all, you have to make sure that all your local network resources work fine. This brings us to monitoring software but you can also verify your hardware’s settings.
So, check all the cable connections with the router and/or modem and make sure that the devices are set up properly.
➡ Use a VPN client
Because packet loss is mostly produced by traffic congestion, the use of a VPN client can prevent this problem by bypassing a lot of your nodes from the route to the destination.
Try to connect through it and see if you experience any changes. If you don’t have one, we have a list including the best VPNs to prevent packet loss.
➡ Minimize local traffic
The network congestion can be triggered by too many connections from your side so try to check if you have any other applications like download managers or browsers with excessive network activity.
To do that, perform the following easy steps:
- Type resource monitor in the Search tab and click on the app from the results.
- Click on the Network tab and you will see the traffic for all the running apps. You can click on the individual apps to see their detailed connections.
After you’ve determined which app consumes too much of your bandwidth, you can simply close it to improve the situation.
However, Resource Monitor is a basic app that can only tell you so much about this problem. The apps in our list offer a lot more information and options to tackle packet loss.
What is the best packet loss monitoring software?
Site24x7 – Best packet loss monitoring
Packet loss can be a real headache for any IT administrator but Site24x7 is certainly one of the best network packet loss monitoring tools for the job.
This tool will help you supervise your entire network infrastructure, including the servers and all the devices and connections.
Within its dedicated Heath Dashboard, it will be easy to monitor all the top devices based on response time and packet loss but also the top interfaces based on traffic, bandwidth utilization, errors, and discards.
With Site24x7 it’s possible even to assess the quality of VoIP services by tracking different metrics like jitter, latency, and packet loss.
Collecting data like packet loss is very easy because this SNMP-based solution uses over 60 performance metrics and it can detect all the devices within a specified IP range or with the help of CIDR technology.
You will be happy to discover that Site24x7 offers a free trial version so put all these features and more to good use and convince yourself of its efficiency.
Site24x7 best features:
- Friendly configurable dashboard
- Cloud-based capabilities
- Analyzes more than 60 performance metrics
- Monitors all the network infrastructure, including the devices and their connections
- Advanced packet loss logging based on your required settings
Site24x7
With this SNMP-based tool, you will get all the relevant network metrics, including the packet loss data.ManageEngine OpManager – Complete network monitoring
If you need to monitor any packet loss on your network ManageEngine’s Op Manager will do that and a lot more.
Actually, the solution helps you monitor your entire network traffic using asynchronous SNMP trap messaging.
You will have all the tools needed to check the availability and network performance to counter any such problems as packet loss.
OpManager can be used to identify all the devices within your network at any time even as a scheduled task.
After installing the agents on all machines, you will receive reports for all key performance metrics, including response times and packet loss.
Actually, you will get alerts on any possible issues well before they become critical.
We saved the best for last because Op Manager’s dashboard is accessible from anywhere in the world because it’s cloud-based.
ManageEngine OpManager key features:
- Asynchronous SNMP trap messaging
- Advanced network device discovery features
- Receive reports on key performance metrics reports on your network performance
- Packet loss, breakdowns, shutdowns, and other issues alerting
- Single web-based dashboard accessible from any location in the world
ManageEngine OpManager
Detect packet loss and any other problems on your network with a complete solution for network management.Paessler PRTG Network Monitor – Great management tools
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool that allows you to keep a close eye on bandwidth usage, network speed, and network hardware.
The software uses SNMP, Flow, and packet sniffing technology to detect network issues. As for packet loss, there are three sensors that can help you detect packet loss.
PRTG Ping sensor measures the availability of your devices, QoS Round Trip monitors your network paths, and the Cisco IP SLA measures packet loss on your Cisco devices.
The software also supports packet sniffing, but you can also monitor your database, applications, cloud, server, local network, and much more.
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is one of the best choices as it can monitor packet loss as well as your entire infrastructure, so be sure to consider it.
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor best features:
- Ability to monitor all systems and devices in your network
- Bandwidth monitor
- Packet sniffing and packet loss monitoring
- Ability to monitor databases, servers, clouds
- QoS Round Trip monitoring for network paths
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is an advanced network monitoring software that can quickly detect packet loss and other network issues.Obkio – Great with mobile devices
If you need to monitor all the network segments including end-users, clouds, and network locations, Obkio Network Monitoring is the all-in one-solution you should try.
The most important component of this solution is the Monitoring Agent that monitors, measures, and troubleshoots network and application performance and availability.
It can be installed in every network location and continuously exchange synthetic traffic to monitor and analyze network performance.
Although it offers detailed network reports, Obkio is very easy to implement. It is a SaaS application that stores data in the Cloud.
That makes the tool easy to install and simple to use and it also comes with Web and mobile apps for iOS and Android.
About its efficiency, we can say that every 500 ms, Obkio measures core network metrics between Monitoring Agents like packet loss, latency, and jitter so you can identify a potential problem immediately.
This tool also uses SNMP Device Monitoring to test the performance of all the network devices like firewalls, routers, switches, and Wi-Fi access points.
Obkio comes with a free trial version so you can test it and see if it meets your expectations before committing to a purchase.
Let’s go through some of the most important features of Obkio:
- End-to-End network monitoring
- Monitoring using synthetic traffic (no packet capture)
- Continuous network metric measurement
- Alerts for intermittent network problems
- Interface Bandwidth Monitoring
- Network path discovery and analysis through Traceroutes
- SNMP Device Monitoring with ultra-fast polling
- Easy to install and use
ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer – Detailed reporting
Manage Engine NetFlow Analyzer is another great traffic analytics tool that can monitor packet loss with ease.
The software has a bandwidth monitor so you can see which users and apps are using most of your bandwidth. Speaking of bandwidth, the software can also provide you with detailed reports.
As for supported technologies, Manage Engine NetFlow Analyzer supports the following: NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, Netstream, J-Flow, and AppFlow.
The software is also optimized to detect a wide array of internal and external security threats, which is always useful.
Overall, Manage Engine NetFlow Analyzer offers great features, and if you want an advanced packet loss monitor tool, you should try it out.
Take a look at its best features below:
- Bandwidth monitor
- Ability to monitor packet loss
- Detailed reports
- Easy implementation
- Support for NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, Netstream, J-Flow, and AppFlow
ManageEngine Netflow Analyzer
Monitor packet loss with ease and give this software a try.Solarwinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer – Good bandwidth monitoring
If you’re looking for software that works as a packet loss monitor, then Solarwinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack might be just what you need.
This tool is designed to detect and diagnose network performance issues. It measures the response time, the availability of your devices, and the uptime of your network hardware.
The Solarwinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack easily detects devices that are using an unusual amount of bandwidth, and you can also monitor the packet loss in your network.
The software also supports advanced alerts to receive notifications when certain conditions are met.
Overall, Solarwinds Network Bandwidth Analyzer Pack is a great tool if you need to monitor your network and packet loss, so be sure to consider it.
Let’s see some of its most important features:
- Can monitor your entire network
- Designed to detect and reduce performance issues
- Ability to monitor packet loss
- Response time measurement
- Intelligent mapping
EMCO Ping Monitor – Monitor hosts independently
EMCO Ping Monitor offers simultaneous host monitoring, and it achieves that by pinging the host on a regular basis.
The free version monitors up to 5 hosts, but you can extend the number depending on the version you’re using.
This software also provides valuable networking information, and it will test the quality of your connection based on packet loss, latency, and jitter.
With EMCO Ping Monitor, you’ll get a detailed report of all your hosts, allowing you to keep track of your hosts at all times. If needed, there’s also the option to view raw ping data for every host as detailed information.
These are some of the most notable features, and if you’re looking for a reliable packet loss monitor, EMCO Ping Monitor might be just what you need.
EMCO Ping Monitor best features:
- Ability to monitor multiple hosts independently
- Can monitor hundreds of hosts
- Connection quality tracking
- Detailed connection performance and statistics
- Extensive alert system
PingPlotter – Very easy to use
Another great packet loss monitor that we want to show you is PingPlotter. This software allows you to visualize network performance in order to easily detect issues with your network.
The software will show you important data such as latency, connection jitter, and packet loss for each node in your connection route in the form of a graph.
PingPlotter can be deployed anywhere, ranging from workstations, remote servers, or cloud virtual machines.
The software is incredibly simple to use, and since it visualizes important information such as latency, jitter, and packet loss, you should be able to find network issues easily with PingPlotter.
Some of the best features you’ll benefit from are:
- Visualizes network performance
- Displays information such as latency, connection jitter, and packet loss
- Easy to use and to read
- Remote usage
- Can be installed on workstations, remote servers and cloud virtual machines
Keeping an eye on packet loss is important, especially if you want to ensure that your connection or server is stable and reliable.
There are many tools that can do that, but if you want professional tools, we suggest that you consider some of our top entries on the list.
If the packet loss reaches top values, consider reading our guide about 100% packet loss and how to fix that problem.
Do you use some of the tools listed here? Then feel free to describe your experience in the comments section below.
