Net Activity

Most computers nowadays constantly stay connected to the information superhighway, since almost any activity can now be performed online as well. Speed is affected by many programs and services, with the available amount depending on the connection type. To keep an eye on traffic, Net Activity can sit on the desktop and show real time usage.

Since it’s not a stand-alone product, it requires a suitable host to run. In fact, it’s a sidebar gadget, but Windows iterations greater than 7 require a dedicated application, such as Thoosje Sidebar to be able to properly launch them. Integration takes little time, and it can be kept on a thumb drive along with other gadgets in the collection.

The gadgets starts to monitor activity right away, with a couple of sliders to show real time info. The two fields, namely TX and RX show number of KB sent, and received, with colored progress sliders for better view. In case there are multiple adapters on the target computer, the one of interest can be selected from the options menu, where it’s also possible to specify update interval in milliseconds.

It benefits from all default gadget options. This means it can be freely moved across the desktop into a suitable spot, have opacity level set, and forced to stay on top of any other window to always have it in plain sight.