A free program to log all programs on a computer that connect to the Internet

Question

I need a free, preferably lightweight, program that would keep a log of all programs on my computer that connect to the Internet.

It would also be preferable that such program would log those programs that do not connect directly, but instead connect through svchost.exe or through System. I need the program to log the time of connection and the volume of traffic for each process. And I need the program to display some graphical representation of this information. A nice benefit would also be an ability to keep the IP addresses to which the local programs connect and to remove say web browsers from being logged.

I used to use NetLimiter, but it is slow, heavyweight, it is a nagware, and it has functions that I do not need (like limiting network traffic).

Thank you.

Answer 1

The closest I know is Process Monitor from Sysinternals. It requires no installation. You can set it to NOT show the registry, NOT show the file system, NOT show threading operations. You can apply filters to the processes you want to monitor and the Network summary will tell you how much traffic each remote host gets.

Perhaps it does not have all the data you need, but you can export the log in various formats, and use that to process them further. For example, you can export it as csv and work it with a spreadsheet software.

It has support for various command line parameters, To make it display the list use /?

Answer 2

Telerik Fiddler can monitor web usage extensively and logs it. It also lets you inspects packages.

Telerik Fiddler