Network Monitor II 22.9

Network Monitor II is a gadget that is displayed on your desktop. It provides various information about your network, such as the current download and upload speed, and your IP-address.
Before installing Network Monitor II, you'll need to install a piece of software capable of opening GADGET files. In my testing, I used a Special edition sidebar made by My Favorite Gadgets, and it worked correctly.

Network Monitor II is very configurable: every element of its interface is customizable. You can hide any elements, change their colors, etc. Furthermore, the size and units of graphs can be changed to your liking.

While it is possible to configure everything, it's not easy to do so. Indeed, the settings window has 14 tabs, each with a number as their title. In order to modify some settings, you will have to click on each tab and scroll to see if there is the switch that you are looking for.

Another drawback of this utility lies in its usage of the CPU. On my computer, it used around 3 percent of the CPU time on average. This is a disadvantage for laptop users, who will see a slight lowering of their battery life.

In conclusion, Network Monitor II works nicely and its graphs make it easy to check the status of your network at a glance. Yet, its confusing configuration window might deter you from changing its settings.