netrate

I recently had the opportunity to try out netrate, a text-mode Perl script designed to monitor network interface data rates on a user's machine. The script provides information on packet and data rates in both kbits/bytes per second and packets per second. One particularly impressive feature of the software is the peak traffic mode, which displays the highest data rate detected thus far.

For those unfamiliar with Perl, it is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall in 1987. Perl borrows features from a variety of other languages, including C, shell scripting, AWK, sed, and Lisp. At the time of its creation, Perl was a revolutionary language, offering new text processing capabilities and the ability to avoid many of the limitations of scripting languages that were common at the time.

Since its initial release, Perl has undergone significant updates and improvements. Perl 5, released in 1994, included notable additions such as object-oriented programming, references, and modules. Perl 5 remains actively maintained to this day, with over 11,000 modules available through the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN).

Overall, netrate provides a powerful tool for network monitoring and analysis, made possible through the flexible and dynamic capabilities of Perl. Whether you are a seasoned Perl programmer or simply looking for a reliable and informative network monitoring tool, netrate is certainly worth considering.