Friday, June 6, 2014

30 Cool Open Source Software I Discovered in 2013

#1 Replicant - Fully free Android distribution

Replicant is entirely free and open source distributions of Android on several devices including both phones and tablets. I have installed it on an older Nexus S. You can install apps from F-Droid store a GPLv2 client app that comes configured with a repository hosting only free as in freedom applications.
Replicant an free and open source andriod os
Operating system : Linux/Android
Purpose : Free os for phone/tablets
Targets : User who wish to have a full control over the mobile phone with strong privacy settings
License : Apache License 2.0/GPL 2.0
Download url : replicant.us

#2: Miro video converter

This is an open source, cross-platform application to convert videos from and to various formats, including formats suitable for devices such as Android/iOS phones. It is simple and easy to use software to convert almost any video to MP4, WebM (vp8), Ogg Theora format. Miro Video Converter is based on FFMPEG and act as a front end to FFMPEG command line tools.
Miro video converter - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Video converter
Targets : Multimedia users
License : GPL
Download url : mirovideoconverter.com

#3 OwnCloud - Dropbox alternative for cloud storage service

I was looking for an alternative to Dropbox to run cloud on my own server at home and office. This software is open source software, and it is self hosted. I don't have to trust third party with my data. I found this software easy to install and quite useful. I started to use it for syncing files and other data. I have been using for couple of months and it has been proven reliable alternative to Dropbox. There are clients available for MS-Windows, OS X, Linux, and mobile apps for iOS and Android devices (or simply access data using the ownCloud web frontend).
OwnCloud - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Cloud storage (Data synchronization)
Targets : Home users/IT departments/Sysadmins
License : AGPLv3
Download url : owncloud.org

#4 Docker - FreeBSD like container+API for Linux

The FreeBSD jail provides an operating system-level virtualization partition a FreeBSD-based serve into several independent mini-systems. You can do the same with Linux using OpenVZ. Linux Containers (LXC) is a virtualization method for running multiple isolated Linux systems. Docker extends LXC. It uses LXC, cgroups, Linux kernel and other parts to automate the deployment of applications inside software containers. It comes with API to runs processes in isolation. With docker I can pack WordPress (or any other app written in Python/Ruby/Php & friends) and its dependencies in a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container. I can deploy and test such container on any Linux based server.
Docker - Cool Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux amd64
Purpose : OS level virtualization
Targets : DevOps/Sysadmins
License : Apache License 2.0
Download url : docker.io

#5 Adminer - A lightweight and full-featured database management tool

Adminer is a full-featured database management tool written in PHP. Conversely to phpMyAdmin, it consists of a single file ready to deploy to the target server. Adminer is available for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL and Oracle. I usually install this for clients who are new to PostgreSQL/MySQL. The software acts as a drop-in-replacement for phpMyAdmin with a better user interface, better support for MySQL features, higher performance and more security.
Adminer - Cool Software - 2013
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Database management
Targets : DBA/new users
License : Apache License or GPL 2
Download url : adminer.org

#6 MariaDB - Drop-in replacement for Oracle MySQL server

MariaDB is a community-developed fork of the MySQL server. MariaDB is going to be default in many popular Linux distro and open source project. Red Hat will switch the default database in its enterprise distribution, RHEL (including its clones such as CentOS), from MySQL to MariaDB, when version 7 is released in 2014. I started testing MariaDB and found no problems at all. The speed is same or better in some cases.
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : RDBMS
Targets : DevOps/Sysadmins
License : GPL/LGPL
Download url : mariadb.org

#7 RackTables - Manage your data center assets like a pro

I wish I discovered RackTables earlier. It is is a datacenter asset management system. With this software one can document hardware assets (such as server, workstations, routers, switches and more), network addresses, space in racks, networks configuration and more:
  1. List of all devices, racks, and enclosures you've got
  2. Mount the devices into the racks
  3. Maintain physical ports of the devices and links between them
  4. Manage IP addresses, assign them to the devices and group them into networks
  5. Document your NAT rules, describe your loadbalancing policy and store loadbalancing configuration
  6. Attach files to various objects in the system
  7. Create users, assign permissions and allow or deny any actions they can do
Racktables - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : IDC asset management system
Targets : Sysadmin/DevOPS/IT Managers
License : GPL
Download url : racktables.org

#8 Apache Cordova - Create smartphone app just with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Apache Cordova is a free and open source framework that allows you to create mobile apps using standardized web APIs. You can create apps that work on iOS, Andriod, BlackBerry, Windows, Ubuntu and other phone based operating systems. You write code once and run on selected mobile platforms with little or no change at all. PhoneGap uses Apache Cordova.
Operating system : iOS, Android, webOS, Symbian, BlackBerry, Ubuntu Touch, Windows Phone, Windows 8
Purpose : Build native mobile apps
Targets : Developers
License : Apache License 2.0
Download url : cordova.apache.org or phonegap.com

#9 Angry IP scanner - ipscan tool

Nmap is an open source security tool for network exploration, security scanning and auditing. ipscan (Angry IP Scanner) is an alternative to nmap command. It is also an open-source and cross-platform network scanner designed to be fast and simple to use. It scans IP addresses and ports as well as has many other features.
Angry IP Scanner (Ipscan) - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Network scanner
Targets : Sysadmin/Network administrators
License : GPL 2
Download url : angryip.org

#10 Jekyll - Create simple static blog

Drupal, Typo3, WordPress and many other content management system (CMS)/blogging software dynamically create feature rich content. However, you may not need all the all features and complexity offered by modern CMS based systems. For example, a WordPress based blog like nixCraft requires multiple VMs, CDN for static assets, caching engine such as memcached, PHP, mysql database, comment moderation, and on going updates. A growing trend is to keep your blog simple by avoiding CMS and use static HTML generators that offers the following benefits:
  • No more complex setups i.e. no databases/php/caching engines required.
  • No more comment moderation.
  • Pesky updates.
  • Static files are more secure.
  • Easy to scale or cache on edge/CDN nodes.
  • Provides all the blog-aware visual bells and whistles such as categories, pages, posts, Permalinks, and custom layouts.
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Blogging system
Targets : Bloggers who wish to follow KISS principal.
License : MIT License
Download url : jekyllrb.com
Similar apps: Haskell based Hakyll, Ruby based nanoc, Python based Pelican.

#11 TurnKey Linux - Deploy open source apps on VM or the clouds

You can setup a open source software such as WordPress, Drupal, ZenCart, and over 100+ other software easily with TurnKey Linux. It is a virtual appliance library that integrates and polishes the very best open source software into ready to use solutions. Each virtual appliance is optimized for ease of use and can be deployed in just a few minutes on bare metal, a virtual machine and in the cloud/in physical server. TurnKey Linux is based on Debian 7.2 with automatic security updates for all packages. It also includes a web management interface, web shell, and simple configuration console. I often use this to deploy development server in the cloud.
Turnkey Linux - Cool FOSS Sofware of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux
Purpose : Virtual appliance library
Targets : Sysadmin/Developers/DevOPS
License : Free software licenses
Download url : turnkeylinux.org

#12 DokuWiki - Create a personal wiki

DokuWiki is a simple to use and highly versatile open source wiki software that doesn't require a database. Easy to install on Linux or Unix-like operating systems with the following features:
  1. Ease of use and low system requirements.
  2. Built-in access control lists.
  3. Customization using large variety of extensions, plugins, and templates.
I use this on my laptop to keep notes about various projects.
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Documentation
Targets : Wiki users.
License : GPL 2
Download url : dokuwiki.org

#13 MediaGoblin - An alterative to Youtube/Flickr/Soundcloud

GNU MediaGoblin is free software, decentralized media publishing platform. You can host and share videos, music, and images using MediaGoblin. It is an alternative to major media-publishing services such as Flickr, deviantArt, YouTube, Soundcloud, etc. It is written in Python and SQL.
MediaGoblin - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux/OSX/MS-Windows
Purpose : Sharing many forms of digital media
Targets : Freedom respectful media sharing self-hosted service
License : AGPLv3/CC0
Download url : mediagoblin.org

#14: Scrollout F1 - Create email firewall gateway

Scrollout F1 is easy to use and setup email firewall gateway system. It includes anti-spam and anti-virus protection for Microsoft Exchange, Postfix, Exim, Sendmail, Qmail and others. It runs on Debian and Ubuntu Linux operating systems. This is perfect software for filtering incoming messages and other features are as follows:
  1. TLS/SSL encryption with Perfect Forward Secrecy for SMTP & HTTPS
  2. Virus scanning and different Quarantine per domain
  3. Tagging and blocking SPAM at domain level
  4. Geographic filtering for Sender IP, Server IP, URL IP and TLDs
  5. Verifies incoming emails for DKIM and signs outgoing emails (2048 bits RSA)
  6. Protection against fake messages that appear to come from your domain or from yourself
  7. Protection against executable files, malicious content, scripts and more
  8. Protection against forged domains like (fake) yahoo.com, gmail.com etc.
  9. Whitelist and Blacklist
  10. Simple web interface for management
Scrollout F1 Email Gateway - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux
Purpose : Firewall and anti-spam gateway for MS-Windows/Linux/Unix-like email servers
Targets : Sysadmin
License : GPL
Download url : scrolloutf1.com

#15 Observium - Network observation and monitoring system

Observium is free and open source software written in PHP/MySQL. It collects data from devices using SNMP and presents it via a web interface. It includes support for a wide range of network hardware and operating systems including Cisco, Windows, Linux, HP, Dell, FreeBSD, Juniper, Brocade, Netscaler, NetApp and many more. I use this software along with Nagios to get better understanding of certain devices and technologies. It provides historical and current performance statistics, configuration visualization and syslog capture.
Observium - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux/Unix-like
Purpose : Network monitoring
Targets : Sysadmin
License : Observium License
Download url : observium.org

#16 SimpleInvoices

It is a web based invoicing system. It helps me to create quick and nice looking invoices without having to set up too much services on server. All you have to do is install the SimpleInvoices software, enter a biller, a customer details and go creating invoices. You can easily track your finances; send invoices as PDF's and more. It is the best invoicing set up for my independent IT consultancy business.
SimpleInvoices - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux/Unix-like/Windows/OSX
Purpose : Invoicing system
Targets : Sole traders/Small business owners
License : Observium License
Download url : simpleinvoices.org
Similar apps : BambooInvoice - another invoicing software intended for small businesses and independent contractors

More cool apps

I sometime use and recommend the following software for MS-Windows/Linux users due to simplicity and ease of use features. Here is the list of the other best and FOSS apps of 2013:

#17 FileZilla - sftp/ftp client for noobs

This is a perfect open-source FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) client for Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux. It has the following features that new users might find useful:
  1. Drag & drop support
  2. Tabbed user interface
  3. File transfer queue and bookmarks
  4. Remote file editing and remote file search
  5. SOCKS5 and FTP-Proxy support
FileZilla - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : FTP client
Download url : filezilla-project.org

#18 WinSCP - Easily transfer file using scp

It is an open source free SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is the secure file transfer between local and server under your control. Most new MS-Windows user find WinSCP an easier to use as compare to putty and friends.
Operating system : MS-Windows
Purpose : SFTP/FTP client
Download url : winscp.net

#19 XAMPP - Easily write and test Apache+MySQL+PHP/Perl apps on desktop

I give this software to many developers. They can easily setup Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl to deploy and write an application on their own desktop. No need to install virtual machine and Linux server. Just focus on development and skip real server management job to pros.
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Apache distribution for desktop user/developers.
Download url : apachefriends.org

#20 Abiword - A nice little word processor

Many users only use 2% of the features of a program like Microsoft Word. No need to spend money or time on Microsoft Word. I personally use Abiword due to:
  1. Easy to use and not bloated as OO.org.
  2. Small size word processor i.e. it loads very fast on my old computer.
  3. I can read and write OpenOffice.org documents, Microsoft Word documents, WordPerfect documents, Rich Text Format documents, HTML web pages and more.
  4. Abiword is tightly integrated with the AbiCollab.net web service, which lets you store documents online, allows easy document sharing with your friends, and performs format conversions on the fly.
AbiWord - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Word processing program
Download url : abisource.com

#21 {less}: The dynamic stylesheet language

LESS extends CSS with dynamic behavior such as variables, mixins, operations and functions. LESS can run on the client-side and server-side or can be compiled into plain CSS.
LESS extends CSS with dynamic behavior  - Best of FOSS 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Web developers
Download url : lesscss.org

#22 Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a GTK+ based desktop environment and a fork of the GNOME Shell. It was initially developed by Linux Mint. It offers a user interface with the following features that I needed most:
  1. A movable panel equipped with a main menu, launchers, a window list and the system tray
  2. Various extensions and applets
  3. Cinnamon makes GNOME3 a useful desktop
Cinnamon - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux
Purpose : Desktop user
Download url : linuxmint.com

#23 Tmux

Tmux is terminal multiplexers for Unix-like platforms. tmux offers several advantages over GNU/screen:
  1. Vi or emacs key layouts
  2. Multiple paste options
  3. Secure code base
  4. An option to limit the window size and more.
Tmux - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux/Unix-like
Purpose : Terminal multiplexer
Download url : tmux.sourceforge.net

#24 Artica - Full SMTP/Mail/Proxy server Appliance in 10 minutes

It is a simple and straightforward software that offers the following features:
  1. Proxy server Appliance
  2. SMTP server Appliances
  3. Mail server Appliances
  4. NAS server Appliance
  5. Web based management
Artica Proxy/SMTP server Appliance - Cool Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux
Purpose : Turn normal server into appliances
Download url : artica.fr

#25 Zentyal small business server

Zentyal is a full-featured Linux server for small and medium businesses that you can set up in less than 30 minutes. It is a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Small Business Server and Microsoft Exchange Server. It is easy to use software. Zentyal is based on Ubuntu and it can be installed either from Ubuntu repositories or from Zentyal's own installer.
Zentyal - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux
Purpose : Office server
Download url : zentyal.org

#26 Ack-grep - a source code search tool for programmers

ack-grep is a grep like tool, optimized for programmers. This tool isn't aimed to "search all text files". It is specifically created to search source code trees, not trees of text files. It searches entire trees by default while ignoring Subversion, Git and other VCS directories and other files that aren't your source code.
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Search source trees
Download url : beyondgrep.com

#27 ditaa - DIagrams Through Ascii Art

ditaa is a small command-line utility, that can convert diagrams drawn using ascii art, into proper bitmap graphics. I use this tool all the time to draw diagrams and forwarding them via email or chat session.
ditaa - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform
Purpose : Convert diagrams drawn using ascii art
Download url : ditaa.sourceforge.net

#28 GNU parallel

GNU parallel is a shell tool for executing jobs in parallel using one or more computers. If you like xargs command, try GNU/parallel utility. It can run command/script/job on all available CPU's or on multiple computers.
Gnu/parallel - Cool FOSS Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Cross-platform (Perl)
Purpose : Execute shell scripts/jobs in parallel
Download url : gnu.org

#29 luckyBackup data back-up and synchronization tool

luckyBackup is an application for data back-up and synchronization powered by the rsync tool. It is simple to use, fast, safe, reliable and fully customizable backup software. I often set and recommend this too for new Ubuntu/Fedora desktop users to backup their own files.
Lucky Backup - Cool FOSS Software Of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux/Unix-like
Purpose : Desktop backup
Download url : luckybackup.sourceforge.net

#30 OpenShot video editor

OpenShot Video Editor is a free and open-source non-linear video editing software package for Linux. I use this tool to create videos for my youtube channel. It is a stable, free, and friendly to use video editor on Linux.
Openshot - Cool Opensource Software of 2013 - nixCraft
Operating system : Linux
Purpose : Video editing
Download url : openshot.org

Monitor network bandwidth on Linux server

1. Nload

Nload is a commandline tool that allows users to monitor the incoming and outgoing traffic separately. It also draws out a graph to indicate the same, the scale of which can be adjusted. Easy and simple to use, and does not support many options.
So if you just need to take a quick look at the total bandwidth usage without details of individual processes, then nload will be handy.
$ nload
nload command linux
Installing Nload - Fedora and Ubuntu have got it in the default repos. CentOS users need to get nload from Epel repositories.
# fedora or centos
$ yum install nload -y

# ubuntu/debian
$ sudo apt-get install nload

2. iftop

Iftop measures the data flowing through individual socket connections, and it works in a manner that is different from Nload. Iftop uses the pcap library to capture the packets moving in and out of the network adapter, and then sums up the size and count to find the total bandwidth under use.
Although iftop reports the bandwidth used by individual connections, it cannot report the process name/id involved in the particular socket connection. But being based on the pcap library, iftop is able to filter the traffic and report bandwidth usage over selected host connections as specified by the filter.



$ sudo iftop -n
The n option prevents iftop from resolving ip addresses to hostname, which causes additional network traffic of its own.
iftop command linux
Install iftop - Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora users get it from default repos. CentOS users get it from Epel.
# fedora or centos
yum install iftop -y

# ubuntu or debian
$ sudo apt-get install iftop

3. iptraf

Iptraf is an interactive and colorful IP Lan monitor. It shows individual connections and the amount of data flowing between the hosts. Here is a screenshot
$ sudo iptraf
iptraf linux command
Install iptraf
# Centos (base repo)
$ yum install iptraf

# fedora or centos (with epel)
$ yum install iptraf-ng -y

# ubuntu or debian
$ sudo apt-get install iptraf iptraf-ng

4. nethogs

Nethogs is a small 'net top' tool that shows the bandwidth used by individual processes and sorts the list putting the most intensive processes on top. In the event of a sudden bandwidth spike, quickly open nethogs and find the process responsible. Nethogs reports the PID, user and the path of the program.
$ sudo nethogs
nethogs command linux
Install Nethogs - Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora users get from default repos. CentOS users need Epel
# ubuntu or debian (default repos)
$ sudo apt-get install nethogs

# fedora or centos (from epel)
$ sudo yum install nethogs -y

5. bmon

Bmon (Bandwidth Monitor) is a tool similar to nload that shows the traffic load over all the network interfaces on the system. The output also consists of a graph and a section with packet level details.
bmon linux network monitor
Install Bmon - Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora users can install from default repos. CentOS users need to setup repoforge, since its not available in Epel.
# ubuntu or debian
$ sudo apt-get install bmon

# fedora or centos (from repoforge)
$ sudo yum install bmon
Bmon supports many options and is capable of producing reports in html format. Check the man page for more information

6. slurm

Slurm is 'yet' another network load monitor that shows device statistics along with an ascii graph. It supports 3 different styles of graphs each of which can be activated using the c, s and l keys. Simple in features, slurm does not display any further details about the network load.
$ slurm -s -i eth0
slurm command linux
Install slurm
# debian or ubuntu
$ sudo apt-get install slurm

# fedora or centos
$ sudo yum install slurm -y

7. tcptrack

Tcptrack is similar to iftop, and uses the pcap library to capture packets and calculate various statistics like the bandwidth used in each connection. It also supports the standard pcap filters that can be used to monitor specific connections.
tcptrack command linux
Install tcptrack - Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora have it in default repos. CentOS users need to get it from RepoForge as it is not available in Epel either.
# ubuntu, debian
$ sudo apt-get install tcptrack

# fedora, centos (from repoforge repository)
$ sudo yum install tcptrack

8. Vnstat

Vnstat is bit different from most of the other tools. It actually runs a background service/daemon and keeps recording the size of data transfer all the time. Next it can be used to generate a report of the history of network usage.
$ service vnstat status
 * vnStat daemon is running
Running vnstat without any options would simply show the total amount of data transfer that took place since the date the daemon is running.
$ vnstat
Database updated: Mon Mar 17 15:26:59 2014

   eth0 since 06/12/13

          rx:  135.14 GiB      tx:  35.76 GiB      total:  170.90 GiB

   monthly
                     rx      |     tx      |    total    |   avg. rate
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
       Feb '14      8.19 GiB |    2.08 GiB |   10.27 GiB |   35.60 kbit/s
       Mar '14      4.98 GiB |    1.52 GiB |    6.50 GiB |   37.93 kbit/s
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
     estimated      9.28 GiB |    2.83 GiB |   12.11 GiB |

   daily
                     rx      |     tx      |    total    |   avg. rate
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
     yesterday    236.11 MiB |   98.61 MiB |  334.72 MiB |   31.74 kbit/s
         today    128.55 MiB |   41.00 MiB |  169.56 MiB |   24.97 kbit/s
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
     estimated       199 MiB |      63 MiB |     262 MiB |
To monitor the bandwidth usage in realtime, use the '-l' option (live mode). It would then show the total bandwidth used by incoming and outgoing data, but in a very precise manner without any internal details about host connections or processes.
$ vnstat -l -i eth0
Monitoring eth0...    (press CTRL-C to stop)

   rx:       12 kbit/s    10 p/s          tx:       12 kbit/s    11 p/s
Vnstat is more like a tool to get historic reports of how much bandwidth is used everyday or over the past month. It is not strictly a tool for monitoring the network in real time.
Vnstat supports many options, details about which can be found in the man page.
Install vnstat
# ubuntu or debian
$ sudo apt-get install vnstat

# fedora or centos (from epel)
$ sudo yum install vnstat

9. bwm-ng

Bwm-ng (Bandwidth Monitor Next Generation) is another very simple real time network load monitor that reports a summary of the speed at which data is being transferred in and out of all available network interfaces on the system.
$ bwm-ng
bwm-ng v0.6 (probing every 0.500s), press 'h' for help
  input: /proc/net/dev type: rate
  /         iface                   Rx                   Tx                T
ot==========================================================================
==           eth0:           0.53 KB/s            1.31 KB/s            1.84
KB             lo:           0.00 KB/s            0.00 KB/s            0.00
KB--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--          total:           0.53 KB/s            1.31 KB/s            1.84
KB/s
If the console size is sufficiently large, bwm-ng can also draw bar graphs for the traffic using the curses2 output mode.
$ bwm-ng -o curses2
Install Bwm-NG - On CentOS bwm-ng can be installed from Epel.
# ubuntu or debian
$ sudo apt-get install bwm-ng

# fedora or centos (from epel)
$ sudo apt-get install bwm-ng

10. cbm - Color Bandwidth Meter

A tiny little simple bandwidth monitor that displays the traffic volume through network interfaces. No further options, just the traffic stats are display and updated in realtime.
cbm linux network monitor
$ sudo apt-get install cbm

11. speedometer

Another small and simple tool that just draws out good looking graphs of incoming and outgoing traffic through a given interface.
$ speedometer -r eth0 -t eth0
speedometer linux network monitor
Install speedometer
# ubuntu or debian users
$ sudo apt-get install speedometer

12. Pktstat

Pktstat displays all the active connections in real time, and the speed at which data is being transferred through them. It also displays the type of the connection, i.e. tcp or udp and also details about http requests if involved.
$ sudo pktstat -i eth0 -nt
pktstat linux network monitor
$ sudo apt-get install pktstat

13. Netwatch

Netwatch is part of the netdiag collection of tools, and it too displays the connections between local host and other remote hosts, and the speed at which data is transferring on each connection.
$ sudo netwatch -e eth0 -nt
netwatch linux network monitor
$ sudo apt-get install netdiag

14. Trafshow

Like netwatch and pktstat, trafshow reports the current active connections, their protocol and the data transfer speed on each connection. It can filter out connections using pcap type filters.
Monitor only tcp connections
$ sudo trafshow -i eth0 tcp
trafshow linux network monitor
$ sudo apt-get install netdiag

15. Netload

The netload command just displays a small report on the current traffic load, and the total number of bytes transferred since the program start. No more features are there. Its part of the netdiag.
$ netload eth0
netload linux network monitor
$ sudo apt-get install netdiag

16. ifstat

The ifstat reports the network bandwidth in a batch style mode. The output is in a format that is easy to log and parse using other programs or utilities.
$ ifstat -t -i eth0 0.5
  Time           eth0       
HH:MM:SS   KB/s in  KB/s out
09:59:21      2.62      2.80
09:59:22      2.10      1.78
09:59:22      2.67      1.84
09:59:23      2.06      1.98
09:59:23      1.73      1.79
Install ifstat - Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora users have it in the default repos. CentOS users need to get it from Repoforge, since its not there in Epel.
# ubuntu, debian
$ sudo apt-get install ifstat

# fedora, centos (Repoforge)
$ sudo yum install ifstat

17. dstat

Dstat is a versatile tool (written in python) that can monitor different system statistics and report them in a batch style mode or log the data to a csv or similar file. This example shows how to use dstat to report network bandwidth
$ dstat -nt
-net/total- ----system----
 recv  send|     time     
   0     0 |23-03 10:27:13
1738B 1810B|23-03 10:27:14
2937B 2610B|23-03 10:27:15
2319B 2232B|23-03 10:27:16
2738B 2508B|23-03 10:27:17
Install dstat
$ sudo apt-get install dstat

18. collectl

Collectl reports system statistics in a style that is similar to dstat, and like dstat it is gathers statistics about various different system resources like cpu, memory, network etc. Over here is a simple example of how to use it to report network usage/bandwidth.
$ collectl -sn -oT -i0.5
waiting for 0.5 second sample...
#         <----------Network---------->
#Time       KBIn  PktIn  KBOut  PktOut 
10:32:01      40     58     43      66 
10:32:01      27     58      3      32 
10:32:02       3     28      9      44 
10:32:02       5     42     96      96 
10:32:03       5     48      3      28
Install Collectl
# Ubuntu/Debian users
$ sudo apt-get install collectl

#Fedora
$ sudo yum install collectl