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NetPulse

User Guide — Version 2.1.0

NetPulse is a network monitoring app for Windows. It shows, in real time, what your computer's network is doing — traffic levels, active connections, link quality — keeps a history of it, and can alert you when something crosses a limit you set.

It works the same on a desktop PC and on a Windows Server (just open it over Remote Desktop). It only ever monitors the machine it's running on.

Contents
  1. Getting started
  2. Dashboard
  3. Protocols
  4. Interfaces
  5. Connections
  6. Probes
  7. History
  8. Alerts
  9. Settings
  10. System tray
  11. Tips

1. Getting started

When you open NetPulse it appears centered on your screen. The left side is the navigation pane — click an item to switch sections. The app starts monitoring immediately; there's nothing to configure to see live data.

2. Dashboard

Your at-a-glance overview. Cards show current download and upload speed, the number of active TCP connections, the total connections, and the busiest network adapter. The chart shows total throughput over the last minute, and the panel on the right shows the latest alert status.

3. Protocols

Four live charts for the core network protocols:

  • TCP — active connections, failed connection attempts, errors.
  • UDP — incoming, outgoing and error packets per second.
  • IP — received, delivered, in-error and discarded packets per second.
  • ICMP — message, error and echo (ping) counts.

Use the Show IPv6 checkbox (top right) to switch the TCP/UDP/IP charts between IPv4 and IPv6. Each chart keeps the last 60 seconds on screen.

4. Interfaces

A table of your network adapters showing live In / Out / Total speed (in Kbps), utilization as a bar, link speed, IP address, MAC address, MTU and the error count (packets with errors, in and out, since the adapter came up). Each row has a small trend graph. Click a column header to sort (for example, by Total to find the busiest adapter). Loopback, tunnel and hidden system adapters are left out.

5. Connections

Every active connection on the machine, in real time, with the process that owns it, its PID, protocol, local and remote address, and state (e.g. Established, Listen).

  • Type in the filter box to narrow the list by process name, address, port or protocol.
  • Untick Show listeners to hide things that are only waiting for connections.
  • The count on the right shows how many rows are currently displayed.
  • Export CSV saves exactly what you can see — the current filter and sort order.

Right-click any row

ActionWhat it does
Copy rowPuts the whole row on the clipboard
Copy remote addressJust the far-end IP address
Resolve host nameLooks up the remote address and fills in the Host column
Filter by this processSets the filter box to that process name
End process…Terminates the owning process, after asking you to confirm
Ending a process closes everything it was doing and loses any unsaved work in it, so NetPulse always confirms first and names what it is about to close. Core Windows system processes cannot be ended.

6. Probes

Active connection-quality tests against a target you choose (default 8.8.8.8):

  • Type a host name or IP in the box.
  • Start begins a continuous ping; the cards show current/average/min/max latency, jitter and packet loss, and the chart plots latency over time. Stop ends it.
  • Resolve DNS measures how long it takes to look up the host and lists the addresses.
  • Traceroute lists each network hop between you and the target, with round-trip times.

7. History

Trends over time, read back from data NetPulse saves automatically. Pick a range (last 15 minutes, hour, 24 hours or 7 days) to see download/upload throughput across that period. Refresh reloads the latest.

  • Export CSV saves the samples in the selected range.
  • Export PNG saves the chart as an image.

How long history is kept is set in Settings — seven days by default.

8. Alerts

Set rules that notify you when a metric crosses a limit.

To add a rule

  1. Choose a metric (e.g. Download, Active TCP connections, TCP errors/s).
  2. For Download and Upload, optionally choose which adapter to watch — leave it on All interfaces for the machine-wide total. The other metrics are machine-wide only, so the picker is hidden for them.
  3. Choose > or < and enter a threshold.
  4. Tick the channels to notify: Toast (desktop notification), Email, Webhook or Pushover.
  5. Click Add rule.

Rules are listed below and can be toggled on/off, edited or removed; they're saved automatically. The Recent alerts panel shows what has fired. Test alert sends a test through every channel you've configured so you can confirm delivery.

To avoid spam, each rule won't fire again for 60 seconds after it triggers.

9. Settings

Where you set up how NetPulse runs, and how alerts reach you.

Startup and sampling

  • Start NetPulse when I sign in to Windows — adds NetPulse to your own Windows startup items. It applies to your account only and needs no administrator rights.
  • Start minimised to the notification area — opens straight to the tray, without showing the window.
  • Poll every — how often NetPulse samples, from 1 to 60 seconds. A longer interval uses less CPU; the charts and rates stay correct either way. Takes effect immediately.
  • Keep history for — how long saved samples are retained, from 1 to 365 days. Anything older is removed automatically.

Email (SMTP)

Enter your mail server, pick a Connection type, and fill in your credentials and the From/To addresses:

  • SMTP — no encryption (port 25)
  • SMTPS — SSL/TLS (port 465)
  • Submission — STARTTLS (port 587)
  • Custom — lets you type any port

The port is set for you for the standard choices, and becomes editable when you pick Custom.

Webhook

Paste a Slack or Microsoft Teams incoming-webhook URL.

Pushover

Enter your Pushover API token and user/group key.

Click Save to store your settings, or Send test to save and immediately send a test to all configured channels. The result line shows ✓ or ✗ for each one.

Your SMTP password is encrypted before it is written to disk, using Windows account protection — it can only be read back by your own Windows account on this machine.

10. System tray

NetPulse lives in the system tray (notification area):

  • Minimizing the window sends it to the tray instead of the taskbar.
  • Double-click the tray icon to bring the window back.
  • Right-click the tray icon for Open, About and Exit.

Closing the window also keeps the app running in the tray — choose Exit from the tray menu to quit completely. While in the tray, alert notifications still appear.

Only one copy of NetPulse runs at a time. Starting it again while it is in the tray simply brings the existing window back.

You can also open About NetPulse from the button at the bottom of the navigation pane.

11. Tips

  • Sort the Interfaces or Connections tables by clicking a column header.
  • On a server, run NetPulse over Remote Desktop; it monitors that server's own network.
  • Right-click a connection to act on it — resolve it, copy it, or end the process.
  • Alerts and connection settings are saved automatically and remembered between runs.
  • To leave NetPulse running all the time, turn on both startup options in Settings.
  • NetPulse follows your Windows light/dark setting automatically.