CompTIA Network+ (N10-009)Network OperationsMedium
Users report that the network feels sluggish during business hours. A technician wants to quickly determine which specific hosts are consuming the most bandwidth across multiple routers without deploying a full packet capture. Which monitoring approach is best suited for this task?
- AReviewing syslog server messages
- BRunning a ping sweep of the subnet
- CAnalyzing NetFlow data for top talkers
- DSNMP polling of interface counters
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Analyzing NetFlow data for top talkers
NetFlow collects flow-based traffic statistics including source/destination IP, ports, and byte counts, allowing a technician to quickly identify top bandwidth consumers across the network without full packet captures.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Syslog reports system and security events, not bandwidth consumption per host.
- B. A ping sweep only discovers live hosts and does not measure bandwidth usage.
- D. SNMP polling shows interface-level utilization totals but not per-host breakdowns.
NetFlow
A Cisco-developed protocol that collects IP traffic flow information (source/destination, ports, bytes) for network traffic analysis.
- Identifies 'top talkers' consuming bandwidth
- Exports flow records to a collector for analysis
- Complements but does not replace SNMP and packet captures
Memory trick: NetFlow = 'who is flowing the most data'.