GlassWire

See which applications are connected to the internet, see how much bandwidth you use, see which applications are allowed through the firewall, get notifications when applications connect to the web. These features and more are put at your disposal by GlassWire, a very useful network monitoring tool for Windows.

The system requirements for running GlassWire are: Intel Celeron 2GHz processor or better, at least 1GB of RAM memory (4GB recommended), 32 or 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows 8.
A very simple installation wizard will help you install GlassWire on a PC that meets these requirements. Little time and effort will go into getting GlassWire up and running.

GlassWire’s interface provides support for skins. Classic, Orange & Plum, Aqua & Pink – these skins and more are available.

The following 4 tabs are presented on GlassWire’s interface:
Graph – view past and present network activity.
Firewall – built-in firewall.
Usage – view bandwidth usage.
Alerts – all notifications are presented here.

From a functionality point of view, you can expect to get the following from GlassWire: clear view of all your network activity; clear view of all bandwidth usage; notifications for various events; the option to snooze notifications; incognito mode; built-in firewall.

GlassWire, at the time of writing this, is free. The developer explained that the plan is to “add new features in the future for paying supporters.”

If you care about security, you are going to love GlassWire. This free network monitoring tool has quite a lot to offer!