Netiquette For Mac

Nowadays, even apps that have no online functionality often connect to a remote server, even if it's just to check for updates or send error reports. Of course, these are innocuous, but malware is another matter altogether, and it can be difficult to detect.

Netiquette is a fairly simple network monitor that shows you which apps have active network connections, which servers they are connected to, and which ports are being used. It comes with a GUI but can also be run from the terminal, and it allows you to export data to a formatted JSON file.

It's clear that this app was designed for users who want to see the most relevant information in an easy-to-understand fashion. The UI is clean and straightforward, if a bit outdated, and it lists all gathered data in the main window.

All active connections are shown under the process that initiated them, and you can also filter items to find something in particular. Apple processes are hidden by default, but you can view those as well if you are interested. The list is refreshed automatically every few seconds, but you can disable this feature as well.

More technical users can also run Netiquette directly from the terminal. You can list all connections, resolve hostnames, and export the output to a JSON file optimized for readability. The document contains detailed info about each process and its connections, including code-signing information.

While not the most advanced app of its kind, Netiquette has the advantage of being very user-friendly, while still offering expert-oriented features. It can be very helpful for identifying processes that behave suspiciously, even those that aren't necessarily malware. And of course, it's entirely free and open-source,