Author Picks Portmaster After Testing 3 Free Home Network Monitoring Apps

1 articles · Updated · How-To Geek · Jun 18

Portmaster emerged as the tool the author kept installed because it paired visibility with per-app control over internet connections on a crowded home network.
3 free apps were tested: Wireshark exposed the deepest packet-level detail but felt too complex, while GlassWire made traffic easier to read yet still leaned more toward monitoring than control.
Portmaster let the author inspect which destinations each app contacted and set app-by-app allow or block rules, turning network activity from something to observe into something to manage.
That hands-on control comes with tradeoffs: blocking connections carelessly can disrupt updates, authentication, cloud sync and other background services, making GlassWire the simpler option for users who mainly want usage graphs.