Security is of the utmost importance and a key factor in keeping any computer safe is effective monitoring and control of its network or internet connection. A firewall is a value tool when it comes to controlling the flow of traffic to and from a computer, but you are not always made aware of what is going on in the background.

Private Eye is a free network monitoring tool that enables you to keep an eye on exactly what is going on with your network connection. The application interface displays a complete list of all incoming and outgoing connections, but these can be filtered if you are only interested in one or the other. You are shown a list of all the applications that are running, along with details of the server or web site they are communicating with.

The app has been designed to accompany the Radio Silence firewall app, but it can also be used as a standalone tool – the only requirement is that you have Lion installed. Resource usage is kept to a minimum thanks to the fact that when you close the program window, network monitoring stops – you can’t see the window so, there is little point in monitoring what is going on.

Should you find that the amount of information displayed is a little overwhelming, you have filtering options beyond viewing only incoming and outgoing connections. It may well be the case that you are only interested in the activity of a limited number of applications – just click the name of a running app to filter the connection display as required. Simple and effective.