Examples:

monitoring interfaces eth0 and lo with unit type in kBit/s:

$nload eth0 lo

the same, but with both interface in the same windows:

$nload -m eth0 lo

monitoring eth0 with the max value for incoming bandwidth setted at 20kBit/s and max value for outgoing traffic at 15kBit/s with transfert unit type automatically handed by nload in Bit/s

$nload -i 20 -o 15 -u h eth0

Configuring nload at runtime:

A cool feature of nload is that you can change the configuration setting while it is running. to access the configuration menu, use the key shortcut o. You can now navigate in the menu using the following key shortcut:

• to navigate inside a setting field, use: ArrowLeft or Home to go to the left, ArrowRight or End to go to the right.
• to navigate between settings, use: ArrowUp to go the previous entry, ArrowDown or Enter to go to the next setting.
• to toggle the different value of a setting entry, you can use: PageUp, PageDown or Tab.
• to go to the next page of settings use: + or n, to the previous page: - or p.

Exit the option page by typing o again.
Conclusion:

being a ncurse based application, nload is easy to use while monitoring remote hosts via ssh for instance. Moreover, it does not use much CPU or Memory ressources.

The graph provided by nload make it easy to check for bursts or traffic irregularity.