I need a tool to log Linux network traffic by IP address

I know that there are tools for this, but I cannot seem to find what I am looking for. It should capture the number of bytes of network traffic transferred between the host machine and other machines. I am not looking for a packet capture tool like wireshark but an auditing tool that will log the number of bytes periodically (every minute or so) for connections to other machines.

From stackoverflow

• Not sure how well it logs, but for a real-time display, you might look at EtherApe.

  Steve Moyer : EtherApe was going to be my suggestion as well ... the thickness of the line between two IP addresses shows the relative capacity usage.

• Check out ntop.

• Have you looked into MRTG? I never had to do what I think you're trying to accomplish, but I remember it was highly customizable.

• Try iptraf.

  Unkwntech : This is a good tool I use it on my servers.

• For one or two systems, I agree with Robert Gamble that ntop is the way to go. If you're looking to do it for a whole network of systems, I would suggest looking into running snmpd on each of the linux boxes (or perhaps just the switch that they use) and graphing them up with Cacti.

• it's possible to use "tcpdump"

  #tcpdump -n -i eth0 > log.txt

  then open other console so u can see the realtime log with the same command.