# Networking insights guide

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/networking-insights-guide/465023>\
**Category:** Multiplayer & Networking\
**Tags:** Insights, networking-replicat, networking-multipla, unreal-engine, Performance, Multiplayer, question\
**Created:** [May 11, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/networking-insights-guide/465023 "2020-05-11T20:31:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WeezY](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/weezy/32/565677_2.png) [@WeezY](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/WeezY)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/networking-insights-guide/465023/1 "2020-05-11T20:31:04Z")

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Hi

How to make networking insights work. I can make unreal insights work, but just can’t get the networking insights tab.  
My basic guide to unreal insights.:

  
have tried -NetTrace=[1] -trace=net  
from this guide.:  

> **[Networking Insights Overview](https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en-US/TestingAndOptimization/PerformanceAndProfiling/UnrealInsights/NetworkingInsights/)**
>
> Overview of Networking Insights, the network performance profiling tool

but it does not work.

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**Author:** ![DarksquirrelHd](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@DarksquirrelHd](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/DarksquirrelHd)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 7:14am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/networking-insights-guide/465023/2 "2020-07-27T07:14:52Z")

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Hi  
you can just use -NetTrace=1 -tracehost=localhost -trace=net where the tracehost will be your server ip adress

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**Author:** ![wilberolive](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@wilberolive](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/wilberolive)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 8:58am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/networking-insights-guide/465023/3 "2022-03-08T08:58:24Z")

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This doesn’t work for me either. The networking tabs in insights are always just empty. Is this feature broken at the moment?

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**Author:** ![Skalbe](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Skalbe](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Skalbe)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 4:02pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/networking-insights-guide/465023/4 "2023-03-22T16:02:03Z")

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> [@DarksquirrelHd](#):
>
> NetTrace=1 -tracehost=localhost -trace=ne

For some reason the information on this is incredibly sparse, but I am facing the same issue now in 5.1.  
Is there anyone out there for who this is working?

Edit: I found that the arguments work when you put them right into your editor launch advanced settings.

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**Author:** ![Valzher](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Valzher](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Valzher)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2025, 8:04pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/networking-insights-guide/465023/5 "2025-04-12T20:04:38Z")

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I wish a post like this existed when I was searching for it, so here it is:

When you’re trying to inspect packets involving things like `AbilitySystemComponent`, you often don’t get much useful detail—especially when looking from the server side. You’ll see a big packet tagged with the Ability component, but not what’s actually inside it. Even with `NetTrace=3`, it’s not super helpful.

However, if you check from the **client side** , you actually get much more detailed information about what’s inside the packet. So if you’re trying to debug or understand what’s being sent, make sure to look at the **client’s incoming traffic**

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**Author:** ![JediKnightChan](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/jediknightchan/32/1156960_2.png) [@JediKnightChan](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/JediKnightChan)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/networking-insights-guide/465023/6 "2026-02-24T00:00:00Z")

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Greyed out tab means you don’t have networking data in your trace.

The caveat is that `-trace=net` is not enough, you also need`-NetTrace=1.`

I had crashes trying to open a trace with networking data in 5.1, had to use insights from 5.3 to open that trace.