Internet usage meter

[ibshaw]

Hi, apologies if this question is in the wrong place on the forum, it didn't seem to fit into any of the other categories. My ISP is claiming I use more than my monthly allowance and wants to charge me for it however I have no way to prove otherwise and would like some way to measure my D/L usage. As I have several systems on a network is there any software that can reliably measure usage at the router as it would be a pain to have to monitor individual systems and keep a record ?

 

[MvdB]

What kind of router do you have? Or combi of modem/router? Sometimes they are able to log data usage. Do you have only the one pc on it or do you have a WIFI that could be/is used by others?

 

[Paul1360]

Have a look here:--

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html

I've used this 1 for a long time and not had any problems.

iechyd da

 

[MvdB]

Have a look here:--

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html

I've used this 1 for a long time and not had any problems.

iechyd da

Paul, what would you use if ibshaw has more that one pc/lt on a (wireless)lan? does this measure at the modem?
Thx,
Mark

 

[ibshaw]

Hi guys (gals?) thanks for replies - I use a basic home Netgear combined modem / router that is the interface between my broadband ISP and my network which consists of one wired and three wireless systems. So, ideally if there was some way of measuring usage at the router that would be preferable since I realise there are individual PC meters but in my situation installing on each and adding up usage would be impractical. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

[MvdB]

Hi guys (gals?) thanks for replies - I use a basic home Netgear combined modem / router that is the interface between my broadband ISP and my network which consists of one wired and three wireless systems. So, ideally if there was some way of measuring usage at the router that would be preferable since I realise there are individual PC meters but in my situation installing on each and adding up usage would be impractical. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Have a type number for that netgear modem so I can check it's capabilities? Or have you already checked that?

 

[ibshaw]

I have a Netgear DG834GT (also have DG834 v 4 if that is any different), thanks.

 

[MvdB]

One way to keep track that's safe and not super hard is to monthly jot down your received packets number that is loggen in the modem. For detail see pg 6-6 in this technical manual for your modem:

http://kbserver.netgear.com/pdf/dg834gt_manual.pdf

Advantage of this method is that you need nothing extra....
Let me know if that's sufficient and feasible. If not, we'll find something else.

 

[ibshaw]

Hi, thanks for reply - yes, that is feasible however it looks like it will only measure the amount of packets sent/received since the last power on, so if the modem is not on 24/7 you would need to check it every day ? Since it gets switched off each night, I guess I'd need some kind of text file like an error log over a period of time but I guess this is not something this modem would do.

 

[severedsolo]

Is there any reason you are switching the router off overnight? ADSL is designed to be an "always on" connection.

There are really no advantages and several disadvantages to switching the router off overnight unless you are experiencing a loss of sync in the evenings and are rebooting in the morning in order to get a higher speed.

As you are in the UK, it wouldn't be a huge leap of faith to assume that you obtain your internet connection via BT Wholesale, even if BT are not your ISP. (As you don't have a HomeHub I'm assuming that they are not) BT's network requires a stable sync of at least 3 days before it will stabilise your IP profile (which dictates your speed) in the event of a higher sync speed being obtained. Worse still, if you have ever had several loss of sync events in a short space of time, the DSLAM may well have raised your target SNR, which requires a stable connection for at least 14 days before returning to normal.

In other words, by switching it off overnight, your speeds can only go down.

 

[James Colbert]

From what I can tell, the link to the utility posted by Paul1360 is exactly what you're looking for:

 

[MvdB]

From what I can tell, the link to the utility posted by Paul1360 is exactly what you're looking for:

View attachment 162081

ibshaw has W7 64b and if he wants this he needs .NET, current version: 4.0.
This doesn't work or install on such a system, to be sure, I've just tried it on one of mine....

 

[severedsolo]

From what I can tell, the link to the utility posted by Paul1360 is exactly what you're looking for:

View attachment 162081

ibshaw has W7 64b and if he wants this he needs .NET, current version: 4.0.
This doesn't work or install on such a system, to be sure, I've just tried it on one of mine....

Works fine here. Windows 7 comes with .Net 4.0 and 3.5 which I believe comes with 2.0 with it. You must have downloaded the older version which doesn't work on Windows 7 SP1

 

[MvdB]

From what I can tell, the link to the utility posted by Paul1360 is exactly what you're looking for:

View attachment 162081

ibshaw has W7 64b and if he wants this he needs .NET, current version: 4.0.
This doesn't work or install on such a system, to be sure, I've just tried it on one of mine....

Works fine here. Windows 7 comes with .Net 4.0 and 3.5 which I believe comes with 2.0 with it. You must have downloaded the older version which doesn't work on Windows 7 SP1

That's strange, I've got .NET 4.0 on W7 64b. Did you test the install on 64b? It wouldn't even install here...

 

[severedsolo]

Yep, Win 7 Ultimate X64 with Sp1 installed. Installed first time, no need to even run in compatibility mode.

A thought occurs to me. OP who is your ISP? Most UK ISP's now offer usage monitoring, and will send you an email when you are getting close to it. I know that BT, Plusnet and TalkTalk do. In fact to the best of my knowledge, the only ISP who don't are Virgin Media.

 

[ibshaw]

Thanks to everyone who replied, I will certainly try all the suggestions in particular the leaving of the modem on 24/7 which to be honest I was just doing as nobody used it during the night I had no idea it could affect your broadband stability to such an extent !!! My ISP is TalkTalk and they have an online broadband meter but I, and many others I have spoken to on their forum, just do not believe the figures they are quoting and i just wanted to have some way to compare especially if they plan to charge me for excess usage. I will let you know, thanks again...

 

[severedsolo]

Are you taking into account that upload also counts towards your usage limit? It never used to be this way, but someone at their marketing department seem's to have caught onto that one....

 

[ibshaw]

No, i certainly did not know that !!! how sneaky, should be renamed Internet Usage Allowance or something like that if it is both DL and UL that is being measured. Anyway, I got the software to work and just need to get familiar with it - it looks like you can get it to track more than one PC over a time period so that is what i was looking for - I just need to figure out how to do it.... LOL.

 

[Phone Man]

Here is program I use, but you would need it on each PC.

Bandwidth monitor, bandwidth speed test, bandwidth and traffic monitoring tool for Windows

NetWorx Online Manual

Has Daily, Weekly and Monthly stats so you can see what is going on.
You can set up your usage quota and at what percentage you want to be alerted.

Jim

 

[Paul1360]

MvdB
I'm running Win 7 64bit, My PC is wired and my Laptop is wireless and TBB meter gives me the usage on both, as it's set to cover my Home group network. Been using it for a long time now.


iechyd da