Measuring Usage

[richc46]

ATT has just sent me a notice that starting in May, I will be charged for excessive usage, which is anything over 150GB per month.
I know how usage is affected by D/L pictures music etc, but would like to keep track. Can anyone suggest good software that will allow me to measure usage?

 

[stormy13]

Don't have a recommendation as to what to use, but is there more than one computer on the connection (and a bandwidth monitor won't work if there is something like a Xbox or PS3 connected as well)? If so then whatever you go with will have to be installed on all computers to keep track. better is if your router can keep track of it in that case.

Also unless you are going to use it in case of discrepancy with ATT's own meter, looking around over here,

AT&T Northeast forum | DSLReports.com, ISP Information

the only meter that will matter is what ATT says you used which looks to be found here,

www.MyUsage.att.com

 

[richc46]

Thank you Rich
I received an email from them giving me information about their usage page etc, which shows no information, at present, about my usage, so I guess its not up and working yet. I feel that I am way under the allowed 150GB/month allowance, but just wanted to get a feel for how much I actually am using.
Im on line quite a bit helping out here and the Vista forum, check emails, surf the net, download vaction pictures, a bit of you tube etc.

Thanks for the NE Forum link, was not aware of that one.

 

[sordid]

iTraffic Monitor

 

[ignatzatsonic]

That's a good question, Rich. Does anyone know if there is anything built into Windows that can give you a daily, weekly, or monthly report???

I'll take a look at iTraffic monitor.

 

[sordid]

iTraffic Monitor is a nice tool.
There's also another nifty tool from AnalogX.
But in the end, of course, what matters is what your provider claims. :-(

 

[stormy13]

But in the end, of course, what matters is what your provider claims. :-(

This more than anything. Another thing to consider if you are behind a router, regardless of how many computers are connected to it, any program you use will only report what passes through the ethernet port without taking into consideration anything that will have been blocked at the router.

 

[sordid]

True.
I'm working for a big ISP and we measure any traffic between CPE and us, which is even more than between CPE and NIC.
Fortunately, we offer a real flat rate and measure for the records only.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Sordid:

Please spill the beans.

How long do you keep user logs and what level of detail do they contain?

 

[sordid]

I'm from Austria and we have a very strict law here regarding keeping records of personal connection details.
While we technically of course WOULD be able to monitor ever connection from every user, we simply don't.
All we keep track of is the total amount of traffic between CPE and our equipment.
As I mentioned earlier, our subscribers have a real flat rate but this data is valuable for future infrastructure plannings since we're not using single subscriber lines as in DSL but a shared network aka Cable.

Edit: In general, we only keep record of the total bandwidth use of all customers that form a subnetwork - peak times, total data transfer and the like - to be able to react before an actual shortage occurs.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

So, if testifying in court, you couldn't testify whether a user had downloaded a cake recipe or H-Bomb technology?

That's good.

Everyone in the US seems to think that ISPs don't have detailed logs (beyond "how much") or cannot tell what a user is downloading------but no one ever offers proof. For some fool reason, it's taken on faith.

 

[sordid]

Exactly, Ignatz.

There is only one exception - when a federal prosecutor orders us to log details in the future.
But if you were a customer of us and you were taken to court, we couldn't testify whether you were transferring gigs of child pornography or constantly downloading the latest Linux images unless we received that order by an attorney to record FUTURE connections.

I'm really glad that law here in most European countries is extremely strict.

 

[sordid]

Something else I forgot to mention - logging connections means an incredible amount of work, data saved, heavy investments in the infrastructure.
That alone should keep you safe from being spied by your ISP.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Thanks for the added detail.

What is your candid opinion on the logging activities of other major ISPs, particularly those based in the US.

They don't log detail?

They do, but don't keep it beyond 30 days?

If your users have an IP that changes say once a month, can you still retrieve their activity from an IP they had 2 years ago, if court-ordered? Or is what a user did last month gone forever, regardless of court order?

I'd think the path of least resistance for your operation would be to log only amounts, not content, and even then delete it if the bill was paid.

 

[richc46]

iTraffic Monitor

Thank you, I will check it out.

 

[sordid]

iTraffic Monitor

Thank you, I will check it out.

Have fun, it's good software and free of charge.

 

[sordid]

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no clue about the logging practices of other ISPs.
But judging by some decisions from US courts, I doubt they always had an order to record future connections but kept older records.

Of course it's possible to allocate any given customer to any IP at any given time.

 

[kodi]

You could try this one Net Usage Item - Firefox Internet Usage Extension
It is mainly for Australian ISPs but it can be used for other ones.
You need to be using firefox and your ISP needs to have a Usage webpage as yours seems to have.
I can highly recommend this one as it gives you all the detail you need but take up a very small space on your existing toolbar.

 

[sordid]

You don't have real flat rates Down Under???

 

[stormy13]

They just something from places like this,

Sandvine : Intelligent Broadband Networks - Welcome!

DDoS Protection | DDoS Attack Mitigation | Stop DDoS | Network Security | Arbor Networks

Think you will find that most ISP's at least in North America are using something like the above if they are doing throttling (usually of torrent traffic), of which as I understand it they use DPI (deep packet inspection) to determine what to throttle.

You can get an idea as to which are using it from doing a search over here,

DSLReports Home : Broadband ISP Reviews News Tools and Forums

and search for "sandvine" or "ellacoya". Bell and Rogers are two of the biggest users of this sort of thing at least here in Canada.