What's the best program to watch my bandwidth?

[DeDav]

So as of late I've found out my house has hit 160gb in 8 days, and unfortunately we have a cap of 250 a month. So I was wondering if there are any programs out to that I can have on my computer running in the background that watch how much comes in and out of my computer. I'm not looking for speeds of my upload and download (I have Raindrop for that), I want to know exactly how much I've gone through in a certain amount of time. Thanks guys!

 

[LuzTeTT]

There is a Firefox addon called 'Net Usage Item' that can use various XML-based services on your ISP's network to extrapolate and display the data in your Firefox-based browser.

Otherwise, I would suggest bookmarking your ISP's reporting pages, or you will have to install something at the network level to watch the bandwidth usage, since you have used the pronoun 'we', I presume you're on a home network with other users and devices.

 

[marsmimar]

Hello DeDav and welcome to Seven Forums.

I don't know if it's the best, but I've been using a free utility called Networx for a long time. Another free product is Rokario. I don't have any personal experience with this one but it seems to have a good reputation. Nice thing about freebies is you can try each of them for a while and then decide.

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

Rokario Software - Free Bandwidth Monitor

 

[DeDav]

I was hoping for something outside of any internet programs, specifically Firefox since it's been slowing down for me. If I do use Net Usage Item does it track everything on the computer, but it just needs to be viewed in Firefox?

 

[LuzTeTT]

I was hoping for something outside of any internet programs, specifically Firefox since it's been slowing down for me. If I do use Net Usage Item does it track everything on the computer, but it just needs to be viewed in Firefox?

It doesn't track anything. It will ask your service provider how much bandwidth you have used and then display it for you in the form of a bar on your browser wherever you'd like. You can click on it to refresh it, and it automatically refreshes periodically.

The addon doesn't support a lot of ISPs out of the box since it is mostly for Australia, but the concept itself is probably more what you're looking for and I would be surprised if your ISP didn't already offer something like it.

If you're looking to keep track of data usage on your PC alone, then specific software will do it for you, including what has already been mentioned in posts above.

 

[boohbah]

160gb in 8 days is a substantial amount,
if you or someone else in the household is using bittorrent or utorrent you can set a monthly cap to include up and down traffic.
from the options/transfer cap tab

 

[DeDav]

I tried that Bandwidth Monitor link from Marsmimar, and I think that it's working the best, since it's letting me keep watch on what I need. Thanks guys for the help!

 

[marsmimar]

Glad to hear Networx seems to be working for you. Thanks for posting back.