Hello, everybody! Sorry if this is the wrong forum, but it seems like the correct one. I would simply like to know how I can monitor internet usage by bandwidth on a wireless network address. My setup: I am using the ZTE MF28B from Rogers to access the internet. The network can be accessed wirelessly from 3 different laptops, wirelessly from my PS3 and from a wired connection to my desktop computer. All laptops and my desktop computer operate on Windows 7 Home Premium. Why do I want to do this? My parents live me/I live with them, same thing. But they each have a laptop and access the internet through it. My monthly allowance is 30 GB, and was consistently around 24-25 for about 6-8 months, then my parents both recently found out that they can watch videos online and look at neighbouring properties on Google Earth so my usage for last month was about 44 GB. At a cost of $5 per extra GB, that adds up. When I first approached my mom about this, she claimed, 'I never download anything. I just watch horse auctions online.' These horse auctions can go on for a good 6-8 hours. Essentially, I have explained to them that watching videos IS downloading and using bandwith, but they do not seem to understand the cost of it. What I would like to do is monitor their usage as well as mine by each device so that I can show them just what they are using and how much it is costing each of us. I really do not care WHAT they are using the internet for, I just want to know the bandwidth. I suppose it would help to know if they are watching videos or how much Google Earth uses, but that is not a concern to me at this point. (Does anybody know how much Google Earth uses?) 1. To monitor their access, would I be correct to assume that I need to use a different router? 2. How exactly do I do this? I have found a few free programs online that work with XP, but nothing for Windows 7. Well, nothing free, that is. 3. Would it be accurate to assume I would be monitoring this by MAC address? On a final note, I feel that I've mentioned this already, but I do not want to do this to monitor and restrict my parents. I want to do this so I can show them just how much they are using and then help them curb their internet habits rather than simply tell them to not watch videos or anything like that.
I need to know which computer is consuming my bandwidth. Is there a tool to do this?
If you want to graphically display your local network connections, you may be interested in etherape. Free and cross platform. The thickness of the connection is an indicator of traffic volume.
At the router level would be the easiest as it wouldn't involve installing software on each machine separately. Tomato Firmware is great and automatically monitors bandwidth in the logs section, you can use it along with IPTables (Linux) for a complete traffic monitoring solution. Since you are probably on Windows, you can use it in a VM as well.
For a software solution for each computer, take a look at the freeware tool NetLimiter, the bandwidth monitor is free:
I could not find a lot of free ones to monitor all the entire network with one application, except maybe Spiceworks:
There are plenty that can monitor each computer you install it on. A couple are:
If you want to find others, Google 'monitor bandwidth usage on network' (without the quotes)
Now as far as limiting them, I did not find any software, because most of the time, that is handled by the router. After all, it is easier to do there since all traffic has to go through it, otherwise, you would need an application on each PC to limit bandwidth usage.
I am sorry to say that I looked through your manual, and your router has no features to limit bandwidth or quality of service.
You can use DU Meter + dumeter.net to monitor Internet bandwidth usage on your network:
dumeter.net displays bandwidth usage of all your computers connected to your account. Your Internet provider can show only the overall totals, which are of course useless if you have several computers in your house and would like to know how much bandwidth each of them used.
DU Meter is not free, however dumeter.net is currently free for all DU Meter 6.x users.
If you have a cisco router, you can use scrutinizer. You need to modify a few lines of code in your router to enable netflow, but I've found this program to be fantastic, and it's free.
dasaybzdasaybz
You can use WhatPulse:
Free
Linux/Win/Mac
It records the network use
Stats are available online as well as on the desktop client.
I have finally finished implementing the Network Utilization Monitor tool which helps me to monitor internet bandwidth utilization by each computer in my home network (including phones/tablets). I have shared internet with my neighborhoods and sometimes when the internet hangs I want to know what is the reason. What does consume 8 MBit/sec input and 0.5Mbit/sec output directions.
In the EtherApe I did not find how to how separately calculate incoming and outgoing traffic.
This tool requires L2 Managed Switch with option to mirror all traffic to specified Port.
Dmytro OvdiienkoDmytro Ovdiienko
Glasswire is an amazing tool. Free and paid versions are available.
This image illustrates..
Check Bandwidth Consumption On Nayatel Router Number
I have been using Plex and Twitch a lot this evening. Install it. Leave it running. Check back after a few hours or days to see what is going on for that PC.