Looking for bandwidth monitor software (total upload/download)

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silent hero

Gawd
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Aug 1, 2008
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So my ISP is Comcast and as most if not all Comcast users here on [H] may know that they now have a cap on the service to 250GB/ month. Is there any recommended software for monitoring statistics for total downloading and uploading for a duration of time? :confused:
 
If you're running Vista or Windows 7, there are some decent Gadgets at the gallery pages that could fill that requirement, I guess.

At the moment I can't think of the name of the one that I've heard mentioned most often (funny how our brains just skip sometimes right when we need a particular piece of info from memory), so if I remember it I'll post it...
 
What is your router? Some support monitoring proggies.

If you're worried about bandwidth caps...I'll guess you're a P2P/torrenter. If you're one of those, you're probably fedup with home grade routers and their lack of power and ability to handle the concurrent connections of p2p traffic. And probably hate how they bog down and won't let your surf or game well when doing that p2p junk. So in being a member of these forums, you'd learn (from over in the networking forum) how superior some *nix router distros are at handling these loads. Such as PFSense.

PFSense allows me to game online, while the wife heavily surfs, while the kid torrents and downloads and plays his games, and my pings stay fine..due to its superior QoS/Traffic shaping features. Else I'd be unplugging everyone from it cuz my pings skyrocket during a key online battle I'm in.

It also has some cool features and plugins which allow excellent bandwidth monitoring and reporting.
 
I know dd-wrt includes a bandwidth monitoring function within it's firmware.
 
Netmeter.
It will do everything you need as long as you are the only PC on your internet connection.
It will tell you your current speeds and how much you have used that day, week, month etc.
The window can be resized to show as much info as you like.
A fantastic tool !!

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Network-Tools/Bandwidth-Tools/NetMeter.shtml
Configure it to suit.

In case it helps, my settings are
General:
Enable transparency and make it so it fades in when mouse over. (30 to 50% transparency depending on taste)
Untick show windows caption (makes it take less screen space)

Graph:
Custom value set to my internet connection speed
Untick gradient background
Untick show horizontal grid
Show vertical grid lines every 30 seconds.

Resize to a small rectangle and stick near the bottom right corner of the screen for general leave alone ness and it will become as see thru as you configured :)
When you need to see what is going on, mouse over and it will become solid and you can resize larger if necessary.
 
Some ISP's have a monitor if your connection is capped (like Comcast's is) so you might want to check their website for that. That's how I monitor mine, sad that we even have to, but oh well.

Comcast's 250GB is seeming more and more generous from what I've read. My ISP (Cogeco, Canadian company) caps our total data at 100GB a month and because there are three of us living here together we eat through that in the first week and a half of the month, then have to slow way down :(

I really wish ISP's would address the ever growing issue of capping bandwidth. As people start using their connection for more and more they chew through bandwidth like it's nothing. I watch ALL my TV through BitTorrent, download a lot of my music, and use it to watch movies on demand as well, sometimes in HD. I'd gladly pay a premium for an uncapped connection :( All the ISPs in the area have caps as well, so no matter where we go we're SOL. Very frustrating.
 
If you install DDWRT on your router it will tell you total downloaded / uploaded on the status page of its web interface.
 
Dammit I need to get one of those Linksys Linux powered routers someday... sounds like I'm missing (and have been for a long time) out on some very useful features. Did research in the past when the WRT54G series with the Linux kernels first appeared but I didn't mess around with 'em... just another mistake I'm coming to realize. ;)
 
Decepticon said:
Comcast's 250GB is seeming more and more generous from what I've read.
Click to expand...

Sadly enough this is true. Charter Cable currently has a 100GB bandwidth cap. I've had to severely curtail my downloads in the last month or so. No more random pron downloads :( :D

And +1 to Netmeter. Been using it ever since the bandwidth cap was announced by Charter. However it only supports the monitoring of one PC. If you have multiple PCs in the home and don't feel like going to each and every PC to monitor their bandwidth usage, use one of the 'nix distros or 3rd party firmware mentioned here in the thread so far. Those should allow you to monitor the bandwidth of each and every PC from a single webpage or so.
 
Joe Average said:
Dammit I need to get one of those Linksys Linux powered routers someday... sounds like I'm missing (and have been for a long time) out on some very useful features. Did research in the past when the WRT54G series with the Linux kernels first appeared but I didn't mess around with 'em... just another mistake I'm coming to realize. ;)
Click to expand...

If you do, get some of the newer models...the wrt54gl is getting a bit long in the tooth. Newer generation models are quite faster (CPU and more RAM). Quite a few of the newer Linksys black flying saucer models support DD.

Wanna really enjoy your connection? Snag and old laptop and install PFSense on it. ;) It'll blow the fricking doors off of any home grade router with DD.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
If you do, get some of the newer models...the wrt54gl is getting a bit long in the tooth. Newer generation models are quite faster (CPU and more RAM). Quite a few of the newer Linksys black flying saucer models support DD.

Wanna really enjoy your connection? Snag and old laptop and install PFSense on it. ;) It'll blow the fricking doors off of any home grade router with DD.
Click to expand...

I do have an old ThinkPad sitting here actually... a t23... hmmm... Pentium 3 1.13... that could probably handle it I suppose, but but but... then it's a question of... well, I'll figure it out. Just my Wife's machine and mine here at home, still using 100Mbps off the Netgear router (hey, it was like $9 at Fry's, and a far sight better than the defective Linksys model I was using that dropped out consistently when I least wanted it to happen). :D

Will do more research into PFSense and see what I can muster up...
 
1. NetLimiter (the best I have used so far)
2. OpUtils 5 (might be supermendously better than NetLimiter if you are able to set this up correctly -- but for this one you might need one of those Cisco VPS hubs or something to use this, or something)
3. DU Meter
4. Bandwidth Meter Pro
 
silent hero said:
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Keem 'em coming. :)
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Just remember, you're going to want to have something at the router do this. If you've got multiple computers connecting to the internet, you either need to monitor the source where they all connect to the internet, or install something on each computer and add them up.

Much easier to monitor the source of your internet connection than everything else. I use DDWRT and my monthly bandwidth is always just a few clicks away.
 
Joe Average said:
I do have an old ThinkPad sitting here actually... a t23... hmmm... Pentium 3 1.13... that could probably handle it I suppose, but but but... then it's a question of... well, I'll figure it out. Just my Wife's machine and mine here at home, still using 100Mbps off the Netgear router (hey, it was like $9 at Fry's, and a far sight better than the defective Linksys model I was using that dropped out consistently when I least wanted it to happen). :D

Will do more research into PFSense and see what I can muster up...
Click to expand...

Will work very well...the home network couldn't even push a midrange P3 with 256 megs running PFSense. The onboard NIC is recognized, and just slap an old PCMCIA NIC into the side. I've used DStink, Stinksys, and currently a 3COM PCMCIA NIC. A while ago I was running it on an older T22 series with a P3 800. With several PCs banging all they could on downloading at the same time, and 2x PCs playing COD and Battlefield online at the same time..I never got the CPU past 35% or so % utilization. And QoS kept the online gaming smooth.

Using a laptop for a *nix router..you have a built in keyboard 'n monitor for console menu, small footprint, low noise, low heat output, low electrical appetite, as well as a built in battery backup! :D
 
Since you already have a WRT54GL I believe, I would just use the built-in BW Meter which comes with DD-WRT since it will monitor traffic for ALL computers on the network.

For software, the best is BWMeter or Netlimiter. The others are not that great since they calculate both LAN traffic and WAN traffic. Since for Comcast you want to monitor only WAN traffic you must use either BWMeter or NetLimiter.

I personally use and have BWMeter installed on my friends who have Comcast. BWMeter makers are are constantly developing it and slowly improving the GUI. Once you get use to the GUI it's great with tons of control.
 
That 250GB limit is insanely generous by New Zealand standards. Here we either get 4~10GB and then depend on ISP:

-capped to 64Kbs
-Buy data block by the GB to get off the cap. Best price you get is about 50US cents per GB.
-Get charged by the MB after the limit.

OT:
Tomato has a WAN counter that counts by the day and then you can view as per week and month with the month you can also set the date the counter at ISP end resets. The record can set to back up to a LAN share by the hour
 
I've ultimately decided that Tomato firmware for my Linksys is the best way for me to check on bandwidth usage based on what was suggested. Thanks again for the help everyone.
 
I use cacti (RRDtool) so long as your router supports snmp your good to go.
 
ZzBloopzZ said:
Since you already have a WRT54GL I believe, I would just use the built-in BW Meter which comes with DD-WRT since it will monitor traffic for ALL computers on the network.

For software, the best is BWMeter or Netlimiter. The others are not that great since they calculate both LAN traffic and WAN traffic. Since for Comcast you want to monitor only WAN traffic you must use either BWMeter or NetLimiter.

I personally use and have BWMeter installed on my friends who have Comcast. BWMeter makers are are constantly developing it and slowly improving the GUI. Once you get use to the GUI it's great with tons of control.
Click to expand...

Not many people know this, and the company that makes it does not openly disclose it.

If you want to use Jumbo Frames on your PC that you want to monitor bandwidth from, do not use BWMETER from http://www.desksoft.com/

Whatever your framesize was if it was above 1500 bytes, after installing BWMETER it will be 1500 bytes. But will still be reported in your configuration as whatever size you had specified, like 9K or 4K packet sizes.

There is NO fix from desksoft.com and they have no plans on addressing it.

Don't know about the other applications.
 
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