a way to monitor bandwidth usage?

[mycomputersucks]

ok, so i share a broadband internet connection w/ my roommate. I have a feeling that he's hosting files(probably bittorrent, he has altered the router settings to open ports for specific bittorrent software) because my internet connection seems to crap out when he comes home or is home. for example, just the other day i woke up and i was getting dial up speeds for a few hours then speeds went back to normal. he comes home, spends 5 minutes in his room and the internet service craps out again. my ISP caps our ups/downs to 3megs/700kilos. i'm thinking he was dling/uloading something overnight that was hogging bandwidth. the dl/ul stopped and bandwidth usage opened up until he came home and started a new transfer.

I have a wireless router (he uses the wireless and i'm wired). when the speed slows down sometimes i'll restart the router and sometimes that works. i think it works because either my router is messed up (i doubt it, but possible) or when i restart it he loses his wireless connectivity. I've asked him if he's hosting files and he says no. The wireless access is secure. i don't broadcast the ssid and i have a WEP key required.

so, is there some software that i can leave running that will give me bandwidth usage for all the IPs allocated by my router? i checked my router settings and it doesn't have a bandwidth monitoring log. I've given ethereal a shot but for some reason it can't pick up any info involving his IP, even when i ping it it will show my request but not the response(pings are successful). no idea what kind of security he has running.

i don't want my ISP busting me (it's under my name) for massive illegal file transfers. Then again, my ISP might just be sucking ass but i still need to know what kind of bandwidth i'm using before i call them up bitching.

Thanks for any info!

 

[trmentry]

My first gut reaction would be to lock him out. Change the wep/wpa keys on your wireless, and the ssid. If he wants fast internet then he can pay for it himself and get his own connection. I had to do that when I had a roomate. He had his, I had mine. Cox had no issues hooking up 2 modems.

 

[mycomputersucks]

My first gut reaction would be to lock him out. Change the wep/wpa keys on your wireless, and the ssid. If he wants fast internet then he can pay for it himself and get his own connection. I had to do that when I had a roomate. He had his, I had mine. Cox had no issues hooking up 2 modems.

i could do that, but if it ends up being just my shitty ISP then i'll be paying twice as much for the same shitty service. right now we split the ISP costs 50/50. if i manage to find out that he's using more than 50% of the bandwidth then i'll look into a router w/ bandwidth allocation. anyone have any recommendations in that area?

 

[c.d.e]

i could do that, but if it ends up being just my shitty ISP then i'll be paying twice as much for the same shitty service. right now we split the ISP costs 50/50. if i manage to find out that he's using more than 50% of the bandwidth then i'll look into a router w/ bandwidth allocation. anyone have any recommendations in that area?

Depending on your router, you might already have something like it. QoS settings. Or if it runs linux and you have shell access, run netstat and try running/installing lsof.