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Ask Slashdot: How To Monitor Your Own Bandwidth Usage?
Vrtigo1 writes "With many ISPs either already using bandwidth caps or talking about them, I was wondering how other Slashdot readers are keeping tabs on how much data is being transferred through their home Internet connections. None of the consumer routers I've used seem to make this information easily accessible. I'd like some way to see exactly how much data has been sent and received by the WAN port facing my ISP's modem so I can compare the numbers I get with the numbers they give me. I don't want to pay for their modem firmware updates and other network management traffic, so I'd like to see how the two numbers line up."
Tomato.
DD-WRT.
I use Tomato firmware on a WRT54G v2 router. It has many ways of viewing used bandwidth.
Your ISP is likely not counting bytes that transfer through a connection to your modem. They are probably using a number of interesting tricks instead, probably mostly because whatever they bought into does something different. At a minimum counting packets and saying they are all MTU-sized would give different results and would eliminate the overhead of counting bytes.
If you are really, really nice about it, they might tell you what they are really measuring. But they probably will not. Even if you have a bandwidth cap in place, they probably aren't going give you detailed information about what they are measuring and how they are measuring it. Mostly, this would be for fear that you will use that information to figure out some way to circumvent it. In this case information certainly equals power - they have it and do not want you to have it.
So, while your router can count bytes with the right software, it probably isn't going to match up with what they say you are using, assuming they report it to you. My guess is your number will be lower, but it could go either way. In any event, the only number that means anything in your relationship with your ISP is their number. You will not be able to convince them that your number is "right" or "more correct" than their number.
Unless you need a number for your own management purposes - like finding out your neighbor creating 45% of the traffic on your connection - I'd say this is a pointless exercise.
If you're not comfortable/willing to install a custom firmware, the Netgear N600 has a meter built in.
Not only that, but it will constantly pull 100w+ vs the ~10w that a router will use!
Gone!
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/03/14/1444213/ATampT-To-Introduce-Broadband-Caps
I'm on Verizon, too, and they have no problem with me daisy-chaining my own router (DD-WRT) onto theirs. I agree that it might be fun to hook straight into their fiber modem with CAT-5 and skip the business of having coax and a second router in the loop, but it's their network and their modem. I'll get more huffy about it if/when I transition to IPv6 and don't want two layers of NAT between me and the network. In the mean time, though, it's trivial to shut off the transmitter for the router they provided and set up one that I can manage competently.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
pfSense. Been running it on ALIX board for years. Love it.
http://www.pfsense.org/
I put a pair of RFC1149-to-Ethernet gateways between my border router and my cable modem.
I then estimate the number of packets by measuring the amount of poultry poop between the gateway devices.
I multiply this by an estimated average packet size and I have a pretty good estimate of the number of bytes transferred plus the number of bytes lost.
Unfortunately I'm still trying to figure out my packet-loss ratio. Once I've got that down I'll have a better handle on how much traffic is going in and out of the modem.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I'll make a note of vnstat for cumulative usage.
For point-in-time bandwidth usage, I often use nethogs.
It breaks down current bandwidth usage by program, much handier than by host.
Click here to install (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint)
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Is it overheating?
When the sun shines directly on my old WRT54G it seems to hang. I moved it to an always shady spot and put a bit more space around it and it's been stable ever since.
For specific details, like how much my ISP thinks I've been using, and plans to charge me for, I go to their web page and bring up my account.
1) They bill you, you pay, end of story.
2)So you Don't pay, no service, and bad credit.
3)So You Sue, you pay more and perhaps something good happens. Good luck.
"It does not matter Whether the rock hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the rock, it's bound to be bad for the pitcher." -- Man of La Mancha
In a cable environment, what's usually measured is the actual bytes transferred to and from your cable modem. The measurement is recorded on the CMTS the cable modem connects through to provide a network connection. The CMTS numbers include bytes to/from devices (PCs, game consoles, smart phones, etc.) as well as a small amount of network overhead that's just between the cable modem and the CMTS. The overhead is typically a few K bytes per day. So the exact usage will never tie exactly to what's recorded on a home router, but it should be within +/- 5% at worst and typically run closer to 2% to 3%. The home router reported usage will be a little smaller than the CMTS side reported usage that the cable company will use for managing bandwith caps, but that can easily be compensated for by implementing a "grace buffer" of a few % over stated cap limits to account for variability. Whether or not this is done is another matter. But either way the actual variance is minimal.
Freedom means free choice. Nothing else come free with that. You are free to live where ever you want but you must face the consequences of that, good or bad. You are free to live in the city or in the middle of no where but if and when gas goes up you have to deal with it. It's not up to the Government to keep gas prices down just to support your choice.