How to check your Internet usage (bandwidth) 18 October 2006 at 11:30AM edited 29 January 2011 at 2:26PM in Broadband & Internet Access 181 replies 306.9K views

dylanuk

Does anyone know what they include in usage? Pages are tiny, right?

Pages are tiny.. but images aren't and they can add up. Also, anything like streaming music (spotify) or streaming video (youtube or bbc iplayer) will rack up the amount you're downloading quite quickly.

Also - check your wireless Internet connection is secured if you have one, just to rule out anyone else using your connection.

charlieheard

I've been using NetMeter for a while now, but it cannot separate broadband traffic from wireless network traffic. So when moving files from the laptop to the desktop, that is included in the totals. As I use the 2 PCs for backing eachother up, it really messes up my usage totals

Is there any way to monitor just the broadband usage within NetMeter? Or will another program allow me to do that?

spud17

NetWorx may be worth a look, it does allow you to separate internet traffic from local network traffic.

daedana

I chose at first we would not have anything with a exact limit. I would not remember to check it frequently enough and It would then overflow.

The only good solution for me was to get a stable land line. I was though surprised at the beginning that we had to pay to BT in almost all cases. We're going to have this current system for a year and then turn to using something from utilitywarehouse.

Our landlord said that you don't have to pay anything for BT if using this. Currently we have an O2 connection and I wanted to get it for the free router we got in that deal. I was wondering if anyone has used that box in any other suppliers connection, than O2 own.

Appreciate your answers on this.

Jonny0000

Great thread. Lots of very useful links. I honestly think ISP's should provide a monitoring service as part of their net package. Too often un-savvy users are caught out.

cnc279

speedtest.net worked pretty well for me. Gives comparisons too.

charlieheard

cnc279 wrote: »

speedtest.net worked pretty well for me. Gives comparisons too.

This site checks your connection speed - not a surprise given it's name:p;). I'm afraid it does nothing to check your usage...

Bleg

Use Networx. It monitors usage both uploads and downloads, off and on peak and it can warn you when you are approaching the limits of your allowed Gb.

GTG

Just downloaded and installed NetMeter version 1.1.4 Beta and it's screwing with my otherwise perfectly operating laptop. After setting it to start on windows start up and restarting I'm receiving the message "netmeter not responding". I'm still able to get the options menu open and the totals tab is showing no broadband activity. There are two icons in my system tray and each time I close the program and open it again using the desktop shortcut it adds an additional icon to my system tray. What a crock!

Anyone know if there is a newer version, my operating system is Vista. ?

spud17

Anyone know if there is a newer version, my operating system is Vista. ?

No there isn't, it worked perfectly for me on XP, but Win7 had problems.
See previous posts and try NetWorx.