How to calculate bandwith being used ?

BoltonMinx

Hiya

Ive just got NTL installed on Friday PM. I think I had to reset my router to factory settings as Id messed it up while attempting to add wireless security *blush* Anyways, Im on the 1GB deal which has a 3GB cap per month. Im trying to work out if this is a comfortable limit for us - we have 3 PCs, 1 is used for Helbreath gaming during the week and downloading music at the w/end quite a lot, 1 is used for surfing only and is used about 3 - 4 hours a day. Mine is used for about 6 hours a day mainly for online study, MSN Messanger and listening to music via Yahoo Messanger.

I just checked the router logs and it gives these figures. Do I add the send and receive together to work out how much Im using ? Im using a US Robotics router BTW.

dag_2

Ignore the LAN and the Wireless figure - the only figure that's relevant here is the WAN figure. WAN stands for "Wide Area Network" - which is a posh word for "the internet".

LAN stands for "Local Area Network", which simply means the computers plugged into your router, and doesn't include the internet. So the LAN figure is simply the amount of data moving between different computers plugged into the router, and not how much is going out to or coming in off the internet.

However - the figures you've shown are only averages - and it doesn't say how long the period it's averaged over is. Presumably it's the last time you clicked "reset" - but how long ago was that? Admittedly I'm only guessing.

Isn't there a bandwidth usage log? I'd try clicking on "log" and seeing what it says.

Anyway, I'm guessing that you last clicked "reset" over a month ago, and that your NTL deal is a one megabit line with a three gigabyte cap per month.

I'd also guess that NTL treat the "send" and "receive" figures separately - they both have to be below the limit. Domestic broadband service providers usually expect your "receive" figure to be significantly higher than your "send" figure. Check with NTL if you're unsure.

37835 bytes per second is 0.00003524 gigabytes per second - which is 3.044 gigabytes per day - which is 92.6 gigabytes per calendar month.

At that rate, you're going to be exceeding your cap thirty times over. You'd also exceed the limit of the next level up - £24.99 per month - three times over too. My advice to you is either to try to economise on bandwidth, or to look for a different ISP before NTL start enforcing limits.

BoltonMinx

Thanks for that, Im going to reset the log and see what we use in a week. Will hunt round to see if the router has any other figs.

squeaky

Sounds like you need a no limit supplier. There are plenty out there, but a good (as in reliable) is demon at http://www.demon.net It's 24.99 for 512k unmetered. Not the cheapest but I've never (in more than ten years) had bad service from them and that's worth the "extra" to me.

BoltonMinx

Im in the lucky position at the moment of having my BB paid for by work, so would consider a switch up to £25 a month. I think I need a BT line for ADSL though

T4i

Yes you do need a BT line for ADSL. Don't you have Cable?

BoltonMinx

Yeah just switched on Fri - will have to look around for any cable deals (only NTL in my area) or look at cutting back.

T4i

So you cant have Telewest (Blueyonder)

They dont put ANY limits on the amount you DL. How an ISP should be run!

BoltonMinx

T4i wrote:

So you cant have Telewest (Blueyonder)

They dont put ANY limits on the amount you DL. How an ISP should be run!

No unfortunately