Measuring Usage

[richc46]

Well its starting. I received a notice from ATT, today, that starting in May, my usage will be monitored and I will be charged for excessive usage. I will be given 150GB per month.
Does anyone have an idea how many GB are used, lets say, for one hour of service just surfing the net and going to a different website every 2 minutes. Lets assume that the websites are nothing special, Yahoo, CNN, etc. That would give me a good idea of how much is used by just suffing.
I have an idea downloading music, pics etc.

Can anyone suggest any good monitoring software?

 

[kesume]

Hi Richard,
I had these articles to hand, having a while ago discussions with my ISP re: web usage.
They may be some good, but I'm sure you may already be aufait with the content knowledge.
I don't know first hand on software monitors therefore I cannot advise.
BT my ISP b/band web page account has a personal monitoring system, put in your code etc., you can check back 1hr later to see how much you've used.
If your ISP can tell you how much you've used, they can tell you the methods of calculation?

Mobile Broadband Data Calculator - Virgin Media Shop

Mobile Broadband Usage Guide - Mobile Internet Genie

A definition of What uses Gigabytes | Guillotine Press

 

[Patonb]

How many net connected items on your network?

What router you using?

I use dd-wrt on my router for it's OS/firmware and it'll tell me.

You can even run a script on it to mail you when it hits a limit.

That aside, you should look into your router for a bandwidth monitor.

Other than that, theres a sidebar gadget I've played with.

Linkies
www.dd-wrt.com | Unleash Your Router
DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - Daily email with the previous day's bandwidth usage?

Windows Live Gallery

 

[richc46]

How many net connected items on your network?

What router you using?

I use dd-wrt on my router for it's OS/firmware and it'll tell me.

You can even run a script on it to mail you when it hits a limit.

That aside, you should look into your router for a bandwidth monitor.

Other than that, theres a sidebar gadget I've played with.

Linkies
www.dd-wrt.com | Unleash Your Router
DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - Daily email with the previous day's bandwidth usage?

Windows Live Gallery

No router
Ill check out the sidebar gadget. I know I am way under the allowed 150GB/month, but just want to know how much Im using. I enjoy watching hour videos on youtube, download vacation pictures that I am sent, surf the net, and email.
Thanks for your input.

 

[richc46]

Hi Richard,
I had these articles to hand, having a while ago discussions with my ISP re: web usage.
They may be some good, but I'm sure you may already be aufait with the content knowledge.
I don't know first hand on software monitors therefore I cannot advise.
BT my ISP b/band web page account has a personal monitoring system, put in your code etc., you can check back 1hr later to see how much you've used.
If your ISP can tell you how much you've used, they can tell you the methods of calculation?

Mobile Broadband Data Calculator - Virgin Media Shop

Mobile Broadband Usage Guide - Mobile Internet Genie

A definition of What uses Gigabytes | Guillotine Press

Thank you Keith, Ill look them over. Little by little, penny, by penny they will break us all. Connecticut taxes are probably going to jump in July, too. Not to mention food inflation.

 

[Patonb]

No router, than yha the sidebars your easy ticket.

Only 1 item makes life easy, I have 3 computers and a media player all using bandwidth so i gotta monitor at the out point.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Well its starting. I received a notice from ATT, today, that starting in May, my usage will be monitored and I will be charged for excessive usage. I will be given 150GB per month.
Does anyone have an idea how many GB are used, lets say, for one hour of service just surfing the net and going to a different website every 2 minutes. Lets assume that the websites are nothing special, Yahoo, CNN, etc. That would give me a good idea of how much is used by just suffing.
I have an idea downloading music, pics etc.

Can anyone suggest any good monitoring software?

Hi,

If AT & T respect their customers they should have a spot on your account page, like my ISP has, that gives you all those details anyway, even on a day to day basis.
Regular surfing uses very little data, it's downloads/uploads that count for most of it.

 

[richc46]

They have it and they gave me the link, but does not seem to be working yet. They want to surprise us.

 

[Ex_Brit]

LOL...they'll get it working just as you get to within 1kb of your limit...of course.

 

[The Howling Wolves]

AT&T is acting like the IRS..
They want your house, car, paycheck and next of kindling.

 

[MWRed]

My ISP had recently instituted "soft" caps, apparently in an attempt to curb the most abusive users of the banwidth. A lot of people have complained that they have been notified of high usage, and after 3 times, their service will be cut.
But almost all of them have asked Chart....umm...the ISP what their usage has been, and how the user can see it so they know if they need to be more careful. What were they told? "We don't have a way for you to monitor your usage yet."

Well, it's kinda hard to push caps and not have a simple way to show the user what he/she is using up. Hard to enforce without having any evidence that the consumer can see.

I know I don't have to worry. And yes, it's a soft cap, but if they follow suit and start to be like so many other companies and keep lowering the cap, then they are going to lose a lot of customers as time goes by.

 

[Ex_Brit]

That is bad policy - they need a regulatory rap on the knuckles perhaps?

 

[ilikefree]

Well its starting. I received a notice from ATT, today, that starting in May, my usage will be monitored and I will be charged for excessive usage. I will be given 150GB per month.
Does anyone have an idea how many GB are used, lets say, for one hour of service just surfing the net and going to a different website every 2 minutes. Lets assume that the websites are nothing special, Yahoo, CNN, etc. That would give me a good idea of how much is used by just suffing.
I have an idea downloading music, pics etc.

Can anyone suggest any good monitoring software?

If it is any help my cap is 40GB/month and I only use it all if I am downloading several movies.
I use Networx for monitoring

http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/

 

[MilesAhead]

Thing is ISPs want to be competitive by offering higher download speed. But they really don't want people to make the most of it. So they don't raise the cap. If you have the bucks to burn some offer higher speed service with no cap. Wish I could opt for it, but $100+/month just for playing on the net is kind of high. I'm hoping the higher download speeds will create some customer/competitive pressure to increase the caps.

Doesn't seem very sensible to double your download speed and keep the cap the same. You just hit the wall sooner in the month.

 

[ilikefree]

Richard I think you will never use all your cap.

 

[richc46]

Your probably right. I have downloaded a gadget that measures usage all day and not even 1GB. Today was slow, however.

 

[niemiro]

Well its starting. I received a notice from ATT, today, that starting in May, my usage will be monitored and I will be charged for excessive usage. I will be given 150GB per month.
Does anyone have an idea how many GB are used, lets say, for one hour of service just surfing the net and going to a different website every 2 minutes. Lets assume that the websites are nothing special, Yahoo, CNN, etc. That would give me a good idea of how much is used by just suffing.
I have an idea downloading music, pics etc.

Can anyone suggest any good monitoring software?

Hello Rich!

150GB/month is massive. That is basically unlimited. With that limit, you can browse and download all you want. It only becomes an issue if you are a mega-torrent dude who has about 50 or more dodgy pieces of software uploading and downloading all the time. I know you don't do this, and I am not saying that you do...that is not how I intended it. Unlimited, except for those who abuse (the system and the law)

Just web browsing will probably be in the order of 2GB - 5GB per month.

I download lots of stuff - various big bits of open source code, SDKs, new copies of Visual Studio whenever they come out, anything which appears on Dreamspark, etc. etc. I don't really get any more than 30GB per month on average.

I think that you would not have to worry on 10GB/month, but 150GB/month, you need not think on your cap as long as that is your cap.

Richard

P.S. Some calculations. To break your cap, you would have to download a sustained 5GB per day. That is more than many people do in half a year.

Technically, you would only need internet at about 60kb/s to bust that. So you could do it. Just about.

 

[derekimo]

This thread got me thinking about mine, Comcast has a 250GB limit, and according to their meter I'm using about 10GB for Dec. and Jan. then 2GB for Feb. and about the same for this month.

I'm not sure about that 10GB though.

 

[MWRed]

This thread got me thinking about mine, Comcast has a 250GB limit, and according to their meter I'm using about 10GB for Dec. and Jan. then 2GB for Feb. and about the same for this month.

I'm not sure about that 10GB though.

I really wish my ISP had something like that, to at least give people an idea what we're using.

Charter keeps giving these little speed increases to each HSI package...usually about 2mb download increases each time, but they cap it.....yeah, makes no sense.
"Here....have a little more speed, but don't use it"

 

[richc46]

I found a nice little gadget, that measures usage.
Per Patonb, above.