[SOLVED] Bandwidth usage by device on network

austay666

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Sep 29, 2011
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Apologies if I am posting this in the wrong section. I was wondering if there was an easy way to look up bandwidth usage by device on my wireless network? I just want to get an idea of who/what devices are using the most bandwidth. Thank you.
 
Solution
The "easy" problem is wireshark. It has a number of built in reports and you can generate pretty much anything you want.

The problem is wireshark must have the data to begin with. It is designed to capture and report on data going between your device and the router/internet.

The data from other pc goes directly from that device to the router. Some how you must get in the path between the end device and the router. If it was all ethernet that is fairly simple. The wifi is has technical limitation that make it extremely hard to directly intercept the data.

So you are back to having to place a device of some kind in the path to collect the data. It can actually run wireshark or one of the many reporting tools that you...
No easy way. The router might has some ability to display usage it varies a great deal between brands. Even routers that do only keep a limited amount they have no place to store data. Most times it is only current use or usage for the last hour or so.
You would need a different device acting as a router that has the ability to collect data and run reports. You can use a dual nic PC running as a router or buy commercial devices.
 
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No easy way. The router might has some ability to display usage it varies a great deal between brands. Even routers that do only keep a limited amount they have no place to store data. Most times it is only current use or usage for the last hour or so.
You would need a different device acting as a router that has the ability to collect data and run reports. You can use a dual nic PC running as a router or buy commercial devices.
THanks for the reply. Iv been reading about wireshark. Any experience with that? I did get it installed and looks like its capturing packets from all devices but not sure how accurate it is? Having it capture data for an hour or so to compare works for my needs. THank you.
 
Maybe look into glass wire Linus tech tips promote it a lot. Not sure if this is what you're looking for.
GlassWire_Data_Usage.png
 
Maybe look into glass wire Linus tech tips promote it a lot. Not sure if this is what you're looking for.
GlassWire_Data_Usage.png
So I have a few people/devices using my network via wifi. What I am trying to see is which device uses the most bandwidth.

I think this screenshot is of a single device? Thank you for your assistance.
 
So I have a few people/devices using my network via wifi. What I am trying to see is which device uses the most bandwidth.

I think this screenshot is of a single device? Thank you for your assistance.
I looked up what you were asking for And I found an article that looks fairly informed https://www.howtogeek.com/222740/ho...-usage-of-individual-devices-on-your-network/

I don't know about you but I have Xfinity and to get to my router I have to put “ 10.0.0.1/ “ In the address bar And then I can get to my router and I believe the default Login credentials are name = admin and password = admin

I actually lost my password so I can't check if I can see bandwidth but I think it varies on different routers anyways.
 
I was wondering if there was an easy way to look up bandwidth usage by device on my wireless network? I just want to get an idea of who/what devices are using the most bandwidth. Thank you.
It really depends on your router capabilities. In most comprehensive routers, you can.

Iv been reading about wireshark. Any experience with that? I did get it installed and looks like its capturing packets from all devices but not sure how accurate it is? Having it capture data for an hour or so to compare works for my needs.
Wireshark is a great tool. It would do the job if you would make all traffic travel towards your network interface card as normally it does not.
Normally, your card only gets the traffic that is either addressed to you or addressed to everyone (broadcasted), and only that part will be visible in Wireshark captures.

To answer your question,
  • without getting yourself too techy, you would want to check your router for per-device traffic usage.
  • to monitor WiFi traffic without access to the router and within range of both the access point and the client devices, you could use Wireshark in conjunction with a computer running Linux and a WiFi card that has promiscuous mode capability and is able to pass to Wireshark all radio traffic and not only what is directed to your specific device. For windows, there is a very limited number of cards/drivers with this capability (example).
 
It really depends on your router capabilities. In most comprehensive routers, you can.


Wireshark is a great tool. It would do the job if you would make all traffic travel towards your network interface card as normally it does not.
Normally, your card only gets the traffic that is either addressed to you or addressed to everyone (broadcasted), and only that part will be visible in Wireshark captures.

To answer your question,
  • without getting yourself too techy, you would want to check your router for per-device traffic usage.
  • to monitor WiFi traffic without access to the router and within range of both the access point and the client devices, you could use Wireshark in conjunction with a computer running Linux and a WiFi card that has promiscuous mode capability and is able to pass to Wireshark all radio traffic and not only what is directed to your specific device. For windows, there is a very limited number of cards/drivers with this capability (example).
I have a Nokia G-140W-G router. This is one that came from the ISP. I have the router login IP to use but not able to get to it to look at settings. Getting timeout error. Is it possible the ISP locked the router from me to be able to login/view the settings?
 
So using wireshark, im able to see going to statistics->endpoint a report with the devices and i see my iphone and others as well. Problem is the bytes field doenst seem to capture the usage correctly. for eg. i downloaded a 5mb file on m iphone but the byts only increased a little not even 1k. Maybe i just dont know what im doing or looking at the wrong thing.
 
So using wireshark, im able to see going to statistics->endpoint a report with the devices and i see my iphone and others as well. Problem is the bytes field doenst seem to capture the usage correctly. for eg. i downloaded a 5mb file on m iphone but the byts only increased a little not even 1k. Maybe i just dont know what im doing or looking at the wrong thing.

I thought we are clear on this,
Normally, your card only gets the traffic that is either addressed to you or addressed to everyone (broadcasted), and only that part will be visible in Wireshark captures.

Create a filter in your capture. Put this string !(eth.addr == 00:11:22:33:44:55) (replace 012345 with your actual MAC address) in where it says "Apply as display filter". This will filter out your packets or packets sent to you.
You will see that all the other packets have either broadcast or multicast as their destination.
D1F6Ju7.png
 
Last edited:
I thought we are clear on this,


Create a filter in your capture. Put this string !(eth.addr == 00:11:22:33:44:55) (replace 012345 with your actual MAC address) in where it says "Apply as display filter". This will filter out your packets or packets sent to you.
You will see that all the other packets have either broadcast or multicast as their destination.

Sorry was confused and still am lol. I am just using my laptop with built in wireless adaptor which im assuming wont be able to do what im looking for. This is all going over my head. Thanks for the help though!
 
The "easy" problem is wireshark. It has a number of built in reports and you can generate pretty much anything you want.

The problem is wireshark must have the data to begin with. It is designed to capture and report on data going between your device and the router/internet.

The data from other pc goes directly from that device to the router. Some how you must get in the path between the end device and the router. If it was all ethernet that is fairly simple. The wifi is has technical limitation that make it extremely hard to directly intercept the data.

So you are back to having to place a device of some kind in the path to collect the data. It can actually run wireshark or one of the many reporting tools that you can find. It is the actual collection of the data that is hard. Once you get the data then you can get the reports.

There are a number of ways to do this but almost all require you run some form of unix based router. Some you can load third party firmware on some consumer router but for performance you really need to use a small pc.
 
Solution
The "easy" problem is wireshark. It has a number of built in reports and you can generate pretty much anything you want.

The problem is wireshark must have the data to begin with. It is designed to capture and report on data going between your device and the router/internet.

The data from other pc goes directly from that device to the router. Some how you must get in the path between the end device and the router. If it was all ethernet that is fairly simple. The wifi is has technical limitation that make it extremely hard to directly intercept the data.

So you are back to having to place a device of some kind in the path to collect the data. It can actually run wireshark or one of the many reporting tools that you can find. It is the actual collection of the data that is hard. Once you get the data then you can get the reports.

There are a number of ways to do this but almost all require you run some form of unix based router. Some you can load third party firmware on some consumer router but for performance you really need to use a small pc.
I was able to get into the router settings. There is a section bandwidth, but its still showing bandwidth from all device and doesnt break it down by device. Not sure if there is a way to extract this data from the router?
 
This is one of those read the manual questions to much variation between routers.

It is not a common feature because most users are too dumb to even use it. They want a box they turn on and magic internet flows out of it.
yup thats me! sounds like this is too complicated for my skillset so i'll just leave it be for now. Thanks though for your help.