Data Monitor Advice Needed

[leanderhuman2010]

Hi,

I was on an uncapped account with my ISP where we used about 400GB+ a month. I have moved to a capped account on 300GB's because my ISP was not reliable. I want to know if there is a software that I can use to see how many GB's each PC uses a day or maybe something where I can limit each PC to be able to use let say 10 GB a day as an example. I am not that good with networking and I would like to learn. Please keep it a simple as possible.

I want something that can show me for example:

192.168.0.1 used X amount of data today
192.168.0.2 used Y amount of data today

So that I can keep an eye on my daily usage and see who uses too much data because 400GB's across 3 PC's a month is a lot, I am at work most of the day so my PC does not really use that much data.

Thanks.

 

[camieabz]

Your modem/router might have that capability. My router has limited capability in this regard, but I can see how much Bytes / Packets / Errors / Drops each port on the router has sent and received, including the wl0 (wifi) port. It's not scientific, but it might give an indication as to who's using all the network's data, assuming each user is on a different port.

Failing that, some logging on each PC, or simply a conversation with the users (e.g. "Who uses a lot of Twitch / Netflix / Youtube). 1080p 60fps viewing is quite hungry (if users have 1440p or 4K monitors, and are watching is said quality, it will get very high).

For what it's worth, I was on a 60GB p/m contract for a while, and kept nudging the limit as I started watching a regular Twitch streamer. I had to settle for 480p at around 12hrs per week, to stay under. When I went to unlimited, and enjoyed 1080p streams, the usage hit 500GB quite easily. One takes advantage of the new freedom. Last month, I was 1,100GB (750GB peak time) for usage. On average, I use around 95% of the household usage. I like to watch / listen to streams, while doing other things. Don't watch television at all.

Look for the teenage son, who never joins the family for television viewing. He's usually the culprit.

 

[leanderhuman2010]

Your modem/router might have that capability. My router has limited capability in this regard, but I can see how much Bytes / Packets / Errors / Drops each port on the router has sent and received, including the wl0 (wifi) port. It's not scientific, but it might give an indication as to who's using all the network's data, assuming each user is on a different port.

Failing that, some logging on each PC, or simply a conversation with the users (e.g. "Who uses a lot of Twitch / Netflix / Youtube). 1080p 60fps viewing is quite hungry (if users have 1440p or 4K monitors, and are watching is said quality, it will get very high).

For what it's worth, I was on a 60GB p/m contract for a while, and kept nudging the limit as I started watching a regular Twitch streamer. I had to settle for 480p at around 12hrs per week, to stay under. When I went to unlimited, and enjoyed 1080p streams, the usage hit 500GB quite easily. One takes advantage of the new freedom. Last month, I was 1,100GB (750GB peak time) for usage. On average, I use around 95% of the household usage. I like to watch / listen to streams, while doing other things. Don't watch television at all.

Look for the teenage son, who never joins the family for television viewing. He's usually the culprit.

Thanks I found it on my Router... The Teenager that does not watch TV with the family is all 3 of us so it will be difficult to say but I will keep an eye on it and hopefully things work out... But I think I know who the culprit is already.

Thanks for helping me

 

[bill001g]

The largest issue with this type of data is you need to keep it long term..well a month...and a router does not really have any place to store that data. Most that attempt this keep it in memory so power outage you will lose it.

It is not a real common feature to find but some routers do have it. Unfortunately for me I can not longer use stuff like this so I have not kept up on it. When you get a high speed internet connection...over say 250mbps...you have to give up lots of nice things. The routers use a hardware assist feature so traffic bypasses the cpu.

If your router has a hardware assist you need to disable it so the traffic must pass through the CPU chip. For people with smaller connections the cpu can easily keep up.

You can tell pretty easily if there is a hardware assist that you will need to disable. Just do a download that can max the connection and see if the numbers change in usage log in the router. I know in mine the router acted as though nothing was happening, said the connection was 1% used.

 

[anotherdrew]

If you don't mind walking around to the different computers, it is very easy to see data usage over the last 30 days on Windows 8 and 10 (also possible in 7, but a bit more convoluted). You can even see which applications are using the most data.