Track bandwidth usage on home network

[Yensu]

Simply put, sometimes we get major lag on the network - for extended amounts of time and when I disable the wireless, the lag 'magically' goes away.

I have approached everyone connected to the network through wireless and they all deny doing anything but simple web browsing.

I want something I can track all the usage on a network to figure out who is the culprit so I can properly have someone to blame.

Free is always better, please do not recommend garbage with ads or free trials. I mean totally free, or simply recommend a good software that costs.

What are my possibilities with this, an do I need hardware in order to make this happen?

I am using a Actiontec pk5000 modem/router.

 

[g1abhi]

You cant track usage on the router since that would need memory on it , which is not there for user purposes. You can use networx software to track the usage on each system and their consumption. You can additionally check in the router configuration if any rogue device is also consuming data.
Also web surfing is not exactly a light load now a days, youtube and facebook is what people refer to browsing sometimes and they re actually consuming over 100mbs of data per hour. You can use networx to see how light is their browsing exactly , but you ned to install it on their device.

 

[bill001g]

Unfortunately your options are extremely limited. Consumer routers do not have this ability mostly because it requires someplace to keep the data and routers do not have disk drivers. If you did not have a modem/router combo you might have the ability to load third party firmware that does have abilities to capture and store the data...mostly to a external server. Device with modems in though there are complex issues with licensing of drivers with open source so you do not see any third party images.

You could use a mac filter and keep adding mac addresses until the problem happens.....you could then likely blame the person whose mac address you last added.

 

[jsmithepa]

Why even go there. Implement some sort of QOS on your network and solve the problem head on, dynamically.

 

[Kewlx25]

OpenWRT and setup traffic shaping, they use fq_CoDel by default and that should get rid of any lag. But it won't stop the data usage.

If your wireless router supports blocking devices, block one device at a time until the issue goes away, just don't block your current device.

 

[bill001g]

OpenWRT and setup traffic shaping, they use fq_CoDel by default and that should get rid of any lag. But it won't stop the data usage.

If your wireless router supports blocking devices, block one device at a time until the issue goes away, just don't block your current device.

You missed the fact he has a modem/router which prevents third party.

 

[Kewlx25]

He can still place a router in between. I did that with my ISP. They changed their fiber ONT from bridge mode to residential gateway mode. I just placed my firewall in the DMZ of the gateway and everything continued to work as normal.