Technology, Support, and News Forum

[Craigular.B Profile]

Hey guys-

My ISP (Charter) recently imposed a 100GB/month bandwidth limit (total, upload+download , which is funny considering they'll be filing for bankruptcy sometime soon/already have). I'm trying to figure out a way to monitor bandwidth usage across the entire network (2 desktops, a laptop, 2 iPod touches, and an XBox 360). I've already looked into DD-WRT but it isn't supported on my router (D-Link DIR-625), and changing routers isn't really an option (we pretty much just got that one). Is there a way to do this through software running on one of the computers (so that I can see usage for the ENTIRE network), or should I be looking more along the lines of hardware?

Thanks!
-Craig

[NT50 Profile]

When monitoring several computers like that you will need a hardware base system. If it was just one computer then you could do it with software. If they are providing a cap then they should also be providing a way for you to log in and look at the usage

[augie]

Well, I use and like NetMeter but everyone has to go through the same computer for it to monitor things properly. Just a thought. NT50 is right, my ISP has monitoring but yours may not.

[Craigular.B Profile]

If they are providing a cap then they should also be providing a way for you to log in and look at the usage

Unfortunately they aren't providing us with any way to monitor; apparently they "don't have the software" to monitor customer's usage, leaving us with the burden of paying. Could be related to the fact that they recently/will soon file for bankruptcy. Still, very poor practice.

What do you guys think? Since software is out because we have multiple devices (and some can't have software, like the XBox), would a small PC running some flavor of Linux hooked in between the cable modem and router work? Or might there be other alternatives?

-Craig

[yeshuas]

If they are providing a cap then they should also be providing a way for you to log in and look at the usage

Unfortunately they aren't providing us with any way to monitor; apparently they "don't have the software" to monitor customer's usage, leaving us with the burden of paying. Could be related to the fact that they recently/will soon file for bankruptcy. Still, very poor practice.

What do you guys think? Since software is out because we have multiple devices (and some can't have software, like the XBox), would a small PC running some flavor of Linux hooked in between the cable modem and router work? Or might there be other alternatives?

-Craig

They have to have some way of keeping track of your usage, how else are they going to charge you for overages???????

[kd1966 Profile YIM]

Exactly................ if they are saying you have a limit - they MUST have a way to monitor/gauge your usage (Or not if this is just a scare tactic)

[imnuts Profile Website]

I don't think they can actually charge you and get away with it if they don't provide a method for you to track your usage. That came up when Comcast announced the implementation of the 250GB cap, and they can't do anything until they provide customers with a method to track their usage. Granted, most people would probably pay the charges and be done with it, but what's to say that someone didn't hop on to your wireless network and download/upload a ton of data leaving you to pay the bill? If you would complain to them enough about charges, they'd take them off the bill, especially if they don't provide a method to track usage. If all else fails, tell them your going to switch service providers due to the monthly caps as I'm sure that is the last thing they want to here. And they did file for Chapter 11 reorganization, so they aren't out of business yet, but in this economic enviroment, they could be bought out by someone then in a few months.

[Craigular.B Profile]

Ok, apparently the tech I talked to over support chat didn't know what they were talking about, because I called tech support today (I much prefer calling) and they said that we'll be getting an e-mail in the next week or so with instructions on how to track it. Now the problem lies in finding our email/passwords, because we haven't used those emails probably since we wet the service up (which was a good 7 years ago at least). I'll be calling tech support again soon to get our email account info haha....

Hopefully this will mean I won't have to spend money on any hardware/software to track this....I'm also hoping it's relatively real-time tracking (assuming they're not talking out of their asses).

Thanks again guys,
-Craig

[imnuts Profile Website]

I would think that it would be semi-realtime tracking. Not sure how often they'll update it. It could be completely realtime, hourly, or who knows. I guess it depends on how much hardware they have running behind the system that feeds the info. I could see hourly, every 6 hours, twice a day or daily. Anything longer than daily and they're going to have issues as people may not be able to keep up with usage properly.