cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Measuring broadband usage of different devices

mikethackery
Dabbler
Posts: 21
Registered: ‎08-05-2012

Measuring broadband usage of different devices

Are there any ways to drill down into the monthly broadband usage, to see what devices might be using more than expected?
Reason I ask is that for many years I've had low usage and never had to worry about hitting the monthly limit.  But recent months have seen warning emails that I'm about to reach my limit.  We don't do masses of streaming or file transfers so I'm trying to find a way to focus in on the high usage.
Would it be a facility available on particular routers?  Or can software by installed on my desktop that would monitor network traffic for example?  It doesn't seem an unreasonable thing to want to do if you're managing a network but I've not had any luck working out how to do it.
6 REPLIES 6
AndyH
Grafter
Posts: 6,824
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎27-10-2012

Re: Measuring broadband usage of different devices

I believe the feature is called SNMP that you need on a router to monitor performance/usage internally.
There are lots of software options then you can use to monitor things - like http://www.paessler.com/prtg
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: Measuring broadband usage of different devices

http://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/ is excellent for monitoring Windows devices.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
   Why I have left Plusnet (warning: long post!)   
Broadband: Andrews & Arnold Home::1 (FTTC 80/20)
Line rental: Pulse 8 Home Line Rental (£14.40/month)
Mobile: iD mobile (£4/month)
picbits
Rising Star
Posts: 3,432
Thanks: 23
Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Measuring broadband usage of different devices

I've been somewhat more than impressed with my TL-WR841N I picked up from Amazon for £16 including postage and a 300Mb USB dongle.
Appears to be rock solid and has statistics on current and total usage by IP address (good for catching the stepson out when he's not meant to be using the internet !)
I bought them with the intent to upgrade them to dd-wrt but have used them as they are (in WDS mode) as they seem to do everything I need at the moment.
Worth considering just for monitoring facility and the pop up at  <£20 on a regular basis on Amazon.
mikethackery
Dabbler
Posts: 21
Registered: ‎08-05-2012

Re: Measuring broadband usage of different devices

Thanks for the replies.  I'll have a look at the various options. 
picbits - Does the TL-WR841N show stats for all devices on the network or just those connected directly to it? ie. if I have a wireless extender would it show stats for devices connected to it?
jelv - Does networx only report on Windows devices, not phones etc?
AndyH - I'll have a look at prtg thanks
PeeGee
Pro
Posts: 1,217
Thanks: 84
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎05-04-2009

Re: Measuring broadband usage of different devices

If the WR841N is like the WR1043ND, then the stats table looks like:
IP Address/
MAC Address Packets Bytes Packets Bytes ICMP Tx UDP Tx SYN Tx
192.168.xx.xx
00-EC-22-32-F2-BD 29686 23980192 0 0 0/0 0/2 0/1 Reset Delete
192.168.xx.xy
00-62-6D-17-EC-CA 307824 206486538 0 0 0/0 0/10 0/12 Reset Delete
Note: IP addresses and MAC addresses modified to protect the guilty Roll_eyes
The first is wired, the second wireless (the extender is off line at the moment).
Plusnet FTTC (Sep 2014), Essentials (Feb 2013); ADSL (Apr 2009); Customer since Jan 2004 (on 28kb dial-up)
Using a TP-Link Archer VR600 modem-router.
picbits
Rising Star
Posts: 3,432
Thanks: 23
Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Measuring broadband usage of different devices

Quote from: mikethackery
Thanks for the replies.  I'll have a look at the various options. 
picbits - Does the TL-WR841N show stats for all devices on the network or just those connected directly to it? ie. if I have a wireless extender would it show stats for devices connected to it?

Hi Mike
It logs it by assigned IP address (which is done by my server, not by the router). I have a second 841N hooked up as an extender and the router connected to the internet logs traffic from all IP addresses both connected via ethernet or wireless on either router.
Reading back through your original post, you appear to be on ADSL (I'm on Fibre) so the 841N probably wouldn't be the router you'd use but if TP-Link do an ADSL version with similar firmware then it might be worth considering for you.
The only real problem is that if you have a powercut or reboot the router, you will lose the collected data.