Usage monitors

[#1]

Evening ladies and gents,
after a bit of help and advice for a Plunet newbie...
I've trawled about as much as I can (still looking though)  trying to find a decent monitor to make sure I dont exceed the 10gb limits especially in my first week! and think based on other posts Networx sounds good.
What i'm after though is is there anything that can keep track of the wireless device usage ?
we have 1 master pc hardwired to router, 2 ipods, 2/3 laptops and an xbox360 connected via wireless router (NetGear DGN2000).
i always blame the son for overusing the link but want to be able to wave a nice printout in front of him to prove its him....  or apologise when it shows its me!
Does anybody know  if such a product/tool exists (preferably free/shareware) or can networx do it ?
TIA
Paul

[#2]

Welcome to the Forum
There is a good one that either Jelv or Bob Pullen will advise you on
Your total Usage and daily is shown by the View My Usage  as below bottom left of the screen
Your allowance is for both Up and Down traffic
All usage after midnught and up to 8 am is free

[#3]

Thanks for the quick reply....
Actuallty on that, having only been a Plusnet user for 2 days..i'm "worried" that it appears that my 12-8am usage is far higher than my paid usage, especially given I went to bed at 11 last night!!.
router was left on but its wpa2, passcode and mac protected and the kids deny they were sneaking on late.....will keep an eye on it but seems to be a common theme or is it just creative accounting (LOL...)

[#4]

Because you have multiple devices and different connections, the only place local to your set-up would be in the router itself as that is the only  common device between all your systems. As you may have guessed none of the 'home' based routers will show this information reliably (many not at all), especially not time limited (midnight -> 8am on current packages are excluded from any allowances).
The only place is as detailed above, VMBU on your account (under connection settings).
Unless you want to spend several 1000 pounds on a workgroup router with full traffic statistics.

[#5]

If your router supports SNMP, then you could potentially use that to trap the data.
However, it's not for the weak-at-heart to set up and configure!
B.

[#6]

Ok thanks everybody....Think I'll just shout at the kids instead!!!..
Also re usage...last night I again note that between 12 and 8 (free time) there has been recorded usage..
My PC AND router were deliberately powered off from 11pm until 10:am so where is this usage coming from...Anyone any ideas????

[#7]

you do get a small amount (Kb) at all times, is is normal

[#8]

Sorry even if the router is physically powered off ?
I'd be happy with 3-4 Mb but the 1st night was 0kb, 2nd night it was 47Mb which was 50% of my day time total - last night (or today??) is 4mb....and same thng pc/router powered off.......

[#9]

Your usage includes incoming as well as outgoing traffic, regardless of if that traffic was actually received by your router or not, which is what you are likely seeing.

[#10]

Try setting your Plusnet Broadband Firewall as strictly as possible. This may stop some unwanted traffic before it is transmitted down the line and thus metered.
http://www.plus.net/support/security/firewalls/broadbandfirewall.shtml

[#11]

If your router's off, you don't even have an IP address and so can't get any traffic "down the line" - it just isn't possible
But on the subject of monitoring usage, if anyone wants I can write a free Vista/Seven desktop gadget to show your live usage data from the eyes of the PlusNet Member Centre...
A word from PN staff saying that's OK would be needed first, though
If your router's definitely off, I have no idea how you're getting recorded usage overnight as it shouldn't really be possible, short of a bug on PN's side or the router not actually being off...
At the end of the day though, it's not -really- causing any harm, as the usage is free

[#12]

If you think that your usage is being recorded incorrectly, please record the time of the following, for at least 6 hours each:
Computer on, router on
Computer off, router on
Computer off, router off
Raise a ticket with the times and we can investigate further.