Monitoring Household Broadband Usage

[Octopus]

As the title says! Using our BT "guide" our broadband usage has recently doubled to 35GB and I don't kniow why.

In our house we have:

2 adults
2 kids
3 computers
2 Ipod Touch with wifi
Vodafone suresignal
3 mobiles with internet access


As a rule we don't use the computer to watch TV programmes.

Our broadband supplier is BT and we have a Belkin router.

I'd rather not have a PC on all the time.

Thanks.

 

[kingeri]

Do you use WIFI, and if so is it secured using WPA and not WEP? If your network wifi is not secured then anyone could be using your connection!

 

[Octopus]

Do you use WIFI, and if so is it secured using WPA and not WEP? If your network wifi is not secured then anyone could be using your connection!

Nice idea, but yes it's secured.

 

[Strima]

Is your wireless encrypted? Try changing the wireless key as someone maybe jumping onto it.

Edit: Damn ninja's and their speed posting, must learn to type quicker.

 

[kingeri]

If you do want to monitor your internet usage, something like ISP Monitor software is the only realistic way, but it does only work when your PC is on!

 

[kingeri]

Check what your kids are really doing as well....

 

[Octopus]

Check what your kids are really doing as well....

My thoughts exactly, hence why I'd like something which is effectively monitoring the hub/router so it'll see what the Ipod touches and phones are doing.

 

[kingeri]

Don't forget that streaming video can use loads of bandwidth.....without actually downloading anything

 

[gutterball]

Have a look in your routers settings. Some of them let you monitor traffic from individual mac addresses.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

You can quickly test your broadband speed on demand using any number of online tools, such as the one at www.mybroadband speed.co.uk This saves historical test data too, making it easy to see how your connection speed varies.
Or You might like to track you usage in real time, long term, by downloading a broadband logging tool like Netmeter (Freeware) or Myconnection (Free 15day trial then subscription)
For methodical testing, Visualware offers a program called Myconnection PC - MyConnection PC connection test, bandwidth speed test, VoIP quality testing (use the Download link alongside the 'all editions' heading). Its historic test results can be viewed in a variety of formats and exported as a CSV file that can be opened by a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. It also has a 'managed testing' mode for running tests to a schedule of your choosing.
[FONT=&amp]These features are available only in the paid-for version of Myconnection, but this can be freely used for 15 days in trial mode - select the 'Business Plus' edition of the trial during installation - and this will allow you to gather two weeks worth of data to present to BT. The program's use is self-explanatory (be sure to select the 'Visualware UK [Quality]' server at the bottom of its window) but it has built-in help and there's a manual at MyConnection PC - Installation.[/FONT]

Download NetMeter 1.1.4 Beta 4 / 1.1.3 Free - A handy network software that will monitor your bandwidth - Softpedia

 

[Darkwood]

How old are your kids..... you have to consider music downloads, music vids, video messaging, are your kids using phone cams, web cams etc and even ****! ..... research is showing kids as young as 10 now viewing **** on a regular basis on unrestricted computers and phones.... hate to throw that one in but its probably like me at 12 with a couple of dirty mags... technology changes but kids are still as curious.
Id stop leaving the router on 24/7 and turn it off between 9pm and 7am and hide it you will be supprised how much difference it would make, i have a feeling they are making alot of video calls when they should be in bed. Caught the ex's daughter out by pulling the plug on router at 9pm she had been on her video phone till early hours when we investigated.
I might be far off course but it food for thought!, again dont know their ages so a random guess.

 

[topquark]

Worth having a look at the history on the computers. The kids may not realise that iPlayer, on demand etc are all using bandwidth. If you think that BT have got the bill wrong, then have a look at the router config....a lot of the configs have statistics that you can reset to zero and check after a period to see what's been used.