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[Neonivek]

So I turned on my computer at 5, it is now 6:30. In that amount of time my downloads have become 150. Excluding Dwarf Fortress talks that is 100.

I watched one low quality video.

My Father keeps complaining about the internet usage (we have a 100 gig limit but we keep surpassing it) and I don't want to be the problem but I have no idea when I am using too much or when something is using it up when it shouldn't.

For example my Steam will redownload games in the background constantly (Dang it steam!).

Better yet even when I am doing nothing with no real program on (no MSN, No Steam) it is still downloading.

Is there something out there that helps me not only see how much I am downloading but what exactly it is and by what program?

[Akura]

If you go into the Network and Sharing center(in Vista at least, dunno what you've got), and click on View Status for your connection, it will tell you in bytes how much data has been uploaded and downloaded since the connection was established.

It typically loses count when the connection is lost, such as when you shut off the computer, or your router or ISP is being a dick. It's not the best idea, but it's all I can think of right now.

[blackmagechill]

You surpass a....100 gigabyte.....that's at lest five thousand megabyte.....limit. What the fuck is happening? I ahve a 500mb limit, so I can't even update windows. You're crazy (turn off windows update and then disable steam through task manager.)

[Starver]

On the basis that you might not be able to trust your machine (worst case scenario, it's part of a bot-net, sending spam all over the place, although I really doubt that's the reason), a technical solution that you may or may not be able to handle is to configure a spare machine with two NICs (assuming you're connecting via ethernet[1]) to sit as a bridge between your machine and the household feed to silently sniff the traffic being demanded by and sent from your machine, so you can work out what's happening.  And once you know, it can perhaps be made to apply and remove filters by scheduled or on-demand so that the likes of steam isn't being contacted when you don't need it.

But that might be no small feat, and while I can suggest a couple of linux distros that might work well, you need the hardware to run it on and it's not really going to be a plug'n'play situation.


I run one machine that I regularly use (out of reach of landline broadband) on a PAYG wireless broadband dongle that gives me 1GB a month.  I regularly go into graphics-heavy places like Google Maps, although I don't do any YouTube or TV-like stuff.  Your household breaking definitely 100Gb sounds excessive for anything except a large amount of file-sharing, which is why I first thougt of the sniffer.  (fankeninjaedit: blackmagechill, I don't have any problems with Windows update, and I know I have much more traffic that isn't that, so you must have some other demands on your system that I don't on mine.)

BTW, there would be some issues in doing it unilaterally, but if you did manage to check your own computer's connection in some way (sniffer or no), applying the same method to all other computers in your house[3] could reveal that it isn't even you that's the one biggest at fault.  Could be embarrassing for someone else.  Could be that just announcing that you'd plugged in a device to sniff the household network could bring a reduction in the bandwidth being used.  But that'd be making some unwarranted assumptions.


I could ask, though: "In that amount of time my downloads have become 150. Excluding Dwarf Fortress talks that is 100."  Units?  Mb?  Gb?  Web pages of indeterminate size each?  Doesn't matter too much, but I felt left hanging when I read that paragraph.


[1] I don't do wireless, personally, but you can bridge something wirelessly as well.

[2] And later even apply filters,

[3] Or, indeed, any neighbours tagging onto your wifi box.

[blackmagechill]

If I have it on it ruins my speed so I have to turn it off for optimal (read:possible) browsing.

[Neonivek]

If you go into the Network and Sharing center(in Vista at least, dunno what you've got), and click on View Status for your connection, it will tell you in bytes how much data has been uploaded and downloaded since the connection was established.

It typically loses count when the connection is lost, such as when you shut off the computer, or your router or ISP is being a dick. It's not the best idea, but it's all I can think of right now.

I think I established I can do that and have. The issue is I don't know where I am racking up on the megabytes.

Also if my internet shuts down I lose how much I downloaded so far.

[Neonivek]

So we found the cause and it was that between 2 people being home all day and another who likes large downloads. All of whom stream videos constantly all day.

It was last night that told me how much I was using since all day on youtube used a single gig. Someone misinformed me on how much youtube actually uses though I guess I am at fault for not checking the facts myself.

[NewsMuffin]

You surpass a....100 gigabyte.....that's at lest five thousand megabyte.....limit. What the fuck is happening? I ahve a 500mb limit, so I can't even update windows. You're crazy (turn off windows update and then disable steam through task manager.)

What you said isn't wrong, it's just off by ninety-five thousand.
I'm sorry, I just had to point that out.

Still, 100 GB is a whole lot more than you should be downloading, no matter the time frame (unless it's something silly like a year).

[Neonivek]

100 gigs is over 100,000 megabites.

Though it is in a month

[Starver]

100 GB is 100,000 MB, or 100,000,000 KB or 100,000,000,000 bytes.

That's the SI definition.

If you want to work in binary-factor multiples, you need to talk about Gibibytes (GiB), being 1024 Mibibytes (MiB), each of those being 1024 Kibibytes (KiB), each of those being 1024 bytes.  (Thus 100 GiB is 102,400 MiB, or 107andabit MB, being 107,374,182,400 plain old bytes.)

When quoting "what they will allow", it often behoves them ISPs to use the SI standards, much as HDD vendors will because it looks bigger than the equivalent "not quite X GiB" value (for X GB) or "only just X GiB" (for X.something GB).  Although they may also try to confuse you with something like 8Mb/s (8 million bits per second) speed rather than 1MB/s (1 million Bytes per second) if they can get away with it.

Not that it matters to most people.  They get used to what they have (I've just reached over and picked up from my desk a 28,800 V.34/V.32bis PCMCIA card modem (with XJACK^(R)!!!), which was perfectly good enough back in its day) and if instead of getting 23 Hoojamaflips they now get 32 Hoojamaflips, they're happy, whether that's speed, total allowance, on-line storage space, etc.

Still, 100GB/month is 100 times what I use from a mobile machine[1] that regularly browses image-intensive stuff like Google Maps.  So the near-constant video streaming (e.g. YouTube/iPlayer/whatever) and downloading (I suspect something Limewire-like, in which case I hope you have good AV) is what's eating it up, but even then it's probably going some.


[1] TBH, I have no idea what any of the other machines I use are up to, as they aren't so directly metered, although as an administrator of the firewall and someone able to add other devices, on demand, directly in-between my workplaces router and the first point of splitting (as well as into various links leading to various parts of the building, or even before/after individual local distributing switches and routers), I suspect I could find out.  But all of that is in a great big building, with a mix of very IT-orientated people (who need to generate a lot of traffic in any case) and very ordinary people (who just generate a lot of traffic anyway, it just seems to be what they do), so I presume it's going to be a bloomin' cartload of bandwidth being burnt up during normal hours, and probably not a little off-hours traffic as well.  Actually, the guy in charge of directly liaising with the ISP and paying those bills has essentially said that we are doing that, so it's not much of a guess, although I've so far resisted asking for exact values .

[Askot Bokbondeler]

100Gb?! i live with one gigabyte monthly, i usually go to a cybercafe to download the latest df
i have plenty of advices that go from "get a flash blocking plugin" to "avoid doing image searches on google", but your case is on an entirely different scale

[G-Flex]

You surpass a....100 gigabyte.....that's at lest five thousand megabyte

I am not entirely sure your math is on the ball here.

100 GB is 100,000 MB, or 100,000,000 KB or 100,000,000,000 bytes.

That's the SI definition.

If you want to work in binary-factor multiples, you need to talk about Gibibytes (GiB), being 1024 Mibibytes (MiB), each of those being 1024 Kibibytes (KiB), each of those being 1024 bytes.  (Thus 100 GiB is 102,400 MiB, or 107andabit MB, being 107,374,182,400 plain old bytes.)

Most of the people I know find the binary prefix names extremely irritating and impossible to take seriously. Normally, if I have to distinguish, I specify "binary megabytes" and so forth. Just saying.
[/quote]

[SeaBee]

I'm at roughly 23 gigs in the last five days. That's typical for my families usage, really.

Some ISPs have a (usually somewhat hidden) page on their websites that tell you what your usage is. Some don't. You might be able to query your DNS (I'm using OpenDNS, for example) to get some transfer data.

I've considered using a network monitoring utility to keep track of that stuff for me, but I've never bothered to investigate any of them.

[ed boy]

100 gigs a month is obscene. That's equivalent to streaming four or five full length movies every day.

In my experience, streaming video, streaming audio and online gaming are that things that cause massive internet usage.

I would reccomend downloading and installing tbbmeter on every computer in the network. This will allow you to see how much people are using the internet and when.

If you have wireless, then make sure it is secure. Simply putting a password on it is not always enough - see if your router supports mac adress filtering, and if it does then block any mac adresses other than those in your house.

[Max White]

Do you have wireless set up? Changing the password is a good start.