I didn't really mean internet usage (like time spent on the net) but am wanting a Bandwidth usage monitor.

I just called my ISP to verify if they can track usage, and they are checking on it and will get back with me. They don't think they can though. My 'guess' is that they 'can' monitor it, but probably just don't make that info readily available to subscribers.

What do you have now? Cable? DSL? And what wireless are you talking about and what is the cost?

I'm not really clear on what that monitor link will provide you that will be helpful, as I think it mainly will give you a tabulation of how much data you are cumulatively downloading or uploading, and what some of your peaks are, which you know are limited by your relatively slow connection speed. And, since your online speed is variable, it will be hard to know which peaks are independent of your speed-at-the-moment and which aren't.

When you watch video clips, some of them must hesitate or buffer, which tells you what you already know: your speed is affecting how fast or easily you can do certain tasks. And some pages undoubtedly load more slowly, especially if they are graphics-heavy.

If you could get a connection that delivers 2 Mbps, you would notice a significant difference in your online experience. You just have to decide what your time is worth and whether the cost of the faster connection is worth the ability to be more efficient online, and spend less time waiting. Really, the only way to figure this out is to sign up with a provider who can provide a faster, guaranteed speed and try it. I started out years ago with a 14kbps modem where you could watch the page painfully fill up the screen. Since then I've always gotten faster and faster speeds as they became available. Right now, I've got a fiber optic connection that gives me 25 Mbps and don't feel it is too fast, even though my main activity is surfing.

What do you have now? Cable? DSL?
What I have is from a local ISP and they call it broadband. The signal(s) travel to/from towers and I have a 50'pole at the side of the house that has some sort of a reciever thingy on it and then wires run inside to the computer.

When you watch video clips, some of them must hesitate or buffer,
Yes, is usually hard to enjoy them.

Really, the only way to figure this out is to sign up with a provider who can provide a faster, guaranteed speed and try it
What is available here has either contracts or equipment to purchase, and I don't want to go to a lot of trouble (hassle) if I can find out what my 'normal' existing bandwidth usage is. I don't want to have to stop surfing the net sometime midmonth if I'm nearing a 2GB limit.

as I think it mainly will give you a tabulation of how much data you are cumulatively downloading or uploading,
I 'think' that is the info I am seeking.

My ISP called me back, and they have put something on my line(?) and it will track how much bandwidth I am using. They will leave it on my line(?), until I call to check on the amount in a week or so...just whenever I choose.

I'd still link to find something on line that would tally my bandwidth usage.

Sue

I started out years ago with a 14kbps modem where you could watch the page painfully fill up the screen.

I think a 14.4 modem was my third modem. I started with a Hayes 2400 Smartmodem and want to say it was $200 plus. :-)

Thanks for clarifying. I see now that I misunderstood part of your question. If you have a signal that is traveling from towers to your house, your local ISP may be supplying it via a cell phone network, which means you may already have wireless. Cell phone systems often have a cap on total data usage for the month. When you say you are thinking of switching to "wireless," do you mean getting your Internet access directly from a cell phone provider, or what? Just be aware that getting Internet access from a cell phone provider is not without issues. I live in a major metropolitan area and have a separate data plan for my smartphone with unlimited data, and some times it is quite fast and some times it takes a while to surf from site to site. I've checked the speed from time-to-time and get anywhere from about 250 kbps to 5Mbps (and very occasionally it won't connect for minutes at a time). Your mileage may vary.

I'm guessing that you are in a rural area and too far away from a switching station to get DSL? Do you have the option of getting Internet access via cable tv provider?

In any case, if your only option is some form of wireless with a cap, what typically happens if you exceed the cap is not that you get shut off, but you do get your signal slowed way down. If your current ISP is going to monitor your usage, then it would be a good idea for you to do it independently as a cross-check. I don't know how good the program you are asking about is, but it looks like it could do the job.

If you have a signal that is traveling from towers to your house, your local ISP may be supplying it via a cell phone network, which means you may already have wireless.
I know there is no cap with this user, my guess is because it is a pretty slow connection.

When you say you are thinking of switching to "wireless," do you mean getting your Internet access directly from a cell phone provider
Yes, I was thinking of getting it (I think anyway) from possibly Verizon which I see has a 5GB cap. I was thinking it had 2GB...duh.

I'm guessing that you are in a rural area and too far away from a switching station to get DSL?
Yes, I am way too far out for DSL and cable is likely to never make it out this far.

In looking at the Verizon plan which has a 5GB cap, there are overage charges if that is exceeded. I just don't want to get into a contract and then find out the cap won't be enough. The average download speed (400 Kbps - 1.4 Mbps ) is considerable better than what I have.

I can (allegedly) double my speed with my existing ISP, which would make it $70 a month for speeds ranging from my average guess of 600 kbps to 1MB or so. Maybe that is something I should consider before trying the Verizon with a cap and $60 a month.

Here is a link that might be useful: Major Broadband Wireless prices and comparisons

5 GB a month is a pretty good data allowance if you are not streaming music or watching movies. My main concern is the overage charges, because they can be punishing if you accidentally go over. I read about one guy who had a data cap and was using his phone to listen to music while driving several hours each day, and the first month he ended up with about $2000 of overage charges.

With your usage, you may never hit the cap, but I'd hate to have that worry in the back of my mind. If you can get your current ISP to double your speed with no cap, that is what I would do, and the speed increase may be enough to make you happy. If you do that, just make sure you use a speed test site to occasionally check it, especially if it seems slow, so that you can make sure you are getting what you pay for.

Sue, I think my usage is probably very similar to yours. Surfing, some research, e-mails, and some YouTube streaming. I never come close to my 5GB per month cap on Verizon. I can keep track of it by signing in to "My Verizon" and it is pretty much up to date on my usage. I have never gone even as high as 4GB, but usually average between 2 & 3 GB per month.

If you do that, just make sure you use a speed test site to occasionally check it, especially if it seems slow, so that you can make sure you are getting what you pay for.
Oh, If things just slow a bit, or even seem zippier than usual, I am running speed tests. If the speed is unusually slow, for the time of day, I will call ISP tech support. Though the office closes at 5PM, they have an on call tech who either answers immediately, or returns my call, regardless of the hour of the night or weekend. I called a couple of weeks ago when speed was really slow (100kbps, give or take a few), and the tech reset the tower, which helped just momentarily. He wasn't able to get my speed up that night but things later returned to normal. He said he would refer it to his superior, who then 'might' put a graph on anyone he suspected of overuse. He couldn't really explain what overuse was, but I'm suspecting that it was probably something someone was doing illegally.

grandms, I think my usage is a lot heavier than yours, as I am (slowly of course) surfing for hours and hours...it is a lot of my entertainment and socializing, particularly during the months when I am not able to play outside.

I ended up downloading AnalogX NetStat Live this afternoon shortly after I started this thread. I've been surfin almost non-stop since then and it shows so far that I have downloaded 418MB and uploaded 214 MB, for a total of 632MB, well over 1 GB....right? At that rate I would be hitting 5GB in approximately 10 days, give or take one or two....right?

Ok, next question...I'm on a roll.

Say I am paying for speed of up to 1MB, knowing that will fluctuate a bit.

If I had 5 computers here, being used by 5 people, would that 1MB speed be split where each computer would have a speed of approx 200kbps, or would they all have approx 1MB?

When things slow down to a crawl, I often ask the tech if someone might be running an internet cafe in the area or something, and he always just chuckles and never answers me.

please stay tuned...I will have more questions pertaining to speed and stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: AnalogX NetStat Live

Every networking technology has a theoretical maximum, with real world performance generally less than that. Doesn't matter if it's the network in your home, the connection to your ISP, or your ISP's connection to the Internet. Every been taking a shower when someone flushes the toilet? Especially in older homes, the water pressure in the shower drops.

So you're surfing along and your neighbor fires up his computer. What happens? Just like in the shower the pressure drops or in networking terms your connection speed slows. But it's not just one toilet, it's dozens computers in your immediate area. To make matters more complicated, it's not just the computer but what people are doing with their computers. As I sit here writing this message I'm not using much bandwidth at all. But if I were to, say, streaming music I'd be using more bandwidth and if were to be streaming a movie, I'd be using even more.

The same thing is happening on the other end of the Internet, the server you're tying to connect to. If you surf to a popular website there may be thousands of people all trying to get their little slice of the pie. Those companies face the same bandwidth limitations because their "pipe" back to the Internet is only so big.

To answer your question about what happens if you would connect multiple computers in your home -- the speed of each computer's connection would be some fraction of that 1 meg. your ISP is giving you. That bandwidth might not be divided equally. Let's say your surfing and your son (wife, husband, daughter) starts streaming a movie from Netflix. They might get 90% of the bandwidth, while your browsing slows to a crawl.

That brings us to the subject of network management -- how is that bandwidth divided? If you're watching a movie, pauses are pretty annoying but if you're downloading an email, you might not even notice a 1 second pause. Many of the high-end home routers are now including network management features so you can, for example, give priority to a streaming movie.

Perhaps you heard some of the discussion about "net neutrality" a couple of months back. One of the components of that issue is network management, especially for wireless carriers because their "pipe" is so much smaller. Do content providers have the right to manage their network and to what degree?

Thanks Mike for the wonderful explanation.

My ISP has explained to me that chances are that speeds will slow down some in the afternoon as school gets out and kids come home and start gaming, among other things, and I'm really fine with that.

It is when it slows to speeds that aren't much better than dial-up that I have a problem with. 150-200 kbps is slower, but consistent speeds of 75-100 kbps prompts a call into tech support. They also explained that sometimes the tower just needs reset, just as we sometimes need to reboot, or something like that. Usually when they reset the tower, speed improves.
Often if speeds ere too slow for me in the PM, I just give it up, and continue surfin over coffee in the AM, or even late night. This AM my download speed was 520kbps...YAY! Zippy!

Next question.

Is it possible to get a Netflix movie with a slower speed? Does the movie 'sort of like download' to some of the devices at the link below, or are they just streaming through the devices and if the speed was slow, the movie would be stop and go, much like youtube buffers for me now?

I would never attempt Netfix if it was going to be halting due to my slower speed, but think an occasional movie or two on the weekend might be nice. Could I maybe download it in the middle of the night and then watch it when I wanted to later? I wish Netflix had more answers at their site.

I did find this in their FAQ
How fast does the TV episode or movie start playing?
Fast - TV episodes and movies start playing in seconds. It will depend on the speed of your broadband Internet connection. TV episodes and movies stream over the Internet, so you don't have to wait for them to download. There are no ads and you can pause, rewind, or fast forward as often as you like.

That makes it sound like anyone, including dial-up users can enjoy watching Netflix movies. Is that so?
They make no mention of speed that is required to watch without any problems.

tia again.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Netflix devices

DSL and cable generally give you the most bang for the buck and generally have enough bandwidth that the addition of users doesn't seriously degrade the network. Unfortunately, if you can't get either...

I don't know enough about Netflix to comment but I would assume they buffer content based on connection speed. I suppose you could use dial-up but it might be quite a few hours for enough content to buffer. Like a day. :-)

I was at a speed test site checking my speed (I forget which one) and it included some info, like how long it would take to download/watch (?) a 2 hour movie, or maybe the movie length was given in MB, just not sure. Anyway. I remember that one time it had said it would take an average of 6 hours at the speed I was getting at the moment. If the movie goes to some device for later viewing, the time it takes to get there could be done in the night.

Well, in googling 'netflix forum' I think I found just the place to search for answers or to ask and get answers. Surely there are some technically challenged folks there with slower speeds, wouldn't you think?

I'll report back what I find out, in case it might help someone else in the same boat.

Here is a link that might be useful: Netflix Forum

I think I am 'over' streaming Netflix, and 'may' go with the Mail version. It looks like there are problems with slower speeds, and that my speed wouldn't work well at all.

Later gang. If I remember I'll post how the mailing Netflix works out.

I use Netflix movie streaming and I believe it needs to have a consistent speed of at least 0.5 Mbps to even play at their lowest quality, and 2.0-3.0 Mbps is needed for good quality. I used to have a DSL connection that had a speed of about 3.0 Mbps and it would start playing the movie about 20 seconds after I started the download. I now have a much faster connection and the movie still takes about 20 seconds to start but there is a noticeable quality improvement over my previous connection.

So the bottom line is that you either have a fast enough speed to stream Netflix or not. If it plays, it won't take forever to download and start, it will just be that the picture quality will be less-than-great at the lowest speeds.

Are you trying to monitor bandwidth or you computer time and usage?

Though I would be talking about it on a kind of different context, I believe we are still on the same boat. This is more like used on a company/work context but it's still all about monitoring computer and internet usage.

In our case, our business uses complete time tracking software just to be able to monitor employees regarding the sites they visit and even the applications they use. It increases our productivity and I believe every business needs to have one. You can read more about it here. The tracking software are mentioned there which I think might work for your personal needs too.

bravejohnny-
Sniff, sniff...do I smell rotting spam?

kudzu9 -

as far as i'm concerned, I only answered chemocurl's question in the way I know of.

Are you trying to monitor bandwidth or you computer time and usage?

bravejohnny, you must have missed where I posted, "I didn't really mean internet usage (like time spent on the net) but am wanting a Bandwidth usage monitor. "

Though I would be talking about it on a kind of different context, I believe we are still on the same boat.
No, I don't think we are on the same boat at all. Did you read my posts above and the replies to posts?

In our case, our business uses complete time tracking software just to be able to monitor employees regarding the sites they visit and even the applications they use.
Well, I am not a business and don't need to track sites visited or the applications used.

You can read more about it here.
I don't go to 'suspect' links posted on forums. Does the link you provided track bandwidth used? Does it have a good and safe WOT scorecard? Is it free? Is it recommended by reliable sources?

Well then. I'm sorry to just butt in like that. I didn't mean to offend anyone or something like that.

By the way, that link is just an article about 'Why you need an internet usage policy.'

If that doesn't help in any way, then again I apologize. You can just ignore it.

I'm a reliable source and I'm free way too much.
And this is what I use.. it keeps totals, but I use it for the speed graph and as my little safety alert when mysterious bytes move to and for from unknown reasons.

I've used it for years. NetMeter !!!

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/

a picture sometimes is worth .. a click. NetMeter pic

Here is a link that might be useful: http://prntscr.com/2qfxa