Network data counting

RobbieW

RobbieW

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 Jun 2007
Messages
5,499
Location
On land for now
Visit site
Like many here, I have a 'dongle' that provides an internet service onboard - its a sort of MiFi device but a few years older (Ericsson W25). It doesnt do texts so if my ISP sends texts about charges or usage they are thrown away. Ok, I can live with that most of the time.

We currently have a deal at 5Gb/month, which we've now blown for the second month in succesion - yes, if SWMBO didnt have an Apprentice addiction things wold be much easier. Yet we managed the previous 4 months without a problem.

So I'm trying to drill down into the lappies to try and see if anything else is behaving badly. Anyone got a recommendation that runs on both XP and 7 that will monitor network traffic, keep a running total and ideally attribute data to application?

The obvious ones are covered - Windows only tells us it has an update to download, virus checkers are on manual update etc etc
 
You could try the think broadband tool http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html

Also if you streaming from the BBC use the lower bandwidth option at the bottom it reduces quality a bit but is fine for something like the apprentice (0 would be fine for that :) )

Also might be worth ringing your provider and asking for more, they will probably quote you a high price but try asking for it at a lot lower price or for free, this does often work and you have nothing to lose.
 
RobbieW said:
Like many here, I have a 'dongle' that provides an internet service onboard - its a sort of MiFi device but a few years older (Ericsson W25). It doesnt do texts so if my ISP sends texts about charges or usage they are thrown away. Ok, I can live with that most of the time.

We currently have a deal at 5Gb/month, which we've now blown for the second month in succesion - yes, if SWMBO didnt have an Apprentice addiction things wold be much easier. Yet we managed the previous 4 months without a problem.

So I'm trying to drill down into the lappies to try and see if anything else is behaving badly. Anyone got a recommendation that runs on both XP and 7 that will monitor network traffic, keep a running total and ideally attribute data to application?

The obvious ones are covered - Windows only tells us it has an update to download, virus checkers are on manual update etc etc
Click to expand...

You didn't say who your provider is, Vodafone have a counter on their connection page under Statistics, if that's the type of thing you are looking for.
 
grumpygit said:
You didn't say who your provider is, Vodafone have a counter on their connection page under Statistics, if that's the type of thing you are looking for.
Click to expand...

MASMovil in Spain, the usage they provide is ummm idiosyncratic :) No running total, dates in random order, max 10 entries per page - I currently have about 280 data entries so far in June. I can cut and paste into a spreadsheet but its tedious and tells me little about usage except when the peaks are, if the data is accurate. On the plus side MASMovil allows Skype which many mobile providers (including Voda I believe) prohibit.
 
ZoneAlarm will monitor all connections and ask you to confirm whether you wish to allow them. You can store the answers, so it usually only asks once per program. I don't use it these days - I have a hardware firewall - but it does a good job, and ensures that you have explicitly permitted all the traffic that is on your connection.
 
Also, if you turn off automatic updates for all your applications, this will save using the dongle. When you next hit a location with WiFi, do the updates while having a beer. You can also look at download sites for these programs, so again, download to the PC and watch back onthe boat, so not using into your 5gb ;-)

Just a few options for you

Tim
 
RobbieW said:
MASMovil in Spain, ....... On the plus side MASMovil allows Skype which many mobile providers (including Voda I believe) prohibit.
Click to expand...

Don't let products like Skype/Facebook, etc sit there, up and running, in the background. Just the fact they are loaded then they can be indicating your status over the internet - thus using a token of your allowance. So it not using them close them down.
 
Steve Clayton said:
Don't let products like Skype/Facebook, etc sit there, up and running, in the background. Just the fact they are loaded then they can be indicating your status over the internet - thus using a token of your allowance. So it not using them close them down.
Click to expand...

Pretty much aware of that - curious how much data they actually consume in background though? Skype we now turn off, as much to discourage unplanned calls as anything (and I'll look to see if theres an option to force voice only in tx and rx). Facebook I only start when I want it (about weekly :)), getting SWMBO into the discipline of closing what she isnt using is a little harder.

I know more or less how much data we download for TV (in .wmv format, neither the mobile network nor any wifi we've used in Spain has been robust enough for jitter free streaming). An hour of TV is about 600Mb, so a month of Apprentice (fortunately now finished) is half the allowance.

Its really only the last couple of months when data seems to have shot up. Up to then the 5Gb (which we've had since mid December) was adequate. I could go to Yoigo and get 10Gb for the same price as 5 with MASMovil but I kind of want to understand whats happening first (& I'd need to find a workaround for Skype).
 
Robbie,

You can have a very simple check on data sent and received from any network interface by the following: (forgive any steps/errors, but working off memory as I just use Mac and linux at home)

XP
Click on control panel
Click on network
Find the network card/interface for the dongle
Double click on it.

It will show you the status and give a running count of bytes sent/received.

Win7
Control panel
View network status and tAsks
Change adapter settings
Double click adaptor, when active
Its shown at bottom and labelled Activity

Personally, I would get zone alarm installed (its free) and gives a very simple interface. It covers xp and 7, its free ( did i mention that?)
It will tell you what is trying to get out, and all associated modules.

Hope that helps
E1
 
Overall Trend is troubling

Many sites that seem mostly text ie; forums, some email, newspapers, etc
are adding more & more ads(adverts) on the sides/tops/bottoms - many of those ads have added motion, video, etc - I've noticed my counter registering big chunks after visiting.

Also any sites that open 2nd page or pages to read an article, etc. The original page is still running with ads you do not even see burning up data allocation.

The mobile companies (at least in the states) are struggling to keep up with data demand with all the smartphones and tablets yet so many websites are chase revenue are adding more and more ads, content that are data hogs - so the passive usage is higher even before you choose your favorite sites
 
Chuteman said:
Many sites that seem mostly text ie; forums, some email, newspapers, etc
are adding more & more ads(adverts) on the sides/tops/bottoms - many of those ads have added motion, video, etc - I've noticed my counter registering big chunks after visiting.

Also any sites that open 2nd page or pages to read an article, etc. The original page is still running with ads you do not even see burning up data allocation.

The mobile companies (at least in the states) are struggling to keep up with data demand with all the smartphones and tablets yet so many websites are chase revenue are adding more and more ads, content that are data hogs - so the passive usage is higher even before you choose your favorite sites
Click to expand...

AdBlock and NoScript may help.
 
Thanks for all the replies and pointers. A quick summary based on those replies.

I am using ZoneAlarm on the XP machine (the 7 machine is an underpowered Netbook which doesnt meet the spec). Whilst it can be used to block badly behaving applications I cant see that it helps to identify those, except where the behaviour is similar to a worm or keylogger where ZoneAlarm will flag the behaviour. Another behaviour ZoneAlarm now has is to run the browser in a 'sandbox' (ForceField), so it appears that all URLs are handled via ZoneAlarm's own servers before being passed through to the desired address. I guess this allows some checking to be done server side but it does mean I'm now dependent on the performance of ZoneAlarm in addition to all the other network variables.

I tried NetLimiter, and removed it for now. It seems to mess with network drivers, installing its own set. It looks comprehensive but doesnt, in the free variant anyway, easily produce an overall picture of usage that one could then drill down into. It does keep stats by application so I may go back to it - however, see ZoneAlarm behaviour above, each browser session has the same IP endpoint (ZoneAlarms) so its hard to tell which session is actually generating HTTP traffic.

I like NetWorx, it seems to work better than the AnalogX application I'd previously tried. Thats now installed on both machines, it appears to give a daily summary plus hourly breakdowns which helps to give some clue as to whether the data used was deliberate or machine generated.

I'm already using AdBlock in FireFox on XP, SWMBO is a Hotmail user and we havent found either FireFox or Chrome to work well with Hotmail so she uses IE. Just did a little background checking on AdBlock to see how it works - some ads are blocked up front by IP address, so you get neither data download nor excess network connections generated locally. Apparently some ads are now buried inside elements of the web page, AdBlock is refining its rules to prevent those displaying but the data still gets downloaded.

Finally, Chuteman, you're quite right but that data growth isnt new, heres one view on that. With predictions of that sort there are huge investments required in the internet infrastructure, let alone within the mobile operators piece of that.
 
Agree Fully

RobbieW:
Data Growth - Understand and yes, agree the trend has been going on for some time. It just seems that so many more sites have some sort of ad all over the place and instead of static image or wording, full motion video, movie clips, etc, etc.
Whatever they can jam onto the page to the point that whatever you wanted to see is now in a small panel with all sorts of stuff happening around it.
I ignore them all.
The article shared in the link was interesting & put #s to the trend, yes it will only get worse

Ad Blockers - also wondered the impact on system / operating software especially with Mac products. Also I think more are the ads are deeply imbedded into the web pages.

Will check out thoroughly first.
 
If you use Firefox you could consider Flashblock too - it stops flash objects loading automatically. (This is for non-adverts - Adblock Plus should stop those.)

And Stylish - people have written userstyles to cut the rubbish out of many sites.

Some sites - and this forum is one - are quite usable with images turned off. I got used to doing that from years of using mobile data connections with low bandwidth and low data limits. It depends on the browser whether and how you can do that. (Safari on the iPad can't AFAICS.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top