US Cable Support > Comcast HSI > Bandwidth Monitor for Computers-Suggestions?

reply to dadkins

Re: Bandwidth Monitor for Computers-Suggestions?

reply to Unit649
I am still wondering if there are any Mac apps for the apple routers. I only use wireless for a macbook (my PC and xbox are hard wired) but macs just don't seem to like anything besides apple hardware. So just wanted to see if anyone else uses an application for base stations.

Heh, getting worried now about bandwidth caps and such...

I now have an Asus wl500w but don't want to flash it to DD-WRT because it'll take too long to get back the functionality I have right now (USB drive connected acts like an FTP server). My question is whether I can just take my older WRT54G with DD-WRT on it and use it as a bandwidth meter or not. My worry is that the system will be double-wrouted (can I just bridge it?), and that the router in the middle will choke on all the P2P etc. connections like it did before. Also my worry is that it'll degrade the performance on the WAN connection. If these aren't the case I'll gladly go back to monitoring traffic with it between my new router and the cable modem.

Otherwise, does anyone know of a piece of Mac software that would allow me to do SNMP bandwidth monitoring? The wl500w does support that.

reply to Unit649
Put in the DD-WRT firmware in your router and use that. That is what I have been using to see my usage and it seems pretty good. Also the Tomato router firmware has such a feature I believe.

reply to Unit649
I've got the Buffalo 54 router that Tomato supports..but so far I'm just a wee bit fearful of flashing the firmware to install Tomato.

Can someone out there handhold me and tell me "its all gonna be alright!" I'd be primarily doing it just for the bandwidth monitoring, but also the Quality of Service feature is awesome...being able to shape traffic.

I assume the Tomato firmware doesn't interfere with standard traffic like, say, passing a VPN signal or what have you....and is port forwarding (to pass, say, a NetMeeting signal) still supported without incident...

reply to Unit649
I fear I am the only one in the world without a Linksys WRT54G router.

Does anyone have any ideas for other routers?
I have 2:
Belkin F5D6231-4 (an old 80211b I use as to extend range to some hard to the basement)
Netgear Rangemax WPN824 v2 (my main router)
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My other cyber-pasttime, Where's George
Miserable Failure

reply to Unit649
Comcast will monitor your upload as well... Look what the moderator said on the comcast forums:

reply to Unit649
Hi, can someone point me to a Cacti for Dummies tutorial? It's a pretty powerful system. I've figured out how to connect it to my router (Apple Time Capsule) and grab its SNMP data, but I can't figure out how to create charts that actually track total bandwidth across the WAN port. Furthermore, does Cacti require me to always keep a computer powered on and running Cacti? Seems like it might be easier to pickup a Linksys router and load Tomato firmware.

reply to Nerdtalker
I use the DU Meter [url]»www.dumeter.com/[/url].. I been using it for quite sometime. It works great & can create a spreadsheet of usage for daily/weekly/month usage. I have it on all my PC's on my network. This way I can monitor the b/w, not too mention it is a quick way to see if spyware is trying to send data...

reply to Unit649
I did go and flash the router with WRT yesterday. Turns out the new N one works on it.

The only issue I see is that the stats are stored on it only until it loses power-so I'm keeping the stats on each computer also since those are stored.

So far it looks like I'm headed for a 34GB month, if the first weeks figures remain consistant....

reply to Unit649
I was using NetMeter and it went buggy after it reached 100 GB projected, it started new month and listing totals for 1899. So now I'm trying DU Meter.

I still have NetMeter running. Supposedly it is monitoring one of the six-seven computers currently running within my LAN. The problems are:

1. It monitors only one computer connection.
2. It monitors not just the WAN traffic relevant to my Comcast connection, but also the local LAN traffic which Comcast should not care about.

One computer LAN + WAN

All network WAN traffic, excludes local LAN

reply to Unit649
Is there anything out there that measures bandwidth usage on a network wide basis? I don't have a router compatible with Tomato so I can't use that, and Netmeter checks only one computer.

I don't want to have to install netmeter on all 5-6 of my computers. Plus I have 2 iPhones that use our network a lot.

If your router "can collect and report bandwidth usage (if router supports SNMP or includes packet lengths in log records)" then try Wallwatcher.

»sonic.net/wallwatcher/

Otherwise, you can get a router compatible with Tomato, or you can wait and see if Comcast gets a customer-accessible meter out on time.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
More features, more fun, Join BroadbandReports.com, it's free...

reply to sansri88
Can you flash your router with DD-WRT? If so, that would also monitor your network WAN bandwidth.

I don't think so...

I have Trendnet TEW-452BRP. That other meter works only with the 432BRP..

reply to Unit649
Just as an update:

I have been using NetMonitor as well as a DDWRT flash (found out I could do it with the new N router) a few days after.

So far I've used 22GB. About what I expected. I guess I'm good. Even better, the router doesn't even get warm now at all, seems like. Must be because of the new OS in the router.

Glad to see the thread helped a bunch of people including myself. October 1 is coming soon. Keep an eye on that cap, everyone