How to track internet usage at home? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

I've got a basic and a ridiculous question


First, how can I monitor total data "consumption" at home? I'm curious how much data I use through my cable modem service, including two computers, two iphones, two Tivos and an Xbox. Maybe my ISP (Time Warner / RoadRunner) tracks and can report that to me?


What prompts this is Verizon's 4G rollout. Rochester is part of the initial launch. And based on early reports (http://gigaom.com/2010/12/01/verizon-4g-review/) this service is faster than I get from my cable modem service, particular upload speeds which are over 5x faster than I get. And that makes me wonder if it's possible to setup this kind of service for whole house use by way of my Airport Extreme Base Station, as I do with conventional cable modem?


And even if I can do that, I'm back to the first question, because the 4G has a 10GB cap for $80/mo, with 1GB overages at $10 each.



I suspect the answers to my questions are "a lot" and "no" But with wireless services coming out that are, in practice, better than wired services, it makes me wonder if I can do better than what I've got now.

 

[Jacinto]

I get my broadband through Comcast. All I have to do is log on to my online account through them and I can see what my usage volume is. I would think your provider can tell you the same.


As for setting up the whole house to run off 4G, I have no idea -- I haven't looked into it, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a way to do it.

 

[mattCR]

There are numerous routers that will report this information. Both Belkin and Linksys provide routers that, with firmware updates, can tell you total data transferred. If you want to find out how much transferred by a device, then it gets trickier; solutions exist, but they are primarily linux firewall options... like say ClearOS firewall.

 

[DaveF]

Thanks. I'll check with TW and also my AEBS tools. I only care about total, cumulative (household) usage.