Author Topic: How much have I downloaded? (Read 17665 times)

Curt · « **on:** February 03, 2013, 06:56 AM »

At first I was wondering if this should be posted in The Rant Thread!, but realized that I also have a question which I will like to be answered.
--------------------------------------

I am usually very satisfied with my Internet Supplier; the company is handling my land-line Telephone, my Televison, my Internet, my music file collection, and (for a while) my online backup.

But yesterday they mailed and informed me that they have both doubled my speed AND introduced "Fair Use": I am no longer allowed to download more than 1,000 (a thousand) GB (=1TB) per month! They didn't bother to include anything about "what must I do if I need to download more?", or any words about "how can I download my backup which is more than 1TB?"!

I feel certain I never have downloaded 1TB in a month, and may never download this much (please, God, don't let me need to download my backup!), but one of the problems in my mind is, that I don't know how much I already am downloading, and they have not yet offered any way for me to know this data.

I am not panicking, it will probably take me a year to download 1TB (please, God, don't let me need to download my backup!), but I would certainly like to know the answer to the basic question:

Does Windows or Firefox in any way keep record on How Many Bytes Was Downloaded?
-or is the Internet Supplier the only one who knows how much I am downloading?
-basic question

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** February 03, 2013, 07:02 AM »

Usually when an internet provider puts in a cap like this, they will also provide a url where you can go check on the bandwidth you have downloaded so far.

You could also get a firewall that will "approximately" keep track of this locally, but i encourage you to ask your ISP about where you can find out what THEY say you have used at any given time.

Renegade · « **Reply #2 on:** February 03, 2013, 07:14 AM »

There's a bandwidth meter that's been mentioned in this forum. I had it on my last Windows install, but forgot the name of it... NETMETER!

Check here:

http://www.metal-mac...or/index.php?page=13
http://www.metal-mac...tion=tpmod;dl=item23

That will work for 1 machine, but not your whole network. It might help some.

f0dder · « **Reply #3 on:** February 03, 2013, 07:33 AM »

I am usually very satisfied with my Internet Supplier; the company is handling my land-line Telephone, my Televison, my Internet, my music file collection, and (for a while) my online backup.
-Curt (February 03, 2013, 06:56 AM)

TDC, eh?

I hope this "fair use" crap doesn't bleed down all the way to Fullrate. It's bad enough TDC keeps connectivity costs artificially inflated and does all it can to slow down fibre connections, but "fair" use? Ugh.

Renegade · « **Reply #4 on:** February 03, 2013, 07:52 AM »

...but "fair" use? Ugh.
-f0dder (February 03, 2013, 07:33 AM)

It's funny how "fair" is always defined 1-sidedly. That doesn't seem "fair" now, does it?

xtabber · « **Reply #5 on:** February 03, 2013, 11:11 AM »

My router (ASUS RT-N66U) has a traffic manager page that can show statistics for both incoming and outgoing network traffic on a daily basis for at least 30 days. The image shown is the interactive real-time analysis graph, but you can also view the current rate, average, maximum and totals for each day, plus a summary for the past 30 days for each of the internet, wired, and wireless networks (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz separately).

joiwind · « **Reply #6 on:** February 03, 2013, 12:14 PM »

Curt : may I suggest Softperfect's NetWorx which, I think you'll find, does everything you want and need (wihin the limits of your request

)

Curt · « **Reply #7 on:** February 03, 2013, 01:06 PM »

Curt : may I suggest Softperfect's NetWorx
-joiwind (February 03, 2013, 12:14 PM)

-thanks.

At first I couldn't find the download link because it is "hidden" in the left advert column. If any one else will try it, the link looks like this:

Edit: For once, don't grab the portable, but the installer

app103 · « **Reply #8 on:** February 03, 2013, 02:03 PM »

There's a bandwidth meter that's been mentioned in this forum. I had it on my last Windows install, but forgot the name of it... NETMETER!

Check here:

http://www.metal-mac...or/index.php?page=13
http://www.metal-mac...tion=tpmod;dl=item23

That will work for 1 machine, but not your whole network. It might help some.

-Renegade (February 03, 2013, 07:14 AM)

I actually like this one a lot and have been using it since about 2006.

But yesterday they mailed and informed me that they have both doubled my speed AND introduced "Fair Use": I am no longer allowed to download more than 1,000 (a thousand) GB (=1TB) per month!
-Curt (February 03, 2013, 06:56 AM)

I download a lot, and my daughter and I watch a lot of streaming video, and we would have no trouble staying under that limit. We average about 50G per month, downloaded, between the 2 of us. Your ISP's 1TB limit is quite generous, compared to the 50G limit I have seen other people get stuck with.

Your backup stored in the cloud shouldn't be the only backup you have. You should also have a local backup that wouldn't require the use of the internet to access it. The act of having to download the data is one of the biggest pitfalls of online storage, once you have found a reliable service to store it. It can be a lot of time and bandwidth to get it all back. This is why it's only good for storage in individual separate files, or used as a "last resort" type of backup.

I sincerely hope that your online backup isn't all in a single image file, which would have to be completely downloaded to be useful. If everything is stored as separate files, then you would download it based on priority and need, a chunk each month. If you ever needed to download it, you might find that you have backed up a whole lot of stuff you really don't care about and wouldn't bother to waste the time and bandwidth to download, to get it back.

So I think you can afford to relax and not worry so much about the new cap, or you now know that you have to backup your stuff locally, too.

Curt · « **Reply #9 on:** February 03, 2013, 04:20 PM »

-thanks, April.
I was using NetMeter back in my Win 2000 days, but stopped because I only used it for watching if my speed was as promised, which it was.

However:

Hi all,

You will now find the latest release of NetMeter - Version 1.1.4 BETA - in the downloads section.

As you surely know, development for NetMeter was going increasingly slow in the recent years. This is because I either didn't feel like it or didn't have the time to work on it (damn you, real life!).

Also with the introduction of Windows Vista several problems with my implementation of NIC monitoring emerged. Unfortunately I wasn't able to solve these problems 100% as yet. There are still some mysterious crashes and things like interfaces not showing up in NetMeter's config screen.

Long story short - This will possibly be the last release of NetMeter by me! :-(

On the upside: NetMeter is now open source! You can find the Delphi source code in the downloads section
-NetMeter

When I went to their homepage, after reading your post, I was confused what file to get:

How much have I downloaded?

-and for these reasons, I will not be investing. I am out.

Edit:
Thanks for the advices about online backup.
My backups are always 1:1

skwire · « **Reply #10 on:** February 03, 2013, 04:52 PM »

FWIW, I use the 1.1.41 BETA version on W7/64 without issue.

Tinman57 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 03, 2013, 08:38 PM »

Bitmeter http://codebox.org.uk/ is a pretty spif program that I've used for years. But I like NetSpeedMonitor much better. It resides in your system bar and gives you up to date transfer info, and even has a database of usage that you can look at with just a right mouse click. http://www.floriangi...ware/netspeedmonitor

skwire · « **Reply #12 on:** February 03, 2013, 08:48 PM »

Curt, it goes without saying that, no matter what you end up using, you're probably only going to get accurate results of your bandwidth usage if you can measure data usage on your router (or whatever gateway device you use). You know what I mean?

Renegade · « **Reply #13 on:** February 03, 2013, 09:48 PM »

Curt, it goes without saying that, no matter what you end up using, you're probably only going to get accurate results of your bandwidth usage if you can measure data usage on your router (or whatever gateway device you use). You know what I mean?
-skwire (February 03, 2013, 08:48 PM)

skwire's absolutely correct there. Tools on your computer will measure traffic from the computer, e.g. if you have a NAS and store data there (or on another computer, etc.), that would count as well, so you'd not be getting just the WAN data transfers.

Curt · « **Reply #14 on:** February 04, 2013, 03:15 AM »

Thanks, gang. Networx looks promising, I think. I told it to forget about speed and concentrate on in/out everywhere - including the gateway (I assume). I have merely been online for an hour and a half, but already it has passed 7GB coming in (I have only downloaded a 105MB video), and at this rate, 1TB per month seems almost possible. I will of course have to wait and see if any pattern will show up.

4wd · « **Reply #15 on:** February 04, 2013, 04:36 AM »

I told it to forget about speed and concentrate on in/out everywhere - including the gateway (I assume). I have merely been online for an hour and a half, but already it has passed 7GB coming in (I have only downloaded a 105MB video), and at this rate, 1TB per month seems almost possible.
-Curt (February 04, 2013, 03:15 AM)

Make sure you're using the installer version, not the portable version, select All Connections and then tell it to Ignore local traffic within the LAN.

2013-02-04 21_33_32-Settings.png

If it's still saying you're using 7GB/90 minutes then maybe whatever you're using to do backup backups/syncs is wasting an awful lot of data.

Curt · « **Reply #16 on:** February 04, 2013, 07:22 AM »

I installed it yesterday. It has been working for less than 2½ hours in all. Already the total download ("received") has passed 20GB (sent: 629MB). No, at the moment my backup program is not even installed. But now I have changed the setting, according to 4wd's recommendation, so we'll see later on, what's happening.

mrHappy · « **Reply #17 on:** February 04, 2013, 08:01 AM »

Unless you're doing a lot of heavy downloading or other bandwidth using activity you have nothing to fear.

The highest usage I've had were in Nov with just under 200gb and that included a lot of mmo playing, youtube, steam downloading and in general normal usage.

You have a daily usage of 33gb if we go by a 30day month, and in 2½ day you've only used 20.

4wd · « **Reply #18 on:** February 04, 2013, 08:20 AM »

You have a daily usage of 33gb if we go by a 30day month, and in 2½ day you've only used 20.
-mrHappy (February 04, 2013, 08:01 AM)

Curt's said 20GB in 2.5 hours - not days.

That's approximately 200GB/day, (if it was on for 24 hours), a little bit more than 33.

Something's not right, either the way it's being measured or there's a program causing a lot more traffic than a few downloads.

mrHappy · « **Reply #19 on:** February 04, 2013, 08:24 AM »

Curt's said 20GB in 2.5 hours - not days.

That's approximately 200GB/day, a little bit more than 33.

Something's not right, either the way it's being measured or there's a program causing a lot of traffic.
-4wd (February 04, 2013, 08:20 AM)

For some reason I read that as days, but 20gb in 2½ hours is a whole lot of porn watching.
"Normal" usage wouldn't even be near that number,so as you wrote there must be a program doing something it's not supposed to.

Curt · « **Reply #20 on:** February 04, 2013, 09:49 AM »

But now I have changed the setting, according to 4wd's recommendation, so we'll see later on, what's happening.
-Curt (February 04, 2013, 07:22 AM)

Traffic is now normal. The change of setting did a huge difference:

tell it to Ignore local traffic within the LAN.
-4wd (February 04, 2013, 04:36 AM)

Thank you for the directions, 4wd

Curt · « **Reply #21 on:** February 04, 2013, 01:41 PM »

Thanks to mouser's answer and a private message from the honourable charter member mrHappy, I now know a lot more about my download situation: In the entire month of January I downloaded merely 18GB. So even with my new speed (50MBps) there will "always" be a gigantic gap free per month (please, God, don't let me need to download my backup!).

I will remove NetWorx; it is nice, but useless to me, now. (Edited: Revo Pro found no leftovers)

Thanks to all of you for helping me out!

Edit:
I also read what the new limitations are for YouSee customers:

"md" is of course Danish short for "month"

tomos · « **Reply #22 on:** February 04, 2013, 02:48 PM »

(please, God, don't let me need to download my backup!)
-Curt (February 04, 2013, 01:41 PM)

I think someone said this already but:

(please, Curt, make a local backup too) :-)

Curt · « **Reply #23 on:** February 04, 2013, 03:11 PM »

(please, Curt, make a local backup too) :-)
-tomos (February 04, 2013, 02:48 PM)

oh, you are all so kind-hearted to me

Yes, Tom, I will - eventually. The reason I took the online offer was the price: $5 per month. The reason I don't have my music backed up (all documents are copied to an external 500GB drive) is, the price: The music has costed me nothing, (and can all be downloaded again), but a 2TB external drive is a little expensive compared to the $5. There are simply too many bills to pay before I can defend to also have a new external drive.

But thank you for caring

tomos · « **Reply #24 on:** February 04, 2013, 03:19 PM »

But thank you for caring
-Curt (February 04, 2013, 03:11 PM)

you're welcome Curt

My backup achilles heel is my off-site (including online) backup. I have two local backups of everything but dont have any other backups of my music or photos ...