Bandwidth Monitor

[Redsfan]

I just upgraded to 100mbps/10 and no bandwidth limit on our home internet but would like to still monitor our usage as we are using Netflix, Minix, etc. Is there any good program for our Mac's I can use?

 

[Redsfan]

I just upgraded to 100mbps/10 and no bandwidth limit on our home internet but would like to still monitor our usage as we are using Netflix, Minix, etc. Is there any good program for our Mac's I can use?

I found Bandwidth+ and it works out, sits in your notification bar up top. Question for anybody using it perhaps, is how do you set the start day in preferences? Mine was set to 5 which I take as the 5th of the month as starting a new monitoring month but bandwidth continues to be measured.

 

[HenryAZ]

Have you looked at your router's interface? Often the router will have a bandwidth counter or counters. This is really the best place to monitor, anyway, since packets from all devices in your house must pass through the router.

 

[Redsfan]

Have you looked at your router's interface? Often the router will have a bandwidth counter or counters. This is really the best place to monitor, anyway, since packets from all devices in your house must pass through the router.

It has some sort of counter not broken into the format I like such as daily/month. On my ancient Linksys router the UI had a nice breakdown this one doesn't seem to. Probably no way of having it but wanted something neat and tidy on top of my notification bar..we have unltd bandwidth anyhow but want to feel good about it still lol

 

[HenryAZ]

It has some sort of counter not broken into the format I like such as daily/month. On my ancient Linksys router the UI had a nice breakdown this one doesn't seem to. Probably no way of having it but wanted something neat and tidy on top of my notification bar..we have unltd bandwidth anyhow but want to feel good about it still lol

The problem with running an app on your Mac, is that you will only see the bandwidth used by that machine, not the other devices in your house, such as a Roku box or other Macs, iPads, or streaming devices. The router occupies a unique network position to be able to see every packet going to and from the Internet over your ISP connection, by every device.

My router doesn't have any breakdown either, but it does have a "reset counter" button, so you can check how much you are using over a set period of time by resetting it at intervals. I just use a calendar reminder to reset it at the first of the month, and even then forget to sometimes. Once you have a rough idea, you'll probably find it doesn't vary too awful much from month to month, and the idea of just "knowing" gets old for me. I did find that our average usage went up when we upgraded our Internet service to a different provider with much higher bandwidth (went from 7 to 30Mbps), but even then, it settled into a boring same-old average, just at a higher level.

 

[Redsfan]

The problem with running an app on your Mac, is that you will only see the bandwidth used by that machine, not the other devices in your house, such as a Roku box or other Macs, iPads, or streaming devices. The router occupies a unique network position to be able to see every packet going to and from the Internet over your ISP connection, by every device.

My router doesn't have any breakdown either, but it does have a "reset counter" button, so you can check how much you are using over a set period of time by resetting it at intervals. I just use a calendar reminder to reset it at the first of the month, and even then forget to sometimes. Once you have a rough idea, you'll probably find it doesn't vary too awful much from month to month, and the idea of just "knowing" gets old for me. I did find that our average usage went up when we upgraded our Internet service to a different provider with much higher bandwidth (went from 7 to 30Mbps), but even then, it settled into a boring same-old average, just at a higher level.

thanks, that is what I have gathered now. I don't have a reset on my router/modem but will just monitor from our if necessary