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Thread: Router with built in usuage monitor

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    Router with built in usuage monitor

    Hi

    I've just moved to BT Infinity, which gives you 100gb usage before they throttle your connection for 30 days. The Home Hub they give you doesn't let you know your usuage. So I was wondering if there are any routers out there with a built in usage monitor? One that doesn't reset when the router restarts. It needs to have Wireless N too. As I'm on infinity it doesn't need a modem either (seperate modem with Infinity).

    Are there any out there? I've seen the Belkin Play Max but I'm not sure if this actually offeres usuage monitoring? I've had the Belkin Vision in the past but can't remember if that was accurate.

    Also it needs to just monitor traffic to the modem, as I have a NAS, A PC, 2 laptops, and a blu-ray player with a DLNA client, I don't want it to add the internal network usage to the amount!

    Any help?

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    I know it's more of a workaround rather than the in-built solution you were looking for, but I've heard a lot of good things about WallWatcher (http://www.wallwatcher1.com/).

    It collects a variety of data from your router, including (most importantly) your bandwidth usage. You can look at this daily/weekly/monthly so not only can you keep track of whether or not you're staying within your cap but also where you are using it the most.

    The upside of this is that you don't have to change your router if it supports the Home Hub. I'm 100% sure if it does however. There is a list of supported routers as well. The downside is that, to my understanding, you will need a computer that is always on to monitor those logs.

    Another idea would be to get a router that supports the third-party DDWRT firmware, which offers built-in bandwidth usage monitoring from the router itself. I use this myself and find it to be very helpful.

    Edit: Now that I can post URLs.

    Supported Routers: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices
    Hardware-Specific Installation guides: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Hardware-specific
    Last edited by Norman121; 04-08-2010 at 10:49 AM. Reason: Added links

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    Thanks for the links. Unfortuneately, neither seem to support the BT Home Hub.

    I do have a usuage monitor on my main PC but this doesn't tell what I've downloaded on other machines!

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    Yeah, a lot of usage monitors will only supply data for the machine it's installed on.

    It seems that (somebody correct me if I'm wrong) built-in bandwidth usage monitors on routers only appear on the higher-end models. If you're thinking of replacing the Home Hub anyway, it may be a lot cheaper to go for a DDWRT supported router and install that. One of the cheaper Linksys ones are very decent and would work perfectly.

    The only thing I'm not sure about is whether or not you need the Home Hub for BT?

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    How good are you at perl programming?

    When I had a similar problem about 6 months ago, I wrote a perl script that would read the traffic stats page on my Netgear router every few minutes and store cumulative totals. It should be fairly easy to modify for other makes of router, and you are welcome to have a copy.

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    Keep in mind you'll need a fairly decent router to be able to cope with the ~40Mb/s from Infinity, SNB do WAN-LAN throughput tests if you're unsure. You might be able to find features like this on a consumer grade router but you might consider using a *nix based firewall distro with traffic monitoring software - something like pfSense with ntop installed or Smoothwall or something.

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    Thanks for the ideas. Ideally I wanted to keep to just having the one router without any other equipment. It seems like an obvious thing to have in a router but is actually very rare! Even BT that offer fairly restrictive usage allowances don't give you anyway of checking your bandwidth.

    chrestomanci, I thought of something like this but the HomeHub only has basic stats (as the modem is seperate) and the usuage stats just aren't anything like whats being used (it always says a few mbs).

    You don't have to use the Home Hub at all, the engineer that installed ifinity told me. But theres seems to be very little choice when it comes to routers without modems. As I said earlier, all I've really found so far is the Belkin Play Max thing, which is really alot more than I need as I already have a NAS that handles pretty much everthing the Belkin does!

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    I've just come across this from Netgear:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-Rang...0928454&sr=1-9

    Seems to do everything I need, and according to Netgears website it has 500mbps throughput from WAN to LAN.

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    That Netgear has a solid review from SNB, http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wirel...r3700-reviewed looks like a good choice if it's within your price range.

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    I use pfSense to keep a track of my bandwidth



    Uploaded with ImageShack.us

    Last edited by Jay; 04-08-2010 at 10:52 PM.
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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    Maybe you can make a suggestion to BT to have an online usage counter, I have one with Plusnet who are far, far smaller than BT and most ISPs so that I know exactly how much I've used and on what day.

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    Theres been alot of complaints on BT's forums about their fair use policy and the lack of usage monitor. It seems like BT prefer to keep the info to themselves, probably so people on smaller packages that are charged for going over their limits don't know how much they've used.

    Thanks for the ideas, but I don't think any usage monitors work with the HomeHub. I have a monitor on my PC which works great but doesn't tell me about everything else attached to my network!

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    That's ridiculous, you have a right to know how much bandwidth you are using. If they are restricting the info then I suggest you contact the trading watchdogs OFCOM.

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    Theydo email you when you're at 80% of your allowance, the problem is these emails get delayed and theres loads of complaints about BT emailing people to say they've gone over their limits when their internet connections haven't even been used (they've either been away or stopped using the internet after getting the 80% email).

    Its a shame as BT infinity is a great product, just a shame its not available from someone like BE yet.

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    I use DD-WRT on my router coupled along with the thinkbroadband meter to keep an eye on the traffic I use.

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    Re: Router with built in usuage monitor

    Which router do you use Lee?

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