An app to limit my daily internet use?

[Shmee150]

I'm on a 5GB a day cap internet connection, and I regularly go dangerously close to it, what I am looking for is an app to be able to pick a particular program and restrict it to say only downloading 4.5GB per day. I've found things to limit the speed, but that's not the same. Also monitoring current use would be appreciated - I've used NetLimiter for years but it always goes wrong so it's pretty useless really.

Cheers for any input!

Tim

[Rishi]

Think there is an app called "Down2Home" which can do this, free too, never used it so cannot comment on what it does exactly.

[Jay]

do you only have 1 pc?

[Shmee150]

Yeah another condition of the connection is only 1 machine in use.

That program looks awesome, going to give it a go right now.

Cheers,

Tim

[schmunk]

Yeah another condition of the connection is only 1 machine in use.

If you put 2+ PCs behind a router, the router will generally only report a single MAC, no matter which PC requests data, so the ISP'll never know.

[Jay]

schmunk what you said is true but there are ways to tell how many systems are behind NAT.

[Shmee150]

If you put 2+ PCs behind a router, the router will generally only report a single MAC, no matter which PC requests data, so the ISP'll never know.

Well I have a router, a wireless router, and a switch, all of which are sitting here not being used. I always assumed that wouldn't work. The rules for use that I signed say you must not connect such a device, but it may well be worth the risk, what do you think are the chances that would work? In a dream world, my Desktop, Laptop, iPhone and PS3 would all be using the internet so it would be awesome!

Tim

[schmunk]

Might it be worth your while to migrate to a less-restrictive ISP/package?

[Shmee150]

Might it be worth your while to migrate to a less-restrictive ISP/package?

At home I have a completely unrestricted 20mb connection

This is in my halls at uni, no choice and no phone line for a chosen connection.

Tim

[schmunk]

At home I have a completely unrestricted 20mb connection

This is in my halls at uni, no choice and no phone line for a chosen connection.

Tim

Ooh, shame...

Perhaps you could persuade your neighbours to lend you their excess allowances, by way of a long cable?

[digit]

Thats really poor for a uni supplied internet connection not heard anything like that before from any of my friends at uni. Mine had no cap at all but was quite heavily traffic shapped. Also ignore the small print about hooking a router up, just be very very careful you plug the uni connection into the WAN port. Quite a few people didnt and ended up broadcasting IP addresses throughout halls which was immensly annoying! If your uni locks down your connection by MAC address you will need to change your MAC address to that of a router to ensure that you get provided with a WAN IP address

One of my friends had a sweet setup with a wireless router and a switch meaning he could have all devices he wanted hooked up in a network all linked through the uni connection and assesible within uni as well, very handy as he had a nas box.

Another friend of mine used a wifi card in his pc configured as an access point complete with free proxy to share network connectivity out to other devices wirelessly.

[Rishi]

I know when I was at Uni you had to give them a MAC address when you bought the service.

Dont see any problem in using a router - some Uni's are just awkward

[Shmee150]

The connection is always 10mb which isn't too bad. The problem is that as soon as you connect a new device the mac address must be registered (there is no limit on the number of registered devices, just not at the same time), if a computer was connected through a router, the network would read the router's mac address right? In which case i'd have to re-register (only about 10 min wait), and then any device connected thru it would work? Tempted to try it, this is a time when I could live with the 2 day ban if I get caught.

Cheers,

Tim

[Rishi]

Just tell the router to use the MAC address that your initially registered with, then hook up all your gear and it should work.

[schmunk]

Just tell the router to use the MAC address that your initially registered with, then hook up all your gear and it should work.

Yes, any decent router should be able to spoof the MAC of any of the PCs attached to it (e.g. the Netgear instructions here).

[arthurleung]

Down2Home doesn't seems to do limiting.
If you just want monitoring, use Netlimiter.

I guess you're probably in an Imperial College Hall which have 5G Campus + Hall transfer limit per day. (And the ICT device & ban policy matches too )

I use Netlimiter (the free one) because it tells you traffic by the hour so I know what is "home" traffic and what is "campus" traffic
The pro version comes with bandwidth limiter but not usage limiter as far as i know.

Wireless router is quite essential in hall so that you can move around with your laptop.