My ISP is going to cap bandwidth usage effective May 2nd at some limit which is meaningless to me.
One blog on how to live with the cap suggest Watch your bandwidth usage at least once a week and plan accordingly. but doesn’t, insofar as I can tell, give instructions on how to watch usage once a week.
How do I watch my bandwidth usage once a week?
You didnt say what ISP your using but I would think going through their website would show you your current usage. I personally use AT&T and all I have to do is log in and go to “My Usage Details”. AT&T’s website says they will be charging $10 for every 50gb over my cap of 150gb (AT&T Uvers cap is 250gb). If you want to have a third party program to confim they are charging you correctly there are plenty out there.
I’ve got AT&T also and it says the usage meter isn’t ready yet, don’t worry about it.
"
My Usage | FAQ
My Usage Details
The U-verse data measurement report is currently under construction. When completed, you will be notified if your usage exceeds the allowance. Until that time, U-verse customers should not be concerned about their usage patterns for billing purposes.
To learn more about how to manage your usage, please visit Monitor & Manage Internet Data Usage - AT&T Support"
They also state they will notify customers several times before they reach their cap. We’ll see.
If it’s AT&T you go to this site
THIS is what AT&T goes by, it doesn’t matter what any meter you have or your router or anything else says, this is the one that counts. You have to be careful as it counts both uploads and dowloads.
I still find it hard to believe 97% of AT&T users don’t use 150gb a month.
I can watch my bandwidth usage on my router. I installed a third-party firmware called Tomato, which allows me to track my bandwidth use in real time, and also by the hour, day, week, or month.
When I was using Verizon wireless as my only ISP I was commonly in the 3-4 GB/m range (limit was 5 Gb/m). This included about 40 hours of Pandora (music)/month, some youtube stuff, as the major bandwidth hogs not to mention windows updates and using those things without restriction.
Now using a cable modem w/o caps I don’t look, and I don’t know how to look, but besides Netflix streaming, which I know is a lot of bites, nothing has really changed.
This site Data caps claim a victim: Netflix cuts streaming video quality | Ars Technica claims 30-70gb/s for 30 hrs, which may be my monthly streaming usage, so it looks like I would be under the 150 gb/m limit. Though it is a bit close for my liking and would like to see such caps quite a bit higher.
If you are reaching the limit, you might consider raising the speed rate, if a higher one is available. Charter bumps the cap along with the higher rate. I was using 750GB/month when they pointed out my cap (they call it a “threshold”) was 250. Bumping up to the highest residential speed (60Mb/sec down, 5 up) got me a 500GB cap (still not enough, but we’re negotiating).
I think users will be hit by caps more and more. My Netflix online viewing has already eclipsed my TV watching. Charter never had any caps until 2009, so imposing them at the same time as needs increase seems just to be a way of raising the rates for customers without appearing to do so.
If you’re just using a single system, you can install the free NetWorx bandwidth monitor. It’ll give you bandwidth (upstream and downstream) totals by the day, week, month and year. Of course, it just monitors that one computer, so if you have multiple PCs, you’ll need to install it on them as well, and then add together the individual totals.
Me, similar to mhendo, I just look at my router’s bandwidth measurement. Except, I use DD-WRT instead of Tomato.
I keep getting the “it’s not ready yet” page I copied above. this is from AT&T’s link:
www.MyUsage.att.com
Is anyone using Uverse able to get their usage? Maybe I’m holding my mouth wrong or something.
Thanks. It is AT&T but I don’t know the account ID as the wife set it up. Apparently the link above will give me more information when I get more information. Thanks.
I have AT&T DSL not AT&T Uverse. When I log in to my account it shows me my usage all the way back to Jan 22,2011. A friend of mine in the same neighborhood has Uverse and he says the site is still under construction.
Thank you Parsimony.
I have AT&T DSL and this is what I get
And with three computers on the line, I have no idea how to figure what we’re using.
If you can configure your router with third-party firmware like Tomato or DD-WRT, it doesn’t matter how many computers you have, because the data is captured at the router, so it tracks total usage for the household.
Or, you could switch to one of those Unlimited plans.
Oh wait… nevermind.