Internet connection data caps are becoming more widespread in the US. Internet service providers may claim their data limits are good for “millions of emails,” but emails are small and HD videos on Netflix are much, much larger.
Follow our tips to deal with Internet bandwidth caps to help cut down on data usage, especially when streaming videos. Some ISPs may throttle your Internet connection speed after a certain point.
Bandwidth+ is a Mac program that lives on your Menu Bar and provides you with details regarding your network usage. The application is simple to handle, provides you with a comprehensive help manual, and offers you accurate information.
Use GlassWire to Monitor Your Bandwidth
GlassWire is a great firewall application for Windows that does a lot more than just block incoming connections. It’s also really amazing for monitoring your bandwidth usage.
The default view when you launch it shows you a graph of all network activity in real-time, which is pretty great, but once you switch over to the Usage tab you’ll see the real power of this application.
You can see your bandwidth usage by connection, whether it’s incoming or outgoing, and even drill down into individual apps to figure out exactly what is taking up so much bandwidth.
Want to know what hosts your applications are connecting to, and what type of traffic it is? You can easily see that as well. And, of course, you can drill down into more details, or zoom in to just the last day.
The basic version of GlassWire is free for everybody, but if you want the extra features, you’ll have to pay for the full version.
It’s definitely a great application, and we recommend it.
Check Your ISP’s Web Interface
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RELATED:How to Deal With Internet Bandwidth Caps
If your Internet service provider is tracking your bandwidth usage and holding you to a cap, they probably provide a page on their account website where they display how much data you’ve used in the last month. After all, they’re already tracking your data usage on their end. Cox calls this a “Data Usage Meter,” while AT&T calls it “myAT&T Usage.” Other ISPs call it similar things, generally involving the word “Usage.”
Your ISP’s tool is the best way to stay up-to-date on how much data you’re using. No matter how well you monitor your own data, your ISP will always use their own numbers to decide how much data you’ve uploaded and downloaded.
The downside of your ISP’s tool is that it may not be updated very frequently. For example, some ISP’s may update this bandwidth usage meter every day, although some may update it more frequently. Tools you use yourself can give you up-to-the-minute bandwidth usage information.
Track Bandwidth With Windows 8
RELATED:How to Restrict & Monitor Mobile Data Usage on Windows 8.1
Windows 8 includes a feature that can track how much bandwidth you’ve used on a connection. It was clearly introduced to aid with mobile data usage and tethering, but you can mark any connection as a “metered connection” to track its data usage.
This feature can be useful, but it only works on Windows 8 devices and only tracks a single PC. It also won’t line up with your ISP’s billing period. It’s much more useful if you’re monitoring a connection that only your device has access to — for example, a mobile data connection built into a Windows tablet.
Monitor Bandwidth Across Multiple PCs
RELATED:Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage?
We’ve previously recommended Networx for monitoring your bandwidth usage. It’s a free Windows application that allows you to monitor the bandwidth used by multiple Windows PCs. Its most useful feature is that it can synchronize bandwidth reports across a network. So, if you have five different Windows computers on your home network, you can sync them up with Networx to track bandwidth usage across all PCs in a single place. if you just have a single PC, no problem — you can use Networx to track bandwidth usage for one PC.
Unfortunately, this only works with Windows PCs. Networx doesn’t work with Linux systems, Macs, Chromebooks, smartphones, non-Windows tablets, game consoles, set-top boxes, smart TVs, or the many other network-connected systems and devices you might own. Networx is great if you only use Windows PCs, but it’s an incomplete picture otherwise.
You’ll also need to do more configuration to ensure Networx is capturing data for only your local network. For example, if you install Networx on a laptop and connect that laptop to other Wi-Fi networks, you’ll want to ensure Networx is only ytacking data used on your home Wi-Fi network.
Monitor Data Usage on Your Router
The problem with typical bandwidth monitoring solutions is that they monitor Internet connection usage on a single device. To measure all the data flowing in and out of your home network, you’d need to measure the data usage on your home router itself. Every device, wired or Wi-Fi, connects to the Internet through the router. Tracking data at the router will give you a complete picture.
RELATED:How to Use a Custom Firmware on Your Router and Why You Might Want To
The bad news is that home routers generally don’t have this feature built-in. The good news is that you can install a third-party router firmware like DD-WRT or OpenWRT and use bandwidth-monitoring software on it, getting a complete picture of your bandwidth usage.
For example, you can install DD-WRT, access its web interface, click over to Status > Bandwidth, and look under WAN to see how much bandwidth you’ve used in the last month.
If your ISP doesn’t provide a reliable way to track bandwidth and you need to do it on your own, purchasing a well-supported router and installing a custom firmware like DD-WRT is probably the best thing you can do.
Some third-party software programs can use the SNMP monitoring protocol to talk to a router and expose its bandwidth usage, among other networking statistics. However, there’s a good chance your home router doesn’t support SNMP. SNMP applications also tend to be complex tools designed for professional network administration, not easy tools to display a bandwidth usage meter at home.
Image Credit: Todd Barnard on Flickr
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Is there a good bit of software on Mac OS X that I can use to monitor incoming and outgoing network activity? Nothing too geeky, I just want something simple to use.
I'm on version 10.6 (Snow Leopard) if that helps.
Peter Mortensenclosed as off-topic by Journeyman Geek♦Oct 1 '15 at 4:53
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8 Answers
Wireshark is widely acknowledged as one of the best network monitor tools available. Distributions are available for OS X.
If you prefer something more simplistic you can use iStatMenus to show incoming / outgoing network traffic speeds.
For the person who doesn't want to install anything you can also use tcpdump in Terminal.
Josh KJosh KAlso check out nettop, a little command line gem that ships with Mac OS.
Also look at MenuMeters. I tried iStat Menus & MenuMeters and preferred MM. Not saying one is better; just that there are a couple of choices.
A working version of MenuMeters for El Capitan can be found here.
LittleSnitch! - 30$
It is mainly a software Firewall that may help you to prevent some apps to access the internet. It also has a nice menubar icon with live network usage. Mouseover on it and it displays which app is communicating with which server or ip address.
I have LittleSnitch and iStat Menus installed. Both are complementary.
ArkoArkoCommercial (16$) iStat Pro and iStat Menus (dashboard widget and menu bar item respectively) are great for monitoring everything from network activity to CPU temperatures.
And of course there's the network tab of Activity Monitor.
sorinNetwork Logger for Mac OS X from Group Mind does a great job of tracking network traffic, downtime (in real time, with timed log), and lots of easy-to-understand stuff. I'm not technical and all I really wanted was to track when my ISP connection went down, and for how long it stayed down. Mac's little Network Utility app would ping endlessly but wouldn't give me a chronological log. Network Logger did, and was easy for a novice to understand.
Cost me $5.99 from the App Store.
/System/Library/CoreServices/Network Diagnostics Simple green/red LEDs for various layers. I slide it over to the right side of the screen until just the lights show.
Network Tool For Mac To Monitor Network Bandwidth Monitor
I've just installed Net Monitor and Net Monitor Sidekick and so far I like them. Nothing you can't get with other tools, but a nice summary display. Each is $10 after a 30 day eval, so YMMV, but I thought I'd mention them.