Internet Bandwidth Usage Meter.

[grizwald]

I wonder how difficult it would be to include a basic bandwidth usage monitor in Mint 'Gloria' which would show how much data has been sent and received from our computer in real time.

Like everyone, we have a Monthly Data allowance with our ISP and some penalty if it is exceeded. Most ISP's provide a usage meter but these only show usage one day behind real time - or worse.

I envisage a small program which monitors packets in and out of the computer and displays this accumulated data in a small unobtrusive window somewhere so we can keep track of monthly usage in real time. Perhaps the provision to add the usual parameters like Start Date/Time and Shaping Date info etc would be a nice extra. Being able to include "Off Peak" parameters would be very nice indeed.

I see there are several similar programs already available but they only interrogate the ISP's Meter and display that non-current data.

Is this a practical request or have I overlooked something?

Grizwald.

[emorrp1]

Bearing in mind that "System Monitor" monitors network traffic, it might be worth considering this as a panel applet. I have no idea how you'd implement either technique though.

[rhodry]

I don't know how to write one or make a generic one; but, here is a link to a page from my ISP.

http://www.internode.on.net/support/tools/usage_meters/

A number of people have written them in various forms and on various platforms. Perhaps contacting the authors directly may help, or at least give further ideas. I personally use the gnome applet version and have it sitting in my Mint panel showing me my remaining monthly quota, with further details on mouse hover or opening the icon. You just need to enter account name & password after installing .deb.

Of course, my ISP provides this info on their 'user' web pages, so the apps just tap into that. That does not measure at the local connection level.

Hope this helps,
Rhodry.

[grizwald]

Thanks emorrp1 for pointing out the feature on System Monitor, brilliant!!! I was totally unaware of that so now I will make a note of my daily totals by hand to get me out of trouble. It is never possible to get the last day's data from the "ISP Meter" so no more surprises for me.

Since the required info is already available, it should be quite easy for some knowledgeable person [unfortunately I am not - much to my annoyance] to write a program to provide all the "Custom Cuties" to go with the extracted data from the System Monitor. When one has several computers on the same 'network' it would be a simple matter to add the figures together manually to arrive at a reasonably close total usage figure. No doubt ones modem/router sends and to/from the ISP which would not be included in these figures, but the System Monitor figures would be good enough for this purpose.

A nice exclusive, built in, "Show as you Go" feature for Mint.

Thanks also to Rohdry for your link, I have had a look at it and agree that it is very interesting. I have added it to my Favourites for future reference.

Cheers,

Grizwald.

[opticyclic]

I always use Netmeter (freeware) when I'm on Windows
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Network-To ... eter.shtml

It also works perfectly under Wine
http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?iVersionId=5626

There are some other native options that other people have recommended but I haven't used extensively
http://bandwidthd.sourceforge.net/

http://www.sqweek.com/sqweek/index.php?p=1

I also just saw this page with a massive list of links
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/bandwidth-mon ... linux.html