Solved - Monitoring Data Usage

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AZgl1800
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Solved - Monitoring Data Usage

Post by AZgl1800 »

I did a search for various terms / data / usage / monitor / throughput

and came up with zilch as far as an app to monitor the amount of data downloaded and uploaded.

I presume it would be a lot easier per device, ie, on my Linux laptop for one....

My service is AT&T ADSL with Unlimited Data/month.... ( because I subscribe to DirecTV/Uni-verse)

I upload a lot of pictures daily, and do a lot of downloads, but those not so much... individual files don't amount to much data.

But, web surfing and watching videos can add up..... real quick when your Wireless Verizon account maxes out at 4 gB/month.... when away from home, I have to be very frugal and restrict movies and picture uploading to a minimum.
3 or 4 movies can blow my gB/month limit right out the door.

So, what functions in Mint 18.3 are readily available, or what apps can I obtain to monitor my data throughput?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Monitoring Data Usage

Post by WharfRat »

Have you looked at vnstat yet :?:
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AZgl1800
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Re: Monitoring Data Usage

Post by AZgl1800 »

WharfRat wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:10 pm Have you looked at vnstat yet :?:
No, was not aware of it, and apparently it was not installed, had to down/load and install it.

$ vnstat

rx / tx / total / estimated
enp2s0f1: Not enough data available yet.
wlp3s0f0: Not enough data available yet.


so, now that it is installed, how do I access it so that I can set the start/end times.

It does not show up in the menu as of now. I ran that command thru Terminal obviously.
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Re: Monitoring Data Usage

Post by WharfRat »

I really haven't looked into it that much as I don't have to worry about usage limits - it was mostly out of curiosity.

There are a couple of sites like https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/vns ... ng-ubuntu/ that provide an intro.

I'm guessing you have to play with it as there seems to be a lot of settings.
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Re: Monitoring Data Usage

Post by trytip »

open system monitor under resources tab Network History and see at the bottom Total Received : Total Sent when you reboot it will start from ZERO again
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Re: Monitoring Data Usage

Post by AZgl1800 »

Very interesting reading, I will be pursuing that article for a long time


just briefly, since I started it up, and read a few paragraphs I can see this:

$ vnstat

rx / tx / total / estimated
enp2s0f1: Not enough data available yet.
wlp3s0f0:
Feb '18 116.59 MiB / 9.06 MiB / 125.64 MiB / 252.00 MiB
today 116.59 MiB / 9.06 MiB / 125.64 MiB / 149 MiB


Thanks, and thread closed.

John
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Re: Solved - Monitoring Data Usage

Post by WharfRat »

I recall having to edit /etc/vnstat.conf and change eth0 to enp0s31f6 which is what my wired interface ends-up as.

I wish the developers would have stuck with eth0 :(
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Re: Solved - Monitoring Data Usage

Post by AZgl1800 »

yes,

I noticed that the "instructions" were in error with the "device name"...

I had to substitute the device name that showed up when I asked it for a list...

then it worked perfectly. the following show the errors, and then me correcting for what this laptop actually has.

hn@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat

rx / tx / total / estimated
enp2s0f1: Not enough data available yet.
wlp3s0f0: Not enough data available yet.

john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat -u -i wlan0
Error: Unable to read database "/var/lib/vnstat/wlan0": No such file or directory
Error: Unable to get interface "wlan0" statistics.
Only available interfaces can be added for monitoring.

The following interfaces are currently available:
lo enp2s0f1 (10 Mbit) wlp3s0f0

john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat --islist
Unknown parameter "--islist". Use --help for help.
john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat --islist
Unknown parameter "--islist". Use --help for help.

john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat --help
vnStat 1.14 by Teemu Toivola <tst at iki dot fi>

-q, --query query database
-h, --hours show hours
-d, --days show days
-m, --months show months
-w, --weeks show weeks
-t, --top10 show top 10 days
-s, --short use short output
-u, --update update database
-i, --iface select interface (default: eth0)
-?, --help short help
-v, --version show version
-tr, --traffic calculate traffic
-ru, --rateunit swap configured rate unit
-l, --live show transfer rate in real time

See also "--longhelp" for complete options list and "man vnstat".


john@john-TP500LA ~ $ sudo /etc/init.d/vnstat start
[sudo] password for john:
[ ok ] Starting vnstat (via systemctl): vnstat.service.


john@john-TP500LA ~ $ ps -f | grep vnst
john 10913 8385 0 20:01 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto vnst


john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat

rx / tx / total / estimated
enp2s0f1: Not enough data available yet.
wlp3s0f0:
Feb '18 116.59 MiB / 9.06 MiB / 125.64 MiB / 252.00 MiB
today 116.59 MiB / 9.06 MiB / 125.64 MiB / 149 MiB


john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat -i wlan0
Error: Unable to read database "/var/lib/vnstat/wlan0": No such file or directory


john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat -i wlp3s0f0
Database updated: Wed Feb 14 20:06:35 2018

wlp3s0f0 since 02/14/2018

rx: 116.91 MiB tx: 9.12 MiB total: 126.04 MiB

monthly
rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
Feb '18 116.91 MiB | 9.12 MiB | 126.04 MiB | 0.86 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 234 MiB | 18 MiB | 252 MiB |

daily
rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
today 116.91 MiB | 9.12 MiB | 126.04 MiB | 14.26 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 138 MiB | 10 MiB | 148 MiB |



john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat -l -i wlan0
Monitoring wlan0... (press CTRL-C to stop)

getting traffic...Error: Unable to get interface "wlan0" statistics.
Error: Interface "wlan0" not available, exiting.


john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat -l -i wlp3s0f0
Monitoring wlp3s0f0... (press CTRL-C to stop)

rx: 3 kbit/s 4 p/s tx: 1 kbit/s 1 p/s^C


wlp3s0f0 / traffic statistics

rx | tx
--------------------------------------+------------------
bytes 10.32 MiB | 1.17 MiB
--------------------------------------+------------------
max 3.19 Mbit/s | 225 kbit/s
average 127.29 kbit/s | 14.45 kbit/s
min 0 kbit/s | 0 kbit/s
--------------------------------------+------------------
packets 12353 | 7207
--------------------------------------+------------------
max 286 p/s | 216 p/s
average 18 p/s | 10 p/s
min 0 p/s | 0 p/s
--------------------------------------+------------------
time 11.07 minutes

john@john-TP500LA ~ $ vnstat -i wlp3s0f0
Database updated: Wed Feb 14 20:21:36 2018

wlp3s0f0 since 02/14/2018

rx: 127.37 MiB tx: 10.30 MiB total: 137.67 MiB

monthly
rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
Feb '18 127.37 MiB | 10.30 MiB | 137.67 MiB | 0.94 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 256 MiB | 20 MiB | 276 MiB |

daily
rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
today 127.37 MiB | 10.30 MiB | 137.67 MiB | 15.39 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
estimated 149 MiB | 11 MiB | 160 MiB |



john@john-TP500LA ~ $
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Re: Solved - Monitoring Data Usage

Post by WharfRat »

The instruction page referencing vnstat --islist is a typo - it should be vnstat --iflist :wink:

vnstat -d and vnstat -m are useful too.
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Re: Solved - Monitoring Data Usage

Post by AZgl1800 »

WharfRat wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:19 am The instruction page referencing vnstat --islist is a typo - it should be vnstat --iflist :wink:

vnstat -d and vnstat -m are useful too.
that first one is a good one for me,
the 2nd and 3rd didn't work

$ vnstat -d
Error: Unable to read database "/var/lib/vnstat/eth0": No such file or directory

$ vnstat -m
Error: Unable to read database "/var/lib/vnstat/eth0": No such file or directory
john@john-TP500LA ~ $

as the only thing I have working is the WiFi on this laptop...
no LAN connection in my TV room/recliner where I do most of my surfing "work" :D
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Re: Solved - Monitoring Data Usage

Post by WharfRat »

Check the file names in /var/lib/vnstat/ and use vnstat -d -i enp0s31f6 which is my interface name - so change enp0s31f6 to your interfaces name.
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