internet usage totaliser?
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2004
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 883
Likes: 34
From: Berkshire, UK
internet usage totaliser?
If I wish to monitor our total internet line usage, on a month by month basis, how might I do it?
The reason I ask is that BT have suddenly started to charge for all of those little extra features that used to be bundled in with 24/7 inclusive calls packages. (1571, Caller Display etc) This has increased the effective line rental by about 30%. I know that this is only some 7 pounds per month but as the total bill is getting towards 30 pounds per month I am wondering if the advent of 4G in our area might make it cost effective to use a mobile hotspot to bring our broadband in and then ditch the landline all together. We would have to run a second Vonage thingy to give us the two phones we currently have.
If I could see how much internet we already use and then factor in another "phones worth" of data I could see the relative costs of going totally landlineless.
Rans6......
The reason I ask is that BT have suddenly started to charge for all of those little extra features that used to be bundled in with 24/7 inclusive calls packages. (1571, Caller Display etc) This has increased the effective line rental by about 30%. I know that this is only some 7 pounds per month but as the total bill is getting towards 30 pounds per month I am wondering if the advent of 4G in our area might make it cost effective to use a mobile hotspot to bring our broadband in and then ditch the landline all together. We would have to run a second Vonage thingy to give us the two phones we currently have.
If I could see how much internet we already use and then factor in another "phones worth" of data I could see the relative costs of going totally landlineless.
Rans6......
Hippopotomonstrosesquipidelian title
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,825
Likes: 1
From: is everything
Your router may already have that feature. You just need to shuffle through the menus and enable/log/view the info. One of my routers can send an email at a user-defined milestone, and also throttle bandwidth at a set figure. Not that I actually need those features on my connections.
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 218
Likes: 0
From: Uk
BT have suddenly started to charge for all of those little extra features that used to be bundled in with 24/7 inclusive calls packages. (1571, Caller Display etc)
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,761
Likes: 6
From: Lemonia. Best Greek in the world
As you are with BT you can call them any time and ask for a detailed account usage .............assuming you get put thru to the right person!!
I used to be capped, but talked it thru with someone at BT as my kids started to be very keen on tv and movies over the net.
It was obvious from his usage data that I needed to pay for the unlimited service.
If you are with BT Broadband there is a usage monitor.
The charges for 1571 and caller display are a disgrace. I've got rid of caller display, but can't be arsed to get the answer phone working, so I stayed with 1571.
I used to be capped, but talked it thru with someone at BT as my kids started to be very keen on tv and movies over the net.
It was obvious from his usage data that I needed to pay for the unlimited service.
If you are with BT Broadband there is a usage monitor.
The charges for 1571 and caller display are a disgrace. I've got rid of caller display, but can't be arsed to get the answer phone working, so I stayed with 1571.
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
Likes: 0
From: Earth
rans6andrew,
I would look very, very closely at the small print and all addendums to the small print before you decide to go landlinesless, 4G only .....
The mobile networks tend to be far more aggressive in their capacity management than even the worst of the fixed broadband providers.
If you're ditching the landline and so doing Skype, VoIP, Streaming, Downloads, VPNs etc. all through the mobile network, I'm not entirely sure things will be entirely rosy in the garden for you.
Just sayin'....
I would look very, very closely at the small print and all addendums to the small print before you decide to go landlinesless, 4G only .....
The mobile networks tend to be far more aggressive in their capacity management than even the worst of the fixed broadband providers.
If you're ditching the landline and so doing Skype, VoIP, Streaming, Downloads, VPNs etc. all through the mobile network, I'm not entirely sure things will be entirely rosy in the garden for you.
Just sayin'....
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 3,663
Likes: 0
From: Earth
You can download internet usage monitors from the internet. You will need one on each device that you connect with because they will only record the usage of that particular device though.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2004
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 883
Likes: 34
From: Berkshire, UK
we have a mixture of machines which consume internet, the hungriest of them runs Linux Mint most of the time. The others run various strains of Windies and a couple of phones run Android. I guess one solution won't fit all. Our ISP is Sky, which we just got dropped on when o2 got out of the ISP business, they have just sent us a new WiFi/modem/router. Possibly it or they can supply the usage info. I'll check when I get it connected.
Thanks for the input,
Rans6.......
Thanks for the input,
Rans6.......
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 316
Likes: 1
I used to have counter thingies, useful but never quite agreed with isp counters.
Much easier if you go unlimited, for about three quid a month extra you cease to worry.
Landlineless is a great solution if you can do everything at 3am, else forget it.
Much easier if you go unlimited, for about three quid a month extra you cease to worry.
Landlineless is a great solution if you can do everything at 3am, else forget it.
Official PPRuNe Chaplain
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 3,498
Likes: 0
From: Witnesham, Suffolk
My ISP provides a little App that sits in the taskbar and tells me how much of my allowance I've used. Some months I get as high as 60% 
I told BT they can keep 1571 (I have an old answering machine that does the job for free). I signed up for their "pay for a year ahead" which saved a fair amount. Caller Ident was meant to be free with that package, but they charged me anyway until I spotted it and challenged them. The nice Indian lady arranged a refund in the following month and set it to "free" again.
Out here in the agricultural wilds there's no mobile phone signal to speak of, but BT is installing FTTC at the moment so I'm expecting to pay even more and switch to that.
I told BT they can keep 1571 (I have an old answering machine that does the job for free). I signed up for their "pay for a year ahead" which saved a fair amount. Caller Ident was meant to be free with that package, but they charged me anyway until I spotted it and challenged them. The nice Indian lady arranged a refund in the following month and set it to "free" again.
Out here in the agricultural wilds there's no mobile phone signal to speak of, but BT is installing FTTC at the moment so I'm expecting to pay even more and switch to that.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2004
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 883
Likes: 34
From: Berkshire, UK
I used the network monitor in the Linux Mint version of "task manager" to monitor my hungriest machine for a day during which I played much Youtube music videos. It seems that on a good day I can use 1.2GB of data. I guess 40GB a month should cover all of our needs.
Going landlineless is not quite an option, yet, we are just outside of the "good indoor coverage" of both 3 and EE 4G networks. A mate who lives closer to the centre of Reading than we are uses his mobile phone on 3 to get sustained downloads in the 20Mbs, or about 3 times the rate we get down our copper based connection. It will be getting here eventually, then I will look again at the options.
Rans6.....
Going landlineless is not quite an option, yet, we are just outside of the "good indoor coverage" of both 3 and EE 4G networks. A mate who lives closer to the centre of Reading than we are uses his mobile phone on 3 to get sustained downloads in the 20Mbs, or about 3 times the rate we get down our copper based connection. It will be getting here eventually, then I will look again at the options.
Rans6.....
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 414
Likes: 0
From: On the Bay, Vic, Oz
