Logging Internet Traffic on Home Network

May 24, 2013 1:47 AM

My mom, dad and I use the Internet at home on separate PC's. We always manage to go over our download limit. Is there anything out there that can use to log downloads on a monthly basis from 3 different PC's so I have an idea who the culprit is as far as exceeding bandwidth goes? Thanks peoples...
posted by Bacillus to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Kind of a difficult option if you aren't good with computers, but one way to do it would be to buy a router that supports DD-WRT and install that and this script.

That would give you a report by mac address or ip.
posted by empath at 2:21 AM on May 24, 2013

You can install something like NetWorx to record usage on each PC.
posted by pipeski at 2:21 AM on May 24, 2013

..or NetLimiter, which will log on a per-application basis.
posted by pipeski at 2:22 AM on May 24, 2013

I've used Netlimiter for this in the past. I don't know what the current iteration is like, but if I recall correctly, you could set a limit for both up/download speed and up/download amount.
posted by Solomon at 3:00 AM on May 24, 2013

Doing this on your home router as empath suggests is definitely the way to go if you can set it up. This will even allow you to get reports on all devices on your network, including tablets, smartphones, etc., without having to install any extra software.
posted by wachhundfisch at 3:00 AM on May 24, 2013

I'm doing this on my router. Newer variants of Tomato can log per-computer; the Toastman builds, the Shibby builds, or EasyTomato. This does a good job of telling you which computer is using the bandwidth but not so much what program. Is it someone watching online video? Software updates gone amok? If reprogramming the firmware on your router doesn't sound like your idea of a fun afternoon, try installing monitoring on the PCs instead.
posted by Nelson at 3:47 PM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]