Monitor how much bandwidth applications on my laptop are using over time
December 22, 2014 7:38 AM   Subscribe

Is there an easy way to monitor how much bandwidth various websites and applications are using on my laptop? I'm on a fairly restricted plan when home for the holidays and don't want to use more then my share.

I'd rather not something that just tells me moment to moment how much is being used, but something I can look at after an hour that says 'Youtube used up X MB, Twitch used up Y, store.steampowered.com used up Z'

Is there anything like this for Windows 7?
posted by Canageek to Computers & Internet (8 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Is the built in Resource Monitor sufficient? I believe it's more aimed at "what's using my network right now" than an audit report over several days, but if you leave it running and maybe adjust which columns it displays it may be good enough.

(In case anyone with a Mac lands on this page, since MacOS 10.8 there's been a "Network" tab in the Activity Monitor that shows network usage per process.)
posted by Nelson at 7:46 AM on December 22, 2014


Best answer: I am using NetWorx right now. It is a bit of a pain with alerts, but if you are vigilant, it is good. (I got it because of this lifehacker article)
It can tell you by app, not by site.

Also, use a browser extension to turn off images: for me, it dramatically cuts usage. When I want images, I just turn it back on.
posted by troytroy at 7:52 AM on December 22, 2014


Response by poster: Nelson: No, that isn't what I want at all. I don't want to have to sit there with a calculator converting bytes/second into something useful. Also, it just lists 'firefox' as a total.
posted by Canageek at 7:52 AM on December 22, 2014


Response by poster: troytroy: NetWorx doesn't seem to show anything per-application, but one of the other linked ones does. Sadly, they all show Firefox as one application. I wonder if there is a browser plugin or something for that?
posted by Canageek at 8:20 AM on December 22, 2014


Best answer: There's a relatively new (free) Windows app called GlassWire that does exactly this. It's pretty slick.
posted by neckro23 at 1:47 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: neckro23: Thanks, it only goes to the application level though, but thanks. If I didn't already have NetLimiter installed I'd probably try that, though I don't want something that fights with my existing firewall.
posted by Canageek at 3:04 PM on December 22, 2014


It sounds like you do need something browser focused. A quick search of the add ons/extensions available for firefox/chrome didn't turn up what you are looking for. :-( (You should code one!). Sorry! If you have time, it might be worth digging around in the browser add ons stores and seeing what you can find.
In the meanwhile, you could track your usage using one of the application level monitors, so that you get a better idea of what sites use a lot of bandwidth.
Good luck!
posted by troytroy at 3:21 PM on December 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: troytroy: I'm doing that now, thank you for looking.
posted by Canageek at 4:54 PM on December 22, 2014


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