How much do I download?

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Richard Haselgrove Project Donor
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Message 1703647 - Posted: 21 Jul 2015, 8:03:51 UTC - in response to Message 1703638.  

is there any 3rd party software available that will give me a running total of how much I download from the internet per day or per month? I'm trying to work out my average usage. My ISP package gives me unlimited access so my a/c shows zero cost billable.

Depends whether you mean for SETI, for BOINC, for everything one computer does, or everything that all computers (and TVs etc.) in your house download between them.

For the last of those, you'd need a router monitoring tool. But for BOINC, on each computer, there's a file called 'daily_xfer_history.xml' in your BOINC folder. BOINC doesn't provide a tool to visualise it, but it doesn't take long to graph it with a standard spreadsheet program: here's one of mine.

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Message 1703665 - Posted: 21 Jul 2015, 9:19:34 UTC
Last modified: 21 Jul 2015, 9:23:37 UTC

If you are using a BT Home Hub 5 then the quickest way is to log onto the Home Hub, go to Advance Settings, then "continue to advance settings" it will ask for the HH admin password,
then just click on Broadband, this will give you a running total of data transmitted/received as long as the HH does not reset. Which it can do for software updates or other unknown reasons.
I have not done anything to mine for ages yet it only has the last 7 days recorded.

However if you do it on a regular basis it should give you a rough idea of usage.

PS most of the "router monitoring" programs don't work on a HH5 as the stats are not available for "Infinity" on the hub.
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Message 1703701 - Posted: 21 Jul 2015, 12:02:27 UTC
Last modified: 21 Jul 2015, 12:02:47 UTC

Of course if you really really want see what all your network connected devices are doing on your network and the internet, you could use

Microsoft Network Monitor

This will show you in real time ALL the traffic on you network as seen by your network card.

It will show you what, if any applications are using the network and will show all ip addresses in use, both external and internal. if you leave it running for a minute or two it will start replacing ip addresses with DNS names.

Any ip addresses you don't recognise you could use a "lookup" page and that may help identify the software involved.
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Message 1703717 - Posted: 21 Jul 2015, 13:22:40 UTC - in response to Message 1703675.  
Last modified: 21 Jul 2015, 13:23:36 UTC

Many thanks Bernie. Yes you are correct in that I have a BT Home Hub 5 Type A updated 07/07/15, with the Infinity Option 2 package. I will most certainly go and login to the Router and see what I can see. As everything up and down goes through the hub, it is logical that the info is in there somewhere.

Update - Ok, that is exactly the info that I wanted to see!! But it shows 8.8GB in 21 hours? No way am I downloadng that amount of stuff .... But you can leave it running in real time in the background, So I'll do that for 24 hours.

That is likely including the overhead in your transfers as well. That 8.8GB over 21 hours comes out to ~120K/s continuously.
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Message 1703781 - Posted: 21 Jul 2015, 20:26:07 UTC - in response to Message 1703769.  

I did also install MS network monitor as Bernie suggested. Blimey takes a bit of playing to learn how to drive it but guess what? It's my Samsung Smart TV that is chattering away to the internet all day long!! Yet a lot of the options are turned off i.e. this voice command monitor thing.

Will look further into this.

It's OK. Samsung has likely just recording everything you have been saying around it. There was an issue with some company doing something similar not that long ago.
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Message 1703783 - Posted: 21 Jul 2015, 20:36:44 UTC - in response to Message 1703782.  
Last modified: 21 Jul 2015, 20:36:58 UTC

It's OK. Samsung has likely just recording everything you have been saying around it. There was an issue with some company doing something similar not that long ago.

Nope, I specifically have that feature turned OFF!!


Yes, Hal is right on that.

It is a known bug on some Samsung TV`s with this feature.


With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.
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Message 1703816 - Posted: 21 Jul 2015, 22:38:51 UTC - in response to Message 1703782.  

It's OK. Samsung has likely just recording everything you have been saying around it. There was an issue with some company doing something similar not that long ago.

Nope, I specifically have that feature turned OFF!!

However

The TV's voice features can be disabled. However, the company adds another caveat: "While Samsung will not collect your spoken word, Samsung may still collect associated texts and other usage data so that we can evaluate the performance of the feature and improve it."

also

A good way to judge how important your information is to your TV manufacturer is the TV's reaction to your acceptance or denial of its terms and conditions.
Sony seems to be the best for this as it will still allow you full access to your TV and all its smart functions even if you turn down the terms and conditions.
LG is next in line as it stops you from accessing its apps only if you don’t agree with the T&Cs.
Samsung and Toshiba are the next worst culprits as they will shut off your smart TV access all together if you don't agree to let them virtually probe you. Panasonic stops use of any apps and even the web browser if you don't agree with its data sharing requirements.

Also tracking

Samsung is not so good here though. Which? magazine found that when the TV was turned on it immediately beamed the user's full location and postcode without even encrypting the information. Samsung claims the data is needed to operate the TV. But something that specific surely can't be required?
While LG has stopped tracking user data all together, after its investigation, it hasn't ruled out restarting data tracking in the future.


All the smart TVs seem to do this to a greater or lesser extent but Samsung does seem to be the worst.

One article I read suggested it can use over 1 Gb a day on these services.

Only real way round it is to disconnect it from the internet when you are not using the "smart" services.
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Message 1703817 - Posted: 21 Jul 2015, 22:56:37 UTC - in response to Message 1703769.  

I did also install MS network monitor as Bernie suggested. Blimey takes a bit of playing to learn how to drive it but guess what? It's my Samsung Smart TV that is chattering away to the internet all day long!! Yet a lot of the options are turned off i.e. this voice command monitor thing.

Will look further into this.

You said Samsung ...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/12/how-an-internet-connected-samsung-tv-can-spill-your-deepest-secrets/
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Message 1703832 - Posted: 22 Jul 2015, 0:22:58 UTC

Another option, if you need to have cumulative data for everything, install/use a router that can have DD-WRT installed onto it. It keeps logs of bandwidth usage per day and per month. Mine presently goes back to January 2013 when I flashed my WRT54G with DD-WRT.
Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)
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Message 1703833 - Posted: 22 Jul 2015, 0:23:06 UTC - in response to Message 1703769.  

I really have zero desire for a smart TV, toaster, or refrigerator. Just because something can be done does not make it a smart idea to do it.
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Message 1703846 - Posted: 22 Jul 2015, 2:56:02 UTC - in response to Message 1703816.  
Last modified: 22 Jul 2015, 2:57:02 UTC

It's OK. Samsung has likely just recording everything you have been saying around it. There was an issue with some company doing something similar not that long ago.

Nope, I specifically have that feature turned OFF!!

However

The TV's voice features can be disabled. However, the company adds another caveat: "While Samsung will not collect your spoken word, Samsung may still collect associated texts and other usage data so that we can evaluate the performance of the feature and improve it."

also

A good way to judge how important your information is to your TV manufacturer is the TV's reaction to your acceptance or denial of its terms and conditions.
Sony seems to be the best for this as it will still allow you full access to your TV and all its smart functions even if you turn down the terms and conditions.
LG is next in line as it stops you from accessing its apps only if you don’t agree with the T&Cs.
Samsung and Toshiba are the next worst culprits as they will shut off your smart TV access all together if you don't agree to let them virtually probe you. Panasonic stops use of any apps and even the web browser if you don't agree with its data sharing requirements.

Also tracking

Samsung is not so good here though. Which? magazine found that when the TV was turned on it immediately beamed the user's full location and postcode without even encrypting the information. Samsung claims the data is needed to operate the TV. But something that specific surely can't be required?
While LG has stopped tracking user data all together, after its investigation, it hasn't ruled out restarting data tracking in the future.


All the smart TVs seem to do this to a greater or lesser extent but Samsung does seem to be the worst.

One article I read suggested it can use over 1 Gb a day on these services.

Only real way round it is to disconnect it from the internet when you are not using the "smart" services.


Also one could block the ports/server addresses in the router that the troublesome devices are using.

Also for router/switch data logging I still like to use MRTG. It is what the cricket graphs we used to see are based off of.
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Message 1703976 - Posted: 22 Jul 2015, 14:32:14 UTC
Last modified: 22 Jul 2015, 14:33:09 UTC

I won't call it a home network because it ISN'T!


Why wouldn't you want to call a home network a home network.

I have a strong suspicion that your three devices have internal IP addresses and that your Home Hub does as well. Otherwise nothing would work :-)

And you are showing pictures from your PC's on the TV, well sounds suspiciously like a network to me, because if it wasn't you could not do that.

You can call it a spam omelette, if you really want to, but like it or not by all definitions it is a home network.
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Message 1704041 - Posted: 22 Jul 2015, 16:43:58 UTC - in response to Message 1703976.  

I won't call it a home network because it ISN'T!


Why wouldn't you want to call a home network a home network.

I have a strong suspicion that your three devices have internal IP addresses and that your Home Hub does as well. Otherwise nothing would work :-)

And you are showing pictures from your PC's on the TV, well sounds suspiciously like a network to me, because if it wasn't you could not do that.

You can call it a spam omelette, if you really want to, but like it or not by all definitions it is a home network.

It does seem to fit the definition.
A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of local area network with the purpose to facilitate communication among digital devices present inside or within the close vicinity of a home.

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Message 1704114 - Posted: 22 Jul 2015, 20:51:48 UTC - in response to Message 1704053.  

Ok Ok, obviously one of those days .....

I rightly or wrongly consider a proper network one where there is a server, which controls all the peripheral computers & devices connected to it. I do not consider a router or Home Hub as a server. Yes of course Bernie is correct in that each device has a separate IP address, even a network dork like me knows that much!

So a Token Ring network is not a network? A token Ring network with just a file server in the ring & the file server controls all the computers in the ring?

Definition of network

a group of two or more computers linked together.
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Message 1704158 - Posted: 23 Jul 2015, 0:54:24 UTC - in response to Message 1704114.  

Ok Ok, obviously one of those days .....

I rightly or wrongly consider a proper network one where there is a server, which controls all the peripheral computers & devices connected to it. I do not consider a router or Home Hub as a server. Yes of course Bernie is correct in that each device has a separate IP address, even a network dork like me knows that much!

So a Token Ring network is not a network? A token Ring network with just a file server in the ring & the file server controls all the computers in the ring?

Definition of network

a group of two or more computers linked together.

These days they might not even be computers. Such as the case of the TV.
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Message 1704597 - Posted: 24 Jul 2015, 12:17:09 UTC - in response to Message 1704053.  
Last modified: 24 Jul 2015, 12:34:09 UTC

I rightly or wrongly consider a proper network one where there is a server ...

Servers haven't been necessary on a network since Windows for Workgroups (Windows 3.1) - 1992, according to the "Windows for Workgroups Resource Kit - Complete Techincal Information for the Support Professional" manual still on the bookshelf in my Tardis.

That used NetBEUI, and had no support for TCP/IP - although the Internet existed, the World Wide Web didn't, so there was no call for home or small office network traffic to be routable.

Edit. I'm trying to remember the sequence. I think one of my early clients started with multi-user CPM/16, then upgraded to Novell Netware Lite (?) 2.2: that was also peer-to-peer over ethernet, without a server. Finally we settled on WfW, which meant we could re-use the same hardware.

Novell Netware Lite
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Message 1704947 - Posted: 25 Jul 2015, 15:52:07 UTC - in response to Message 1704053.  

Ok Ok, obviously one of those days .....

I rightly or wrongly consider a proper network one where there is a server,

Such as the DHCP SERVER that is part of the linux computer in the router?
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Message 1704954 - Posted: 25 Jul 2015, 16:09:10 UTC

Just to tidy up a few loose ends here. in the mid 90's I co-admined a building with 1000 users running Novell Netware 4, and 4 Compaq Proliant 6500 servers. We had many HQ groups in the building that had their own dedicated areas on the servers, with assigned rights. and we had centralised Antivirus control. Therefore we used individual login scripts for each user, that first checked whether the AV software on a pc was up to date, if not the latest was downloaded. Then it checked what user group the person belonged to, and mapped local drives accordingly.

At that time we also had an IBM OS/2 mailserver, but I left that to the other chap. My main job was to oversee the scripts, AV and nightly incremental tape backups kept in a firesafe. We also swopped a weekly full backup with another building, keeping each others off-site. Re-setting passwords etc we gave to our technicians. The team also ran a large Unix box but I kept well away from that! They ran things like Ed, Vi, and Ted.


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