Hi, Tim I have 5 Mac devices, two PC laptops and occasionally an Xbox, that are > connected via ethernet or wifi to my home network and to the internet > through Bigpond Cable. > > I am trying to determine where the main data munchers are, or as least to > confirm my suspicions that it is the PC laptops with attached 17 and 21yo > sons playing Starcraft etc. !! >
I'll be completely honest with you I don't think it's gaining that's causing the problems as in the grand scheme of things gaming does not use that much data. My Experience, when I tested my brother on his Sony PlayStation 3 he was using anywhere between 90 to 150 MB her two-hour gaming and eventually I found out that the usage hole was YouTube. Some things that can cause unexpected chunks of usage data are, automatic software updates (Windows, Mac) I don't normally recommend turning these off as most users forget to update their computers and I recommend you update and patch your computer immediately especially in the case of Windows (I believe security patches come out on the first week of every month). So we have software updates from computers, gaming consoles. Streaming video from all the major Australian TV networks and other sources like http://live.twit.tv/ As I mentioned earlier YouTube (You watch three videos and on average you have already downloaded 150 to 200 MB that's not even taking account of higher quality videos that YouTube now have available so those 10 minute clips can eat into your data very quickly specially if they close the window and come back and watch the same video again later) Then you have the other suspects P2P and BitTorrent I've not been able to find any software that is effective at monitoring data > traffic to individual machines. WebSpy SOHO looks like it might do the job, > but is still in development and doesn't work on OSX properly yet. As I looked into this several years ago on Whirlpool and other places. most software packages were ineffective. Most people that are doing this on their home networks are using a Linux Box that they have built themselves as most of the software can only detect data that is going through that machine. The Linux Box would go between their modem/router and ethernet switch OR wireless access point. I would have thought routers would have logged this data, and an app could > be made to compile this, but apparently it's not that simple. I can tell you I don't think there's any consumer modem/router or switches that can do this. I believe in a high-end network they would do something similar as mentioned above it would either be a dedicated server OR a Switche that had this capability built-in (is that even possible) OR some kind of a Soft Appliance. (I think that's the correct term) BTW, my neighbour solved this issue with a password change on the router, > and gifting his three children wireless sticks with one month of data on it. > After that, they paid for their own! I would not go that far as it would be completely totally the most expensive Internet that you can get here in Australia I would talk to your kids/young adult's and explain to them you are hitting your monthly usage quota. Either try to get them to lower their usage or offer them the option to pay the difference and upgrade your usage allowance. As my younger brother increased his usage I suggested to my dad that I would pay the difference to get the upgrade to the monthly download allowance as I was using more than half the allocated usage at the time. now we can't even come close to reaching the limit some months -- Regards Kyle --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kyle Kreusch: - This E-Mail Was Dictated Using MacSpeech Dictate, [i] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check Out My New Website For Articles And Other Great information. Website: http://kylekreusch.co.cc/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au>
