How to measure general internet traffic across a router?

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As many Comcast subscribers know, they have begun to add a surcharge for exceeding a data limit of 300 Gigs per month. I don’t have a problem with this (since it’s the correct approach under net neutrality principles), however I would definitely like to be able to actually monitor how much data we are actually using to see if it matches the patterns of streaming going on in the house. I logged into my router, which is a NetGear a/n type, and can get to a statistics report (see attached) but I’m not sure how to interpret these without more tech knowledge about their meaning. Any input would be helpful. Thanks!

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WAN stats is the relevant section for the connection, the others are internal. Tx and Rx (transmitted/received) are logged in B/s – Bytes per second – that’s close to useless for the average human.

Do Comcast not have a personal stats page available when you log into their site?

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You can view your Comcast Usage meter here:
http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/monthly-usage-history

Jerry

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I’ve tried to use Comcast’s meter a number of times, and it always seemed to be unavailable when I really wanted to check it (and the desktop version never accepted my password). It worked this time, so maybe the bugs are out of it. However, I’m really wanting to compare that stat to a secondary source (in the previous two months, I was charged for three additional 50 Gig units, but both months I exceeded the threshold for the 3rd unit by only 2 and 3 Gigs. Oddly, when I was checking on options for changing my service, the site seemed to be directing my attention to a plan that was only slightly more than my total with the extra charges.)

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Unfortunately the Netgear stats are next to useless because they don’t give you packet size or total data.
You could get an old PC with 2 network cards an load pfsense or similar, then put it in series with the WAN port – assuming it’s not an ADSL router. You could even put OpenWrt on your router.

cheers, Paul

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