Bandwidth usage monitoring

[briand]

A friend has just been caught out by exceeding her monthly bandwidth allowance (only 1GB, but she's on a cheap tariff).  This led me to wonder what mine is (I think I'm allowed 30 GB per month).  Can anyone recommend a good free downloadable tool?  Presumably I'd have to install it on all machines in order get the sum total coming into the house.  I can't see anywhere on the control panel for my Belkin router to indicate that it records this.

Many thanks.

[Dr Keyboard]

The problem, as you seem to have already realised, is keeping track of usage on all machines in the house. Netstat, http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/09/09/how-to-monitor-your-internet-bandwidth-usage-in-windows/ is fine but you have to remember to check all machines regularly and leave the app running on all all the time. Doesn't your ISP offer some sort of running total?

[Ian in Northampton]

I can confirm that my ISP (Plus) does indeed allow you to see your usage on their web site.  Beyond this, my router also keeps a tally, showing how long since it last fell over (seldom more than a few days...  ) and what the total upload/download has been (since it last fell over, so not 100% useful...)  It might be worth checking your router's admin pages.

[briand]

Thanks for your thoughts, guys.  Unfortunately my current Belkin router admin pages don't display any usage stats (my old Netgear one did), and I can't find anywhere where my ISP (Pipex) might record/display such info.  So, I've downloaded a little widget called tbbMeter from thinkbroadband.com which when installed on each machine and after each registered allows me to see the total and individual machine usage by just logging on to "my profile"and the thinkbroadband website.  The little program on each machine also allows more detailed graphical analysis (have I got nothing better to do?).