Data advice please

[Woody]

My son is about to move into his own home. At the moment he is on our
domestic unlimited VM feed but we have no idea how much data he uses per
month.

Can anyone recommend any (preferably free) software that I can use on
the network to monitor his fixed IP address. I am not interested what
sites he visits, I just want a cumulative monthly data usage to give an
idea where he might get the best data deal for his new base. His house
already has BT and VM feeds, and CityFibre is available outside. 3 are
about to erect a 16m 4/5G streetpole about 100yds LoS from his place so
that may be another option using a mi-fi or a 4/5G router with Ethernet
connection for distribution in the house. Monthly ISP cost is relevant.

I know Glasswire will (I think) do the job but I want only two IP
addresses (his W10Pro desktop and his company toughbook) monitored, not
the whole shebang!

TIA anyone who can help.

[Tweed]

Post by Woody
My son is about to move into his own home. At the moment he is on our
domestic unlimited VM feed but we have no idea how much data he uses per
month.
Can anyone recommend any (preferably free) software that I can use on
the network to monitor his fixed IP address. I am not interested what
sites he visits, I just want a cumulative monthly data usage to give an
idea where he might get the best data deal for his new base. His house
already has BT and VM feeds, and CityFibre is available outside. 3 are
about to erect a 16m 4/5G streetpole about 100yds LoS from his place so
that may be another option using a mi-fi or a 4/5G router with Ethernet
connection for distribution in the house. Monthly ISP cost is relevant.
I know Glasswire will (I think) do the job but I want only two IP
addresses (his W10Pro desktop and his company toughbook) monitored, not
the whole shebang!
TIA anyone who can help.

A question: if he has access to fixed fibre/coax broadband why the interest
in data volume? Other than mobile phone broadband, does any major ISP meter
consumption anymore?

[Woody]

Post by Tweed

Post by Woody
My son is about to move into his own home. At the moment he is on our
domestic unlimited VM feed but we have no idea how much data he uses per
month.
Can anyone recommend any (preferably free) software that I can use on
the network to monitor his fixed IP address. I am not interested what
sites he visits, I just want a cumulative monthly data usage to give an
idea where he might get the best data deal for his new base. His house
already has BT and VM feeds, and CityFibre is available outside. 3 are
about to erect a 16m 4/5G streetpole about 100yds LoS from his place so
that may be another option using a mi-fi or a 4/5G router with Ethernet
connection for distribution in the house. Monthly ISP cost is relevant.
I know Glasswire will (I think) do the job but I want only two IP
addresses (his W10Pro desktop and his company toughbook) monitored, not
the whole shebang!
TIA anyone who can help.

A question: if he has access to fixed fibre/coax broadband why the interest
in data volume? Other than mobile phone broadband, does any major ISP meter
consumption anymore?

Its all about cost. The slowest on VM is 50M and after the contract
expires and at least one inflation increase he could be looking at north
of £35 per month. The local exchange does not have fibre so the fastest
he will get is about 55M out of BT or one of its kindred. Cityfibre is
available but not installed, and with the possible exception of TT (as I
have said before) most (all?) of the CF providers are broadband only and
have no mail service. Ergo if he finds a mail handler there is an extra
cost.

I only asked the original question to try to find how much he and we are
using. I will need to know if I get around to ditching VM (after 22
years) when my contract expires at the end of the year as I will also
have to find a mail handler.

Anyone heard of Mythic Beast and/or have any experience of them?

[Chris]

Post by Woody

Post by Tweed

Post by Woody
My son is about to move into his own home. At the moment he is on our
domestic unlimited VM feed but we have no idea how much data he uses per
month.
Can anyone recommend any (preferably free) software that I can use on
the network to monitor his fixed IP address. I am not interested what
sites he visits, I just want a cumulative monthly data usage to give an
idea where he might get the best data deal for his new base. His house
already has BT and VM feeds, and CityFibre is available outside. 3 are
about to erect a 16m 4/5G streetpole about 100yds LoS from his place so
that may be another option using a mi-fi or a 4/5G router with Ethernet
connection for distribution in the house. Monthly ISP cost is relevant.
I know Glasswire will (I think) do the job but I want only two IP
addresses (his W10Pro desktop and his company toughbook) monitored, not
the whole shebang!
TIA anyone who can help.

A question: if he has access to fixed fibre/coax broadband why the interest
in data volume? Other than mobile phone broadband, does any major ISP meter
consumption anymore?

Its all about cost.

Isn't pretty much all broadband unlimited? The cost differential is
bandwidth and unless he's streaming 4k he'll be fine anywhere that offers
some kind of fibre.

Post by Woody
The slowest on VM is 50M and after the contract
expires and at least one inflation increase he could be looking at north
of £35 per month. The local exchange does not have fibre so the fastest
he will get is about 55M out of BT or one of its kindred.

You're talking bandwidth not data usage.

Post by Woody
Cityfibre is
available but not installed, and with the possible exception of TT (as I
have said before) most (all?) of the CF providers are broadband only and
have no mail service. Ergo if he finds a mail handler there is an extra
cost.

Mail is and should be different to your ISP.

Post by Woody
I only asked the original question to try to find how much he and we are
using. I will need to know if I get around to ditching VM (after 22
years) when my contract expires at the end of the year as I will also
have to find a mail handler.
Anyone heard of Mythic Beast and/or have any experience of them?

Yes. Recently started using them for web hosting. Very good service from
tech support.

Website looks very basic, but don't let that put you off.

[Tweed]

Post by Woody

Post by Tweed

Post by Woody
My son is about to move into his own home. At the moment he is on our
domestic unlimited VM feed but we have no idea how much data he uses per
month.
Can anyone recommend any (preferably free) software that I can use on
the network to monitor his fixed IP address. I am not interested what
sites he visits, I just want a cumulative monthly data usage to give an
idea where he might get the best data deal for his new base. His house
already has BT and VM feeds, and CityFibre is available outside. 3 are
about to erect a 16m 4/5G streetpole about 100yds LoS from his place so
that may be another option using a mi-fi or a 4/5G router with Ethernet
connection for distribution in the house. Monthly ISP cost is relevant.
I know Glasswire will (I think) do the job but I want only two IP
addresses (his W10Pro desktop and his company toughbook) monitored, not
the whole shebang!
TIA anyone who can help.

A question: if he has access to fixed fibre/coax broadband why the interest
in data volume? Other than mobile phone broadband, does any major ISP meter
consumption anymore?

Its all about cost. The slowest on VM is 50M and after the contract
expires and at least one inflation increase he could be looking at north
of £35 per month. The local exchange does not have fibre so the fastest
he will get is about 55M out of BT or one of its kindred. Cityfibre is
available but not installed, and with the possible exception of TT (as I
have said before) most (all?) of the CF providers are broadband only and
have no mail service. Ergo if he finds a mail handler there is an extra
cost.
I only asked the original question to try to find how much he and we are
using. I will need to know if I get around to ditching VM (after 22
years) when my contract expires at the end of the year as I will also
have to find a mail handler.
Anyone heard of Mythic Beast and/or have any experience of them?

Forgive my slowness, but I still don’t follow how data volume comes into
this?
As to email, gmail is free and if you don’t like Google folk like Ionos
will provide you with service for £2.40/month. ISP provided email is a
curse to be rid of, as it makes it very much harder to switch supplier in
the future, and they know it.

[Woody]

Post by Tweed

Post by Woody

Post by Tweed

Post by Woody
My son is about to move into his own home. At the moment he is on our
domestic unlimited VM feed but we have no idea how much data he uses per
month.
Can anyone recommend any (preferably free) software that I can use on
the network to monitor his fixed IP address. I am not interested what
sites he visits, I just want a cumulative monthly data usage to give an
idea where he might get the best data deal for his new base. His house
already has BT and VM feeds, and CityFibre is available outside. 3 are
about to erect a 16m 4/5G streetpole about 100yds LoS from his place so
that may be another option using a mi-fi or a 4/5G router with Ethernet
connection for distribution in the house. Monthly ISP cost is relevant.
I know Glasswire will (I think) do the job but I want only two IP
addresses (his W10Pro desktop and his company toughbook) monitored, not
the whole shebang!
TIA anyone who can help.

A question: if he has access to fixed fibre/coax broadband why the interest
in data volume? Other than mobile phone broadband, does any major ISP meter
consumption anymore?

Its all about cost. The slowest on VM is 50M and after the contract
expires and at least one inflation increase he could be looking at north
of £35 per month. The local exchange does not have fibre so the fastest
he will get is about 55M out of BT or one of its kindred. Cityfibre is
available but not installed, and with the possible exception of TT (as I
have said before) most (all?) of the CF providers are broadband only and
have no mail service. Ergo if he finds a mail handler there is an extra
cost.
I only asked the original question to try to find how much he and we are
using. I will need to know if I get around to ditching VM (after 22
years) when my contract expires at the end of the year as I will also
have to find a mail handler.
Anyone heard of Mythic Beast and/or have any experience of them?

Forgive my slowness, but I still don’t follow how data volume comes into
this?
As to email, gmail is free and if you don’t like Google folk like Ionos
will provide you with service for £2.40/month. ISP provided email is a
curse to be rid of, as it makes it very much harder to switch supplier in
the future, and they know it.

..... which is why I have a couple of domains for mail forwarding only.
Then I only have to change the delivery addresses.

[Chris Green]

Post by Woody
Anyone heard of Mythic Beast and/or have any experience of them?

I use Mythic Beasts, I was with TsoHost who got very flakey last year
and before). So far Mythic Beasts have been excellent for hosting my
family's mail. They're fairly low-key/techie without lots of bells
and whistles. Support is excellent.

[Theo]

Post by Woody
Its all about cost. The slowest on VM is 50M and after the contract
expires and at least one inflation increase he could be looking at north
of £35 per month. The local exchange does not have fibre so the fastest
he will get is about 55M out of BT or one of its kindred. Cityfibre is
available but not installed, and with the possible exception of TT (as I
have said before) most (all?) of the CF providers are broadband only and
have no mail service. Ergo if he finds a mail handler there is an extra
cost.

As has been said, worry about speed not bandwidth. Any kind of mobile
broadband contract is likely to be more expensive than getting even basic
DSL. So decide how much speed you need. I suspect 55M from BT will be
ample for the average consumer use (watching videos etc), with faster speeds
mostly useful for more niche use cases (WFH, gaming). Maybe a few pennies
could be saved going to the 40Mbps BT tier; the 24Mbps ADSL is not worth
bothering with these days.

The only case where mobile broadband might make sense is if you can get an
'unlimited' contract for your phone and don't really have any other devices.
Otherwise using MBB is likely to be more hassle than it's worth.

For comparison, it's not hard for consumers to burn through hundreds of GB
per month (streaming video, video calls, software updates, etc), which is an
expensive mobile deal.

Post by Woody
I only asked the original question to try to find how much he and we are
using. I will need to know if I get around to ditching VM (after 22
years) when my contract expires at the end of the year as I will also
have to find a mail handler.
Anyone heard of Mythic Beast and/or have any experience of them?

Been using them for 20 years (previously as Black Cat Networks who they
bought in 2007) and they've been fine.

Theo

[Java Jive]

Post by Theo
The only case where mobile broadband might make sense is if you can get an
'unlimited' contract for your phone and don't really have any other devices.
Otherwise using MBB is likely to be more hassle than it's worth.

Disagree: I have unlimited mobile broadband from Three, because around
here it's faster and much more reliable than any ADSL over landline,
which is all that the majority of people in the area can get. It costs
me £24.05/pm and a speed test just now came out as 62 ms latency, 7.7
Mbps down, 2.8Mbps up, way faster than any local ADSL. Sure, in an
urban area one might get more for the same or maybe less, but the above
is an affordable solution where one can't.

[[e-mail]]

Post by Theo
The only case where mobile broadband might make sense is if you can get an
'unlimited' contract for your phone and don't really have any other devices.
Otherwise using MBB is likely to be more hassle than it's worth.

Disagree: I have unlimited mobile broadband from Three, because around
here it's faster and much more reliable than any ADSL over landline,
which is all that the majority of people in the area can get. It costs
me £24.05/pm and a speed test just now came out as 62 ms latency, 7.7
Mbps down, 2.8Mbps up, way faster than any local ADSL. Sure, in an
urban area one might get more for the same or maybe less, but the above
is an affordable solution where one can't.

Four years since I recommended adding an unlimited 3 SIM in a 4G modem with an external aerial to the crap service a business I knew were getting from BT (2Mbps down and <1Mbps up). At the time he got ~16Mbps down and 7Mbps up fairly reliably (industrial area), but I would imagine more if upgraded to 5G now available at his location.

It is actually a consumer voice SIM, but only the data is used. Whilst 3 reneged on 321 and roaming, they don't seem to care about this and allow the subscription to be paid by a business. The BT line was kept for backup / resilience and initially for landline voice (now Voipfone IIRC).

[Theo]

Post by Java Jive

Post by Theo
The only case where mobile broadband might make sense is if you can get an
'unlimited' contract for your phone and don't really have any other devices.
Otherwise using MBB is likely to be more hassle than it's worth.

Disagree: I have unlimited mobile broadband from Three, because around
here it's faster and much more reliable than any ADSL over landline,
which is all that the majority of people in the area can get. It costs
me £24.05/pm and a speed test just now came out as 62 ms latency, 7.7
Mbps down, 2.8Mbps up, way faster than any local ADSL. Sure, in an
urban area one might get more for the same or maybe less, but the above
is an affordable solution where one can't.

The OP has multiple gigabit options to choose from. They were not asking
about a position such as yours.

For roughly that money they can get FTTC or one of the bottom tiers of FTTP.
Which is likely to be much more reliable than 3/4/5G in an urban area where
available speeds can swing wildly based on local congestion.

Theo

[Java Jive]

Post by Theo

Post by Java Jive

Post by Theo
The only case where mobile broadband might make sense is if you can get an
'unlimited' contract for your phone and don't really have any other devices.
Otherwise using MBB is likely to be more hassle than it's worth.

Disagree: I have unlimited mobile broadband from Three, because around
here it's faster and much more reliable than any ADSL over landline,
which is all that the majority of people in the area can get. It costs
me £24.05/pm and a speed test just now came out as 62 ms latency, 7.7
Mbps down, 2.8Mbps up, way faster than any local ADSL. Sure, in an
urban area one might get more for the same or maybe less, but the above
is an affordable solution where one can't.

The OP has multiple gigabit options to choose from. They were not asking
about a position such as yours.
For roughly that money they can get FTTC or one of the bottom tiers of FTTP.
Which is likely to be much more reliable than 3/4/5G in an urban area where
available speeds can swing wildly based on local congestion.

And he also mentions the possibility of using Three, in relation to
which your assertion that "using MBB is likely to be more hassle than
it's worth" is simply not true, as others besides myself have testified.

[Graham J]

Theo wrote:

[snip]

Post by Theo
The only case where mobile broadband might make sense is if you can get an
'unlimited' contract for your phone and don't really have any other devices.
Otherwise using MBB is likely to be more hassle than it's worth.

But if ADSL is not available (still common in very rural areas) then
mobile broadband (or perhaps satellite) is your only option.

Even then the experience of friends in such awkward locations is that
speed can vary from 1M down to 10M down and 3M up to 15M up (so quite
assymetric in a direction which is not useful to the average domestic
customer). Plus the entry level products use CGNAT so often the user's
IP address is shared with many others and gets blacklisted, and a
professional mail service will block traffic from such blocked addresses.

[Bob Eager]

Post by Theo
As has been said, worry about speed not bandwidth.

Bandwidth is NOT data limit.

Bandwidth is (in simple terms) average speed over time. HOw much you can
get down the link in a given time. It is NOT how much you can transfer
before you hit a predetermined limit.

[Theo]

Post by Bob Eager

Post by Theo
As has been said, worry about speed not bandwidth.

Bandwidth is NOT data limit.
Bandwidth is (in simple terms) average speed over time. HOw much you can
get down the link in a given time. It is NOT how much you can transfer
before you hit a predetermined limit.

Sorry, that was the wrong word. I meant 'traffic limit' not bandwidth.

(bandwidth = rate of data transfer = bits/sec, traffic = integral of data
transfer over time = bits)

Theo

[V]

You have looked out:

groups.google.com/g/wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww/c/4BRbgFsjQ_4

?