Monitoring bw usage with NetMeter

I keep an eye on my bandwidth use with Netmeter, which counts everything
that goes over my network connection (up+down). But comparing its figures
with Plusnet's ones for my account, I find Plusnet consistently showing
about 10% more bandwidth use than Netmeter, e.g. over the last month
Plusnet's stats say I used 26.7GB but Netmeter says 24.75 GB.

Looking at the daily figures, Netmeter has lower figures for every single
day, though the % varies a bit. On low days it might only add up to a
couple of MB in difference, but on heavy usage days we're talking about
discrepancies of over 100MB in the figures.

What could account for this? Is Netmeter reliable? Since Netmeter monitors
the actual network connection to my router, I don't think my firewall could
be hiding any traffic from it, or could it?

if <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I keep an eye on my bandwidth use with Netmeter, which counts everything
> that goes over my network connection (up+down). But comparing its figures
> with Plusnet's ones for my account, I find Plusnet consistently showing
> about 10% more bandwidth use than Netmeter, e.g. over the last month
> Plusnet's stats say I used 26.7GB but Netmeter says 24.75 GB.

10^9 vs 2^30 = a factor of 1.0737
The two figures you give differ by 1.078.

Does plusnet use 10^9 "Gigabytes" ?
>
> Looking at the daily figures, Netmeter has lower figures for every single
> day, though the % varies a bit. On low days it might only add up to a
> couple of MB in difference, but on heavy usage days we're talking about
> discrepancies of over 100MB in the figures.
>
> What could account for this? Is Netmeter reliable? Since Netmeter monitors
> the actual network connection to my router, I don't think my firewall could
> be hiding any traffic from it, or could it?

The only thing I could think of is that NetMeter does not count any
overhead.

I'd try another utility and see if the results tally.

--
Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.

if wrote

> I keep an eye on my bandwidth use with Netmeter, which counts everything
> that goes over my network connection (up+down). But comparing its figures
> with Plusnet's ones for my account, I find Plusnet consistently showing
> about 10% more bandwidth use than Netmeter, e.g. over the last month
> Plusnet's stats say I used 26.7GB but Netmeter says 24.75 GB.
>
> Looking at the daily figures, Netmeter has lower figures for every single
> day, though the % varies a bit. On low days it might only add up to a
> couple of MB in difference, but on heavy usage days we're talking about
> discrepancies of over 100MB in the figures.
>
> What could account for this? Is Netmeter reliable? Since Netmeter monitors
> the actual network connection to my router, I don't think my firewall could
> be hiding any traffic from it, or could it?
>


Pussnet are convinced an idle ADSL connection is using bandwidth. They
are prolly using some cheap, out of date, shite, inaccurate metering
software.
If I were you, I'd not complain, they'll add another 10% to your usage.

In article <434e3fc1$0$60463$(E-Mail Removed) ws.net>,
MinusNet says...
> if wrote
>
> > I keep an eye on my bandwidth use with Netmeter, which counts everything
> > that goes over my network connection (up+down). But comparing its figures
> > with Plusnet's ones for my account, I find Plusnet consistently showing
> > about 10% more bandwidth use than Netmeter, e.g. over the last month
> > Plusnet's stats say I used 26.7GB but Netmeter says 24.75 GB.
> >
> > Looking at the daily figures, Netmeter has lower figures for every single
> > day, though the % varies a bit. On low days it might only add up to a
> > couple of MB in difference, but on heavy usage days we're talking about
> > discrepancies of over 100MB in the figures.
> >
> > What could account for this? Is Netmeter reliable? Since Netmeter monitors
> > the actual network connection to my router, I don't think my firewall could
> > be hiding any traffic from it, or could it?
> >
>
>
> Pussnet are convinced an idle ADSL connection is using bandwidth. They
> are prolly using some cheap, out of date, shite, inaccurate metering
> software.
> If I were you, I'd not complain, they'll add another 10% to your usage.
>
>
>
>
>
the difference is probably the difference between actual usable data
transfers and the 'overheads' which have to be factored in. There is
always a chunk of traffic over and above the volume of data moved.

FR

Flying Rat wrote


> >
> the difference is probably the difference between actual usable data
> transfers and the 'overheads' which have to be factored in. There is
> always a chunk of traffic over and above the volume of data moved.
>

I use DUMeter and it tracks all data. Knowing pussnet, they prolly add
the up & down traffic to set their joking limits.

MinusNet wrote:
> Flying Rat wrote
>
>
>>>
>> the difference is probably the difference between actual usable data
>> transfers and the 'overheads' which have to be factored in. There is
>> always a chunk of traffic over and above the volume of data moved.
>>
>
> I use DUMeter and it tracks all data. Knowing pussnet, they prolly
> add the up & down traffic to set their joking limits.

They always have done & make no efforts to hide it either..