Logging Usage

[pyrogerg]

Please let me know or just move this thread if I've not posted it in the correct forum.

Goal: I want to determine how much data each device on my network is sending/receiving over my ISP in any given day/week/month. The Linksys WRT 1900 AC can tell me what devices are currently using, but not how much they've used over time, which is what I need to know. I can acquire additional hardware if needed, within limits.

Background: My ISP (WildBlue satellite) claims that my internet usage is improbably high. Either my family's devices are using a ton of bandwidth without our knowledge (>25 GB/month) or the ISP is charging us for bandwidth we are not using. Either situation is a problem that could probably be resolved with sufficiently detailed knowledge of the network traffic. There's no need for us to be using that much data.

The network: WildBlue satellite modem connects to Linksys WRT 1900 AC router. That router, in addition to serving a wireless network at one house, is also wired to a Ubiquiti NanoStation wireless bridge, the other end of which is connected to a second router that provides a wireless network for a second house. For the purposes of this project, I can treat the second house as a single device on the network for now.

My question: What are my options for accomplishing my goal? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different options?

 

[L&LD]

25GB per month is not a lot to download for a single person on a home or business connection. I know some phone users that approach about half of that and that is with a slow phone.

How many people and devices are connected to your ISP? How many more around the two homes know the passwords? Why are you providing/sharing your ISP connection with a second home?

I know others will give suggestions on how to see the usage (sorry, not familiar with the Linksys you have).

 

[pyrogerg]

25GB per month is not a lot to download for a single person on a home or business connection. I know some phone users that approach about half of that and that is with a slow phone.

How many people and devices are connected to your ISP? How many more around the two homes know the passwords? Why are you providing/sharing your ISP connection with a second home?

I know others will give suggestions on how to see the usage (sorry, not familiar with the Linksys you have).

I considered posting details about usage in my original post, but decided that it would just make the post too rambling. But since you asked . . .

The number of users is variable, but it's mostly just my parents. Their usage is predominately email and web browsing. They do not stream media or play online games. They don't Skype or FaceTime. They are not using much in the way of cloud services on computers or mobile devices. They understand what constitutes bandwidth-intensive use and conscientiously avoid it.

Furthermore, having spoken with tech support for the ISP, the times of spikes in data use are not consistent with when my parents report their peak usage. For what it's worth, the network is secure and I don't think there's any chance that unknown users are on it.