Monitoring Uploads and Downloads

[Shaikoten]

I have a limited 10 GB combined upload and download transfer weekly for my university's internet connection. I've never broken this, but I always come very close; right now I'm at 9.5 GB used. Looking at my daily internet usage reports, however, it seems like I'm uploading a lot more than I'm downloading, which is kind of distressing to me because I don't use any P2P programs that would rationally make that the case. I do leave IRC and text based games (MUDS) on at all times, but considering how antique these protocols are, I can hardly see them leading to 750mb of usage daily, especially since I'm mostly receiving, not sending text.

So I am looking for a way now to find out exactly where this bandwidth is going. Is there a program or utility I can use to monitor in real time what my computer is sending to other computers on Windows XP? I've tried googling for this, but I only get solutions for corporate networks, monitoring an entire LAN.

[exp(x)]

Wireshark

[Shaikoten]

Wow, looking at the the starting tutorial for Wireshark... I actually understood most of that. Thanks exp, you're my number 1

I was using tcpdump just before you posted that, and it didn't seem nearly as powerful.

[Csonicgo]

yeah I did this when I had to tether with my phone. a lot of services try to "phone home" when connected so I had to block them.

[Maes]

I actually used Netmeter when I was serving as a C4I officer at the borders, and I had a 5 GB limit on my ADSM connection. I later compared my bills with what netmeter and the ADSM's modem counters, and they were in very close agreement.

It was very easy to setup, and had built-in stats keeping for knowing what's left for a billing month, projected download/upload for the day, averages etc.

Even that way, I stopped using it at a conservative 4-4.2 GB to be on the safe side. If I were you, I'd lay off a couple of days or until the next billing month begins (for me it was the 24th of each month) and then begin monitoring accurately with netmeter. If you get a monthly projection that's well over 10 GB...you need to cut some slack.

In any case, don't risk exceeding the 10 GB: in my case, doing so would result in paying A LOT for each extra MB (70 cents/MB), so I was very careful. Just for history, I averaged 120-160 MB/day. I could download more if I stocked off-days due to e.g. being away or on duty (which happened 8-9 times a month...durrr).

[Super Jamie]

AnalogX NetStatLive will help you track data usage via interface, you can track TCP connections via process with TCPView. If these don't help you catch the culprit, setup some sort of software firewall, set deny all and watch your logs.

Netflow is a great way to see a complete report of traffic usage with pretty much every parameter you could ever want (src, dest, IP, port, protocol, AS, ToS) but requires a Cisco router.