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I am currently using about 600gb a month and Comcast is about to start charging me for anything over 300gb. I need to find out which devices are using the most bandwidth so I can get it under control.

The newest airport extremes (the tower version that supports 802.11ac) do not support SNMP. Is there any other way to monitor bandwidth usage by device on my network?

bmike
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Michael
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  • continuous monitor/report or a sporadic check. – Ruskes Jun 20 '14 at 10:55
  • this might be a duplicate of http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/30572/46541 – Ruskes Jun 20 '14 at 11:07
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    I don't think it's a duplicate. The thread you cited makes no mention of SNMP. Some of the suggestions (NetUse Traffic Monitor, for example) rely on the router supporting SNMP. Going to the ISP for usage information means you can't do it in real time. Any solution that operates on your computer (Activity Monitor, for example) won't tell you about bandwidth being used by other devices on your LAN. (Don't forget your iDevices!) This question is about capturing all bandwidth when your router does not support SNMP. – ganbustein Jan 24 '15 at 01:55

3 Answers3

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PFSense, DD-WRT/Tomato, Peplink, or some other router in front of the Apple AirPort Extreme will likely be the best solution. Don't think there's an easier way unless you're running on a single machine for your whole network (not likely). All the routers I mentioned support realtime traffic monitoring. NetGear Nighthawks have this capability too.

atothek
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Comcast offers a Usage Data Meter on their website, but that has limited capability and shows only totals.

To continuously monitor usage by application you can use a number of 3d party apps, including:

To stay away from 3d party apps use the build in tools:

  • Activity Monitor on your Mac.

will show you usage by application and cumulative total between shutting down the network.

If you want to be more analytical you can use your Terminal:

Netstat -i will give you usefully information

I recommend:

  1. Using the activity monitor to see what is going on

  2. Use the Comcast to see the cumulative total between billing periods.

Joshua Pinter
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Ruskes
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You can always add a pfSense box (or other type of router / firewall) in between your LAN and your internet connection.

Dan Esparza
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