Veryifying download amounts

dub45

Now that Eircom appear to have started charging customers who exceed the cap I was wondering if anyone can say how trustworthy these measurements are (for all ISP's not just Eircom) and is there any objective way of establishing that how the ISP's measure is correct? Anyone know how disputes about downloads are measured elsewhere?

Emboss

well you trust them with your phone bill

why not your bandwith ?

monitor your own useage.

dub45

Originally posted by Emboss
well you trust them with your phone bill

why not your bandwith ?

monitor your own useage.

My point is suppose they differ?

Well dunno bout you, but I might just let them know..

neokenzo

Originally posted by dub45
Now that Eircom appear to have started charging customers who exceed the cap I was wondering if anyone can say how trustworthy these measurements are (for all ISP's not just Eircom) and is there any objective way of establishing that how the ISP's measure is correct? Anyone know how disputes about downloads are measured elsewhere?

Did you get a bill from eircom where they charged you for exceeding the cap?

dub45

Originally posted by neokenzo
Did you get a bill from eircom where they charged you for exceeding the cap?

No I was just asking a general question.

neokenzo

Well I have DU Meter running and the difference between what eircom is saying I've downloaded and what DU-Meter said I've downloaded is about 500-800MB difference with Eircom being more. I dont know whether DU Meter is accurate. I alway think it is about 1-2GB off and always given me more than what Eircom says but this is a first when it says less. Weird.

Mutant_Fruit

If you run DUmeter 24x7, then it will give a 100% accurate result. The exact same can be said for Eircom's method i would presume.

Do you also time all your calls to make sure they match up to eircom's bill? (assuming eircom are your phone company).

In other words, yes, the stats are correct, but they are only updated at the end of each "session" online, so they might seem temporarily wrong.

Hugh_C

Originally posted by dub45
Now that Eircom appear to have started charging customers who exceed the cap

Really? Who, how, where, when?

dub45

Originally posted by hughchal
Really? Who, how, where, when?

Where

Zenith74

If you run DUmeter 24x7, then it will give a 100% accurate result. The exact same can be said for Eircom's method i would presume.

DUMeter is never going to give a 100% accurate result of your internet traffic, there's always going to be data coming and going from your router/DSL modem that never heads out to the world. If you have a home network with another PC on it the DUMeter is useless as it will show all traffic going between those PCs as well. All it does is measure data coming and going from the specified network interface (generally your netwrk card), it can't distinguish.
I don't see any reason to assume the Eircom one will be accurate either, at least not the online one. They've had PLENTY of problems with it so far, what's to say they're all sorted...

Mutant_Fruit

If you have a home network with another PC on it the DUMeter is useless as it will show all traffic going between those PCs as well.

Then you use the handy Network select tab, and just select the modem, not the option to monitor ALL network adapters. Then you'll just measure internet packets.

Also, what makes you so certain that it is impossible to measure used bandwidth accurately! Its dead easy, maybe its harder on a large scale, but DUMeter can easily cope with a home network, if you set it up right.

Zenith74

If your modem/router does any caching or DHCP or anything DU Meter will register the sent/received data from the router/modem to the PC as downloaded from the Internet (ie. eating into your cap) when in fact it just came from your router so didn't use any of your cap at all. Whichever network you chose to monitor in DUMeter this will apply. I'm not sure exactly what info only goes between the PC and the router/modem but no matter, if there is ANY then DUMeter will not be 100% accurate (I know I'm being pedantic :P). By the way when I say accurate I mean comparing what Eircom measure and what you measure in DUMeter, not that DUMeter can't count properly ...

I have my PC connected to the Eircom Netopia router/modem box via my ethernet card, so I can't select the modem in DUMeter. Any files I send across the home network are registered as up/down traffic by DUMeter. Unless I'm very much mistaken there is no way around this in DUMeter. It wouldn't be too difficult for DUMeter to solve this though, IP address exemption list would do.

I never said it was impossible, just that DUMeter won't do it 100% accurate for you. The place to measure what's actually come or gone to Eircom is on the router. The Netopia router/modem does actually keep track of frames sent and received which would be handy if you could be bothered translating the info into actual data sent/received :P...

Mutant_Fruit

Ah right, i mis-understood your configuration.

I thought you had PC2 connects to PC1 via ethernet1, PC1 then connects to router via Ethernet2.

In your case it would be impossible for Dumeter to keep an accurate track. What needs to be done is that DUMeter gets a new feature that will let it ignore all packets sent to a certain IP address. Therefore you could make it ignore all packets destined for lan pc's.

In fact, i'll e-mail that in now as a feature request.

IDM

You guys seem to be missing dub45/neokenzo's point. We don't really care if dumeter's measuring traffic inaccurately due to network setup & hence saying we've downloaded more from the net than we have. If dumeter's stats are therefore always bigger than the actual numbers, then the Eircom stats should always be lower than that of dumeter, right? If this isn't the case, then we're getting ripped off. That's what I'm worried about.

Fortunately, my eircom stats haven't been updated for over 10 days now. I called support to ask them what was up & they said they were performing a major overhaul to the stats system. I pretty much got it out of him that I wouldn't be held responsible for exceeding the cap since I can't check how much I've downloaded in the last ten days.

-IDM

Zenith74

Yep if Eircom ever reads higher then DUMeter something is screwed up...

Mutant_Fruit

I wouldn't go as far as saying something has DEFINATELY gone wrong. Its always possible you downloaded stuff with Dumeter off, e.g. you accidenrtly closed it without noticing.

neokenzo

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
I wouldn't go as far as saying something has DEFINATELY gone wrong. Its always possible you downloaded stuff with Dumeter off, e.g. you accidenrtly closed it without noticing.

My DUMeter is never off. Its always on and I always keep an eye on it to see my downloads and uploads. No way I would have accidently closed it either.

Zenith74

MutantFruit, sorry, by screwed up I was thinking stuff like that as well. tbh I don't think Eircom would give you the time of day if you went to them with DUMeter records to contest them charging you. Just my 2 cents though...

neokenzo

Originally posted by Zenith74
MutantFruit, sorry, by screwed up I was thinking stuff like that as well. tbh I don't think Eircom would give you the time of day if you went to them with DUMeter records to contest them charging you. Just my 2 cents though...

I dont think you can contest Eircom's stat anyway no matter what software you use. I guess at the end of the day, we'll just have to accept whatever the stats says unless its really ridiculous.