Is there an data counter for NTL BB?

dcGT

Hi All,
I'm sure this has been asked before, but the search facility on boards doesn't seem to be working at the moment. My question is, does some sort of data counter exist to see your usage for NTL Broadband? If not, how strict are NTL with regard to staying within the allocated usage/cap. For example, if you went 3 or 4GB over the 16GB cap?

Cheers,

DC.

dathiultaigh

NTL are pretty strict on the on your DL/UL cap limit and from previous posts on boards they do disconnect or suspend services temporarily for breaking these limits as per their t&c's.

I think in the past someone posted that NTL planned to set up a tool for their customer's where they can view their usage stats but I see nothing new on the NTL website for this.

Maybe use a third party tool to measure what you are using ... like DU meter - http://www.hageltech.com/dumeter/ or nagios to give you alot more detail http://nagios.org/ (pretty un-necessary for the average joe though)

JPA

Its pretty ridiculous that they can measure our usage but we can't measure our own. Surely it's just the same technology made available to us.
And when you've got 4 users from the one connection it's impractical to use third part tools.

Damn you NTL damn you.

dathiultaigh

JPA wrote:

Its pretty ridiculous that they can measure our usage but we can't measure our own. Surely it's just the same technology made available to us.

Well its a pretty large undertaking for any organisation to undertake in regards infrastructure and the associated costs and then it has to be supported cause its expected anyways at the end of the day it is the end users responsibility to adhere to their limits.

JPA wrote:

And when you've got 4 users from the one connection it's impractical to use third part tools.

Am not sure but I think nagios maybe capable of this.

Gran Hermano

NTL/UPC/Chello/Chorus tech support will advise you to use DUmeter or
something similar. I've yet to ask them how exactly you can install
DUmeter on a PS3 or 360

If they are going to enforce caps they really need to put in place
a solution which allows people to measure their usage.
They need to realise not every household has just 1 PC.

Would it kill them to put a web interface onto their back end
system to allow users to see their usage? There are plenty
of business intelligence products out there that would allow
accurate reports. I can see my O2/Vodafone calls and bills
online - including very recent calls - why not NTL usage details?

You could in theory have a cable modem and NOT have
a PC/laptop at home, but thats a differnet situation altogether !

dcGT

Thanks for the responses so far people. Yes I use DU meter but as said, this does not include usage from XBOX or VOIP phone calls via an ATA.

Also, with regard usage, does the cap mean that you must not exceed it in any 30 day period or do you have an allocation of 16GB within a set time frame. Is there start and end point for usage where your 'counter' is set back to zero? (i.e. billing period or calendar month for example)

I know Digiweb have a system for tracking your usage: http://mytraffic.digiweb.ie (or something like that). I'm surprised NTL do not have similar. It seems a bit unfair to be strict about such matters when it's sometimes difficult to keep track of usage.

Cheers,

DC

JPA

Gran Hermano wrote:

NTL/UPC/Chello/Chorus tech support will advise you to use DUmeter or
something similar. I've yet to ask them how exactly you can install
DUmeter on a PS3 or 360

If they are going to enforce caps they really need to put in place
a solution which allows people to measure their usage.
They need to realise not every household has just 1 PC.

Would it kill them to put a web interface onto their back end
system to allow users to see their usage? There are plenty
of business intelligence products out there that would allow
accurate reports. I can see my O2/Vodafone calls and bills
online - including very recent calls - why not NTL usage details?

You could in theory have a cable modem and NOT have
a PC/laptop at home, but thats a differnet situation altogether !

Ya exactly and added to that things like Joost and youtube use a lot of bandwidth in a totally legal way. ISPs need to wise up to the modern internet.

Moriarty

Nagios doesn't do traffic monitoring.

The only way you'll really get a total of traffic used on your connection if you have multiple PCs/consoles and other stuff connected up is to have a router capable of monitoring traffic sitting between the cable modem and the rest of your network. That could be a PC running software capable of doing that, or a dediated router which can do it (which will be expensive).

dcGT

Thanks for the responses.

dcGT wrote:

with regard usage, does the cap mean that you must not exceed it in any 30 day period or do you have an allocation of 16GB within a set time frame. Is there start and end point for usage where your 'counter' is set back to zero? (i.e. billing period or calendar month for example)

I don't suppose anyone knows about this?

Cheers,

DC.

donal.hunt

i rang them (it's really easy)...

the calculation is done on a calendar month basis.
there is currently no tool but the account person i spoke to said it was possible one was in the works. he promised to ring me back and let me know if this was the case after inquiring internally.

dcGT

donal.hunt wrote:

i rang them (it's really easy)...

the calculation is done on a calendar month basis.
there is currently no tool but the account person i spoke to said it was possible one was in the works. he promised to ring me back and let me know if this was the case after inquiring internally.

Thanks for that. I tried calling them but gave up after a while. There's only so long I can stay on hold.


Cheers,

DC.

donal.hunt

really? I've rung them multiple times in the past week and never been on hold longer than a few seconds...

which options are you using in the menu system?