Having access to unlimited bandwidth is something every internet user wishes, but unfortunately this is not always the case for many of us. And, at the end of the day we just have to make do with caps or restrictions placed on our bandwidth usage. Okay so if a cap has been placed on your bandwidth usage, then there is a need for you to actually know the amount of bandwidth you are consuming.

However, if your case is somewhat different and all that you want to do is confirm who is making use of the largest amount of bandwidth in your home or in a group, then there are tools to help out just like with the case mentioned above. Sometimes ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will provide for you at no cost with a meter, but this is not always the case. And, even when they do give out such tools, they may not do a good job of determining how much each person is using.

Keeping track of downloads

Manually monitoring bandwidth is almost impossible. Individual online pages do not readily report their sizes and even when this happens, there are a lot of variables like streaming content and much more. Also, software downloads aren’t much better in this regard as you do see the size of the file, but sometimes these files are simply down-loaders and not full installers. So what is the way out? Well, the best way out is to make use of a bandwidth meter.

Networx for Windows

NetWorx is free software that is powerful and provides a wide range of features, which will assist you with keeping tabs on how much of the internet you or someone else in your group or family is using. It can provide you with a report as well as graph of the amount of bandwidth you use on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis.

Other features that this bandwidth meter has include: a speed test of your bandwidth as well as a quota feature. Now the quota feature allows you to set a certain amount you may like to use on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can also configure an alert to appear whenever a particular percentage is reached or used, so you can know when to stop downloading.

SurplusMeter for Mac OS X users

For Mac OS X users SkoobySoft’s SurplusMeter is a free tool that they can make use of. It’s more basic than NetWorx, since it does not possess automatic quota alert and its reporting options is such that they are less flexible. However, in spite of this, it does the job of a good bandwidth meter and has been relied upon for a while now.

Respecting limits

Now here are some tips to help you with reducing the amount of bandwidth that you use. This includes:

• Make use of a firewall – Do this and do not grant any software with the permission to bypass this. By doing this, you will prevent any program from downloading updates s

• Never watch HD videos – This is probably the fastest and easiest way to consume your bandwidth. Compression techniques will surely reduce consumption of bandwidth in this regard, but this does not change the fact that the better option is watching low-resolution videos.

•  Purchase software retail versions in-store – Consider what buying online will do to your bandwidth consumption and go for buying in-store.

Lastly, monitoring your bandwidth is the way to go. This is particularly true for many who will see their fees increase astronomically whenever there is an increase in bandwidth consumption above the cap.

Jason Phillips is the person to write this article. He has written many articles on technology for many technology related sites. He is working for a website; you can click here to get into the website.