NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.

Forum Discussion

bottomsup's avatar
bottomsup
Guide
May 06, 2020

Is there a way to view data usage per device?

On Orbi RBK50

Thanks

5 Replies

  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru - Experienced User
    May 06, 2020
    bottomsup wrote:
    On Orbi RBK50

    No, there is not.  One user was so determined to find per device usage that he purchased a different router and installed 3rd party software on it for this purpose.  If you have $150 and want to invest the time, that is the only solution I have seen.

  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru - Experienced User
    May 06, 2020

    Orbi has a "debug" feature which will capture every packet that flows through the network and store them in a standard format called "PCAP".  There are programs which will display and summarize PCAP files.  Wireshark, for example, is available for Windows, Mac, and a number of Linux releases.

     

    Our internet usage is minimal (very little streaming), and we average about 8GB/day of internet.  Internal traffic is mostly IP camera FTP's.  Of the 495MB internal memory, my RBR50 has about 300MB free so I can capture several hours.  It also has a USB port that I stick a 32GB memory stick in for big captures.  I just now captured about two hours.  I have defined each of the MAC and IP address in Wireshark configuration files so that displays are more "human friendly."  Capturing everything means it record a LOT of things I have no interest in, so it is a bit tedious to wade through.

     

    Wireshark will show "conversations" between devices, IP addresses, etc.  Number of packets.  Number of bytes.

     

    This is not easy, concise, automatic, or attractive.  So, what value is it?

     

    One person posted about data usage by device because he had gone over his 1TB monthly limit and the ISP was going to begin charging him. Eventually, he traced the problem to a misconfigured device that was constantly blasting data "to" the internet.  If one device is responsible for 100 times more data than any other device, it will pop to the top of the display.  So, for idle curiosity this is probably more effort than it is worth.  If there is a usage problem, it is something to consider.

    • bombardier67's avatar
      bombardier67
      Aspirant
      Oct 29, 2020

      We recently got rid of our Cox TV cable and phone to only use the internet.   For the first time we are running out of data two months in a row.   Basically since we turned of the TV cable.   Our router does not show the usage per device so I cannot figure out where the data is being used.   Any suggestions?  Right now, I feel like the cable company is playing a game.   We have the WNDR4500v2 model router

      • FURRYe38's avatar
        FURRYe38
        Guru - Experienced User
        Oct 29, 2020

        Please post about this here for your model router:
        https://community.netgear.com/t5/General-WiFi-Routers-Non/bd-p/home-wifi-routers-general

        Good Luck.

        bombardier67 wrote:

        We recently got rid of our Cox TV cable and phone to only use the internet.   For the first time we are running out of data two months in a row.   Basically since we turned of the TV cable.   Our router does not show the usage per device so I cannot figure out where the data is being used.   Any suggestions?  Right now, I feel like the cable company is playing a game.   We have the WNDR4500v2 model router