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I've been searching the forums and the Internet in general, today, as I have gotten my first notice from Comcast that, lo, I am over my 1 Terabyte limit, this month. It has been inching toward that mark for a bit, and last month was around 944 Gig. What can I say: We are a connected, gaming, streaming family and our Comcast link is a vital utility. I have seen suggestions on this forum to "just disconnect everything and reconnect until you find the hog." With 30ish devices on the network, 4 kids, 2 renters, and countless visitors, this is simply not a possibility. What I could do is set up a different router (preferably one with this feature) and move the connections over to it one-by-one until I find the offender. If I have to go that route, I highly doubt the Orbi would get reconnected. Which is a shame because it is a pretty decent solution for everything else.
I would like for Netgear to seriously consider giving customers an option for this data. There are many ways to do it, but ANY of them would be acceptable to me. I'm a long-time networking pro, so even if these are scary for some people, at least it would be an option.
- Do the metering in the device with display of the statistics in the interface and in the app. This is obviously going to make the most customers happy because it would give us a report per-device of the usage. This isn't rocket science: Even if the device has a database limitation of 100 devices to monitor, or even 50, it would be useful. COMCAST does it on their modem devices for xFi. It can't be that hard.
- Do the metering externally by providing SNMP statistics on a per-device basis for smaller timeframes. This would mean that the Orbi doesn't have to store "dead" devices forever and would be up to whatever stat-gathering tool was used.
- Do the metering externally by providing some app that collects the data to a desktop. Maybe Java so you can hit Windows, Linux, and Mac all at once with it.
- Provide traffic mirroring to a selected wired port. This would at least give me the ability to plug in Wireshark or other tools to see what is going on. It would be super useful for troubleshooting intermittent issues and not just bandwidth monitoring.
- Provide netflow/sflow output to a collector on the home network. This would also have broader uses than just bandwidth monitoring, but it is potentially the hardest to use solution in this list. If it is easy to implement in the Orbi (i.e., the chips already support it), then I'll take it happily.
- Other things I haven't mentioned. Look, I'm desperate, here. I will find a way to use anything that helps.
I get 2 months free "warnings" from Comcast, but the cost of not knowing this outweighs replacing the Orbi. Once I start getting charged $10/50 Gig, I'm going to need to know right then and there. And if I don't have a reasonable answer by that time, another Orbi will be going out to eBay.
195 Comments
I went back to my Archer C7, installed Gargoyle firmware on it and have all the tracking I need. Nice firmware, https://www.gargoyle-router.com/
I found a WNDR4300 at Goodwill for $5 and will set that up as an AP for upstairs for cell phones etc to connect through. I wonder how well the tracking will work through that AP, but it should never be that much data anyway. Most of the high usage devices are hardwired.
Orbis are for sale, but if I cannot get a decent price, maybe I will connect them through the Archer and see how well that works, while waiting for Netgear to come up with something.
Please implement saveable data usage by device by day for Netgear R6700v3. Thanks.
+1... this seems like a pretty standard feature for modern routers.
Really need this function to be installed, or I have to move to another system.
I would like to see traffic meter by device so that I can tell how much data is being used by individuals and cap /cut off specific users before we go over out ISP limit for the month.
Why is there no info from Netgear in this thread telling us what their plan is to address the needs of their customers?
I can't believe this isn't a standard feature. COME ON NETGEAR!
- I found a function in Genie in network map. Tap on a device and get statistics on bandwidth in use right now. Doesn't Help at all though to see how much it used over a period of time. Only shows while you are wafching and resets if you leave the device. Interesting but not useful for long term measurement of use.
- +1, like some of the other users here I have Comcast, and data cap. I'm skating very close to that and if I breach then the cost is punitive. It will far outweigh the cost of replacing the Orbi system. However I don't want to do that and have been so far very happy with the system. I need per-device monitoring - I don't really care how . I also need to be able to see stats between the guest network and main network. Adding limits per network and device would also be nice but I'll take the stats to start with so I can see where all my bandwidth is going. Please help!!
Agrred, This should be available!
+1 This is a standard feature with competing mesh systems in this price teir. It's something that should be considered a basic feature for a premium system.