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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
+1 on this feature. Should be standard as it s freaking 2019 almost 2020....
Nobody should be surprised that this has not been fixed. They no longert look at the idea exchange. The last issue they resolved was in 2017, the same time they stopped reviewing ideas. Sad but true, look at the stats.
Ugh. Needs to be done.
After hooking up my new orbi and reading 1.5 years and 9 pages worth of customers pleading for features I discovered the easiest solution that everyone can do. I packaged up my Orbi and returned it. I got back lots of money that allowed me to purchase a router from a company that actually cares, listens, and communicates with their customers. Seriously, I hope others who are considering buying an Orbi find this forum and re-consider as your money spent on what you think is "high" end features will only bring you frustration with no support from Netgear. You will be forced to spend more money for more equipment along with valuable time in order to actually get the features you want. You will be able to install 3rd party anti virus/malware software that you don't want and don't want to pay for on devices in your network, but you can't tell what device is actually using bandwidth. 414 customer ideas/feature requests and only 2 every implemented. What a shame.
The best feature of my Orbi is that it was purchased from Costco. I am an early adopter... so paid over 500 for the setup. I waited patiently for updates or even any response from the company on customer's concerns. My early adopter purchase was returned for full refund in 2020. Google mesh has little bit weaker per node signal strength, but the bandwidth monitoring feature is excellent and form factor nice.
PS... I didn't have the Orbi box, cables, instruction manuals, anything. One of the hubs even spent some time outdoors and showed it. Just a pile of tech-junk and a notion to avoid Netgear products in the future... good thing I got my Arlo from the same retailer with enough purchasing power to 'manage' companies like Netgear who seem to ignore the vocal minority that we are.
Good ridence and the happiest $500 in my pocket has made me in a while. Now to unsubscribe from this forum.. :)
Take em' back!
- +1 please add this. Competitor products have this already
Comcast bandwidth limiting has caused a slew of problems. I, like many other are burning through the one terabyte I get each month. With over 40 devices connected I have to know where my bandwidth is going.. I am now looking for another company. Have been a Netgear supporter for a decade. I am so sad to see that it appears Netgear really doesn't care. Custom firmware for other Netgear routers allow device monitoring. If they can figure it out, why can't Netgear. So sad. Today I'm going to Amazon and writing your review to help other customers stay clear of the Orbi.
Like the rest of you, I've noticed a HUGE spike in my monthly usage. It has jumped from around 250g a month to now nearly 700-800 gigs. Part of it is that I cut the cord, but I cut the cord months ago and still had low gigs each month until January.
One thing to keep in mind is that wifi hotspot usage also comes out of our data allowance with Comcast. I gave some friends access to my account a couple years back, but now I'm wondering if they're contributing to my data usage. I just removed several wifi hotspot devices from my account, and if they appear again, I'll know that it's time to cut off my users. lol.
