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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
- MiddKidGuide
Response from Netgear:
"As of this moment our team is currently working on this. However, we don't have an exact date /time when it is available."
- thejeffweiNovice
I think I figured out why Netgear refuses to implement this feature. I noticed on the "Circle" subscription they are pushing for $50/year, you can get Usage data. They want you to pay for it.
- OndesicTutor
I have searched the features of circle. I think the Usage data just means how the device is used, not the bandwidth used. At least that is what I have found. It would be nice if they actually showed device bandwidth.
- OndesicTutor
Currently I am going to try this. This suggestion
- mith_itLuminary
I think people should stop waiting for this to come. It won't come. It's been here for years now, Circle does some of it and if they really wanted to provide the feature they would have done it. Even my Arris modem that I get for free has it. It's not in Netgear's plans
- shobuddyAspirant
Just purchased an Orbi last week and am finding out this feature is not available. Judging my the age of this thread, I'm not holding my breath. Very disappointing. Anyone know what other mesh systems have this? I know Google does and perhaps Eros?
Pretty disappointed to see that this has been requested for over 2 years now my loads of people and that there is no progress on it. Xfinity's Xfi routers have this information available. It's not exactly new technology or a new idea. And with more ISPs putting on data quotas, it is really necessary to know what is using your bandwidth, and when.
- mvosmikFledgling
+1 on per device data usage breakdown
- TrevolutionaryAspirant
I recently switched to XFiniti/Comcast as well and have been running very close to the increased 1.2 TB cap. I am trying to figure out what is driving this (as many others are). With so many IoT and other devices added, from WiFi cameras to plugs to echo/Alexa devices, it would take days to add devices one by one to track what the data hogs are and which ones are slowly leaching data unnecessarily.
Come on Netgear, this has been sitting near the top of the feature request for a long time! Let's see an update with this capability!!!
- gbuglerInitiate
+1 vote for usage monitoring at the device level.