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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
- rdoumaGuide
Thanks jalbrecht71 , that sounds like a real interesting device. I should have done more research on the Orbi before I bought it and just assumed functionality like this to being supported. I won't make that mistake again when I upgrade my network.
- jalbrecht71Onlooker
Just upgraded to the new WiFi 6 Synology RT6600ax. Amazing. All the things you could want plus now has vlan support. You can create a separate network (up to 5) and set bandwidth limits on that network. I put all my IoT devices on one and limit the upload and download so they do not impact my more important main network. A++ Synology. Also supports mesh setups. Parental controls, etc etc. best router on the market.
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- DanialwilnesFollower
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- GeorgiaDaveFledgling
Ditto. Previous ISP did not limit my usage so this was not an issue. Now I have Xfinity and I have the 1200 gig limit and have come close. I need to know what devices are using all the data.
- rdoumaGuide
Wow. It seems I found "the" thread. And I wasn't unique in this idea I see. I spent quite some time searching through menus and Googling because I just could not accept that something that seems so easy to do on a router level is not available. Disheartening to also see how long this is open without any solution. I guess we need to buy more expensive products where the relevant code is not commented out.
- cbivansFledgling
Please add this feature to display usage per device. Xfinity, ASUS, and I'm sure a long list of other routers / AP's already do this. I came over from ASUS to get this 'premium' wireless mesh solution. Now since bandwidth is an issue for me, I feel like I have to go back to ASUS just to gain this simple feature.
- MazuzuAspirant
Adding another Orbi user who would appreciate this feature added to the traffic monitor/meter.
- ht001Novice
Another user who would really like this feature now that my kids are online much more than before. This data should already be captured. Just expose it somehow. Even a barebones log file woudl suffice.
- CapeCodDaveFledgling
Count me in as a customer wanting device level monitoring. Providing usage for the network as a whole does not allow for finding the offending source, whether it is a hacker, a child downloading porn all night or a screamming ethernet card. Give us some tools NetGear!