This article will look at software solutions to help you control your traffic. Thanks to them, you can see a summary of the consumption of the Internet connection by a separate process and limit its priority. It is not necessary to view the recorded reports on a PC with special software installed - this can be done remotely. It will not be a problem to find out the cost of consumed resources and much more.
Software from SoftPerfect Research that allows you to control the traffic consumed. The program provides additional settings that make it possible to see information about the consumed megabytes for a specific day or week, peak and off-peak hours. Provided the ability to see indicators of incoming and outgoing speed, received and sent data.
The tool will be especially useful in those cases when you are using limited 3G or LTE, and, accordingly, you need restrictions. If you have more than one account, statistics about each individual user will be displayed.
DU Meter
Application for tracking the consumption of resources from the World Wide Web. In the work area, you will see both the incoming and outgoing signal. By connecting to the dumeter.net service account, which is offered by the developer, you can collect statistics on the use of the information flow from the Internet from all PCs. Flexible settings will help you filter the stream and send reports to your email.
The parameters allow you to specify the restrictions when using the connection to the world wide web. In addition, you can specify the cost of the package of services provided by your provider. There is a user manual in which you will find instructions on how to work with the available functionality of the program.
Network Traffic Monitor
A utility that displays network usage reports with a simple set of tools without the need for pre-installation. The main window displays statistics and a summary of the connection that has Internet access. The application is able to block the flow and restrict it, allowing the user to specify their own values. In the settings, you can reset the recorded history. There is a provision for recording the available statistics into a log file. An arsenal of necessary functionality will help fix the download and upload speed.
TrafficMonitor
The application is an excellent solution for the counter of information flow from the network. There are many indicators that show the amount of data consumed, output, speed, maximum and average values. The software settings allow you to determine the cost of the used amount of information at the present time.
The generated reports will contain a list of actions related to the connection. The graph is displayed in a separate window, and the scale is displayed in real time, you will see it on top of all programs in which you work. The solution is free and has a Russian-language interface.
NetLimiter
The program has a modern design and powerful functionality. Its peculiarity is that it provides reports in which there is a summary of traffic consumption by each process running on a PC. The statistics are perfectly sorted by different periods, and therefore it will be very easy to find the required period of time.
If NetLimiter is installed on another computer, then you can connect to it and control its firewall and other functions. To automate processes within the application, rules are applied, drawn up by the user himself. In the scheduler, you can create your own limits for using the services of the provider, as well as block access to the global and local networks.
DUTraffic
The peculiarity of this software is that it displays advanced statistics. There is information about the connection from which the user entered the global space, sessions and their duration, as well as the duration of use and much more. All reports are accompanied by information in the form of a diagram highlighting the duration of traffic consumption over time. In the parameters, you can customize almost any design element.
The graph that is displayed in a specific area is updated in a second-to-second mode. Unfortunately, the utility is not supported by the developer, but it has a Russian interface language and is distributed free of charge.
BWMeter
The program monitors the download / upload and speed of the existing connection. Using filters displays an alert if processes in the OS consume network resources. Various filters are used to solve many different tasks. The user will be able to fully customize the displayed charts as they see fit.
Among other things, the interface shows the duration of traffic consumption, the speed of reception and uploading, as well as the minimum and maximum values. The utility can be configured to display alerts when events such as the number of megabytes loaded and the connection time occur. By entering the site address in the appropriate line, you can check its ping, and the result is written to the log file.
BitMeter II
A solution for providing a summary of the use of a provider's services. There is data in both tabular and graphical presentation. In the parameters, notifications are configured for events related to the connection speed and the consumed stream. For the convenience of work, BitMeter II allows you to calculate how long it takes to load the amount of data entered by it in megabytes.
The functionality allows you to determine how much of the available volume provided by the provider remains, and when the limit is reached, a message about this is displayed in the taskbar. Moreover, the download can be limited in the parameters tab, as well as monitor statistics remotely in the browser mode.
The presented software products will be indispensable in controlling the consumption of Internet resources. The functionality of the applications will help to compile detailed reports, and the reports sent by e-mail are available for viewing at any convenient time.
When buying the services of a provider, we hope that the speed of the Internet connection will be exactly as specified in the contract. Well, or almost like that. However, in practice, it rarely matches the figures on paper, because it is influenced by a lot of factors - from network congestion to the state of the client device - a computer, smartphone, tablet or Smart TV. In addition, in the contract, the provider indicates the maximum, and not the actual connection speed. However, if the latter is constantly and much lower than the former, the quality of the service can be questioned.
To control the work of the provider and just be aware of the real Internet speed, you need to know how to determine it. Fortunately, there is a large number of special software and free web services for this, which we will get acquainted with today. But let's start with what capabilities the Windows operating system has in this regard. We will also find out how to get the most reliable result.
Windows built-in capabilities
The easiest and fastest way to see the current speed of your Internet connection is in the Task Manager on the Performance tab. If the network is poorly loaded, the graph in the "Bandwidth" window will be low; if it is strong, the window will fill almost completely with it, and the speed shown in the upper right corner will approach that indicated in the contract with the provider. This should be normal. If, with a strong network load, the speed remains low, then there is an obstacle somewhere. But where - at your place or at his place?
To find out the maximum achievable (in theory) Internet speed for a particular type of connection, open the "Network Connections" folder and select the "Status" section in the context menu of your network.
The required information is contained in the "General" tab.
The real speed is usually 2-3 times lower than the maximum. By the way, when transferring data via Wi-Fi and via cable, it can differ significantly.
Let's say you have established that the Internet on your computer should be faster. The next task is to find out who is responsible for the slowdown - your devices or your ISP.
How to check your Internet speed manually
To get the most reliable result, you need to check the Internet speed on the computer to which the provider's network cable is connected. If it is not possible to insert the cable directly into the computer, for example, if it only supports wireless connections or binds the connection to the MAC address of the router, disconnect all other devices from the Internet for the duration of the test.
- Prepare a 1 GB file and select any cloud web service to which you will upload it, for example, Yandex Drive or Google Drive. It is important that the service does not limit the speed of uploading and downloading content.
- Close all programs using the network and the Internet in order to unload the channel as much as possible.
- Disable VPN clients and proxy servers if they are not required to establish WAN access.
- Time yourself and start uploading the file to the cloud server. Note the download end time.
- Download the file back to your PC under time control.
Knowing the file size in megabytes and the number of seconds it took to transfer it, you can easily calculate the Internet speed in Mbps. If it is close to that specified in the contract, then the provider will fulfill its obligations to you, and the reason for the slowdown is in your devices. If not, then the opposite is true.
For those of you who don't want to do computing, you can check your Internet speeds using the methods discussed below. For reliability, we advise you to perform the check several times within an hour.
Web services
Checking the Internet speed using the 2ip service is as easy as shelling pears: press the "Test" button and wait 1-2 minutes.
In addition to ping rates, as well as incoming and outgoing speeds, 2ip allows you to find out:
- Average speed indicators of the Internet in your city.
- Average speed indicators among subscribers of your provider.
- The best tests for all providers for the current day.
- The total number of measurements among all providers.
Such a kind of benchmark. Below on the page is a table of the last ten measurements.
By the way, as of the date of the audit, none of the largest leaders in the provider services market in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan - Rostelecom, ByFly, Ukrtelecom, Kazakhtelecom, MTS, Beeline, Akado, Iota, Dom.ru, Citylink and TTK, never became record holder. The first places were taken by small and not very well-known companies.
And further. If you have something to tell other users about the services of your Internet provider, you can leave a review on the site.
Is another simple free service of a similar purpose. To start the check, just click the "Start" button. The result will be displayed on the screen in a couple of minutes.
By the way, if you sign up for Speedtest (it's also free), you can save the test results in your account and share links to them with other users.
In addition to the web service available online through a browser from any device, SpeedTest exists as an application for stationary (Windows, Mac OS X) and mobile (iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, Amazon) platforms.
Yandex.Internetometer
The Yandex.Internetometer service determines the speed of incoming and outgoing connections without ping. However, in addition to this, it shows detailed information about your internet connection, operating system and the browser in which you ran the check. It's a pity that benchmarks and the ability to save test results are not provided here.
Press the "Measure" button to start the test. The result, like that of competitors, appears on the screen in 1-2 minutes.
It is very reminiscent of the set of functions of the service of the same name in the “ru” domain and differs from it only in the style of design. In addition to the Internet speed testing button, this resource contains the rating of Ukrainian providers and the indicators of the last 20 checks.
For users with Russian IP, the site 2ip.ua opens in Russian, for residents of Ukraine - in Ukrainian.
To start testing, click the "Test" button. The result will be displayed after the same time as the others.
Banki.ru
Banki.ru uses 2 tests provided by telecommunications company Wellink. One of them is a traditional check of the response time (ping), incoming and outgoing Internet speeds, the second is checking the quality of watching videos online. Based on the testing results, the service displays a brief description of your connection: how quickly a new episode of the film will open, how long it will take to download an album and upload a photo to a social network, what video quality is optimal for your connection, whether the picture will freeze when watching videos through a browser.
The use of the service on Banki.ru is no different from the others.
Free software for testing Internet speed on PC and mobile devices
If you use the above services several times in a row, you will notice that the Internet bandwidth indicators will always be different. This is normal, but not entirely informative, especially when communication is intermittent. Applications, unlike web services, allow you to monitor network traffic continuously. And this is their main advantage.
NetTraffic for Windows
The utility, released in the installation and portable versions, is a small window constantly hanging in the corner of the screen, where the connection speed is displayed in real time.
In addition to current data, it collects traffic statistics for user-specified time intervals. Can monitor multiple network interfaces at the same time.
TMeter for Windows
- a more advanced tool for monitoring Internet traffic than the previous utility, but also very simple to understand and use. In addition to speed parameters, it collects statistics about the IP addresses of the visited resources, ports, protocols, etc.
Tmeter has a built-in firewall and traffic distributor (traffic shaper) between LAN devices. These functions become available if the program is running on a computer that is used as a gateway for other devices to connect to the Internet.
The utility is designed to monitor the entire flow of information passing through the network adapter, including the data transfer rate. Initially, it is in English, but a crack has been released for it (available on the download page), which you just need to copy to the folder with the executable file or program archive.
NetworkTrafficView works without installation and does not require any special settings. Connection data is displayed in a table in the main and only window of the utility.
Internet speed test for Android
The "Internet Speed Test" mobile application is not only stylishly designed, but also very functional. In addition to collecting the main speed characteristics of Wi-Fi and 2 / 3G networks, it displays the delay time for sending packets, allows you to select a test server (its availability and remoteness affect the performance), accumulates statistics and publishes the results of checks on social networks.
Another convenient application is that it supports even very old versions of Android.
Meteor - speed test for Android
Meteor - Speed Test is one of the few mobile apps that has received the highest user rating - 4.8 points. It not only shows the real speed of the Internet connection, but also determines how fast popular network programs will work with the current connection quality. Such programs include social media clients, browsers, Gmail, YouTube, Skype, WhatsApp, Wase navigator, Google Maps, Uber taxi service, etc. There are 16 different applications in total.
Other advantages of Meteor are that it supports all kinds of network connections, including 4G, and does not contain ads.
The Internet or the global network is where many of us spend the lion's share of our time. Based on this, it is always interesting, and sometimes even necessary, to know at what speed the files are being downloaded, whether the channel width is enough for watching movies and how much traffic is being spent.
In this article, we will consider several representatives of software that helps to determine the speed of the Internet and get statistics on the consumption of traffic on a computer.
The most prominent representative of programs for working with Internet connections. NetWorx has many functions for network diagnostics, maintains detailed traffic statistics, and makes it possible to measure connection speed both manually and in real time.
JDAST
JDAST is similar to NetWorx, except that it does not provide traffic statistics. The rest of the functions are as follows: manual measurement of Internet speed, real-time graphs, network diagnostics.
BWMeter
Another powerful program to control the Internet on your computer. The main distinguishing feature of BWMeter is the presence of a network filter that notifies the user about the activity of programs that require a network connection for their work.
The program includes a stopwatch that allows you to monitor traffic flow and speed, several diagnostic functions, and the ability to monitor connections on remote computers.
Net.Meter.Pro
Another representative of powerful software for interacting with network connections. The main distinguishing feature is the presence of a speed recorder - automatic recording of meter readings into a text file.
SpeedTest
SpeedTest is fundamentally different from the previous representatives in that it does not test connections, but measures the speed of information transfer between two nodes - local computers or one computer and a web page.
LAN Speed Test
LAN Speed Test is intended solely for testing the transmission and reception speeds of a local network. Knows how to scan devices in "LAN" and give out their data, such as IP and MAC-address. Statistical data can be saved to tabular files.
Download Master
Download Master - software designed to download files from the Internet. During the download, the user can observe the graph of the speed change, in addition, the current speed is displayed in the download window.
You have familiarized yourself with a small list of programs for determining the speed of the Internet and accounting for traffic on your computer. All of them perform well the assigned tasks and have the functions necessary for the user.
As you know, you can do different things on the Internet: watch videos, play online games, listen to music, spend time on social networks, and so on. Internet speed depends on the quality of the connection and the provider's tariff plan. But the speed does not always remain stable: sometimes it becomes lower than the one set in the tariff plan. This may depend both on the congestion of the network or the operation of the router, as well as on the actions of malicious programs or fraud of a dishonest provider. To control and timely respond to such cases and need programs for testing internet speed.
Full Speed
Free software Full Speed invites users not only to check, but also to optimize the internet speed.
The functions of this utility include checking the speed of uploading and downloading files, changing browser settings to speed up the loading of web pages and files from the local network or the Internet. At the first launch, Full Speed will test the connection to the global network, and then suggest the optimal settings for browsers and download managers.
JDs Auto Speed Tester
Utility JDs Auto Speed Tester - providing complete information about the stability and speed of the connection, displaying it in a visual graph. It is possible to view the history of changes in Internet speed for an hour, day, week, month or year.
The user can set the servers for testing himself, set automatic or manual start of the test. The results can be saved to a log or to an image file.
NetWorx
With the help of the NetWorx utility, the user can monitor in real time the speed of a network connection, as well as keep a constant record of traffic. 
This function is useful for users with per megabyte Internet billing or a limited amount of traffic for a certain period. The program is completely free and takes up little space.
Internet Speed Booster
Internet Speed Booster is not even one program for checking internet speed, but a whole package of three utilities. 
With Internet Speed Booster, the user can not only measure the speed of the Internet connection, but also improve it by optimizing the operating system settings by the program. This utility has many settings, which makes it very convenient for both inexperienced and advanced users.
It is worth remembering that when checking the speed of the Internet, you need to turn off all programs that use it for a while - so the result will be most consistent with reality.
Now you know about the main programs for testing internet speed, and you can easily determine the speed of your Internet connection. That's all for me, see you soon!
A program for recording incoming and outgoing traffic on your computer. It will help you not to exceed the traffic limit and not be without the Internet at all.
ATTENTION: starting from the 6th version the program has become paid, so in order to avoid misunderstandings, do not update it. The latest free version 5.5.5 is located here.
Whoever used the Internet five years ago, he probably remembers the most important problem of the user - to constantly control the amount of traffic. After all, then there were no unlimited packages, and Dial-Up connection required money for each downloaded megabyte of information.
As a result, if you did not control the traffic consumption, then you could "fly into a pretty penny" :). But the people are inventive and they came up with many programs for measuring and limiting the flow. Today, the need for such utilities has diminished a little, but they are still in use, because during their existence they have acquired many additional useful functions.
Thanks to such programs, today you can measure the speed of the Internet connection, check all processes that have access to the Internet, measure the use of traffic in corporate networks, and much more.
All of the above functions have a small program - NetWorx... In addition, it has a number of additional features that will be useful to both a system administrator and a simple user. The paid program DU Meter can be called just as simple but powerful tool.
Comparison of the free software for accounting traffic NetWorx with the paid analogue DU Meter
In addition, in NetWorx, you can impose a quota on the amount of traffic, as well as launch various applications on a schedule. The program itself comes in two versions: portable and installation. I think the easiest way is to use the "portable" version, although if you are a fan of installers, you can easily install NetWorx using the prompts of the standard installation wizard.
Installing NetWorx
I will assume that you have downloaded the portable version. To get started, you need to unpack the archive with the program and run the executable exe-file. Before starting NetWorx directly, let's make a couple of settings. First, you will need to specify the program language, and second, enable or disable checking for new versions. That's all:).
After that, the program icon will appear in the tray (the place next to the system clock), with which we will manage it.
NetWorx will be controlled via the right-click context menu.
All functions of the program are listed here in this menu, but some settings can be made before use. To do this, click on the menu section of the same name.
NetWorx Settings
"Settings" consists of several tabs. In "General" we can configure speed units, information displayed in the tray, and also (most importantly!) Which of the connections to monitor (by default, all traffic is counted).
The “Graph” and “Graph Colors” sections allow us to customize the appearance of the graph of incoming / outgoing information packets ourselves. In "Notifications" you can enable and configure service messages from the program, and in "Additional" we can configure the collection of statistics.
The most recent tab, Dial-up, allows you to establish a default connection and add applications that will run with NetWorx.
After the settings are made, first press the "Apply" button to make them take effect, and then "Ok" to exit the settings.
Traffic Monitor
Now let's go straight through the NetWorx tools. The first and foremost one is the traffic monitor. It is presented in the form of a graph, which is called by the "Show Graph" button.
The graph can be presented in the form of a histogram (in my opinion, the most convenient), curved lines or just numbers. In this case, there will always be two numbers at the bottom. The number with the index “D” (blue by default) shows the amount of incoming traffic (from English download), and “U” (green), respectively, outgoing (from English upload).
The curves of the speed change appear on the graph with the corresponding colors, the numerical value of which can be correlated with the scale on the left.
Measuring speed
The next button - "Speed measurement" - measures, unfortunately, not the overall speed of your Internet connection, but only the current speed of the background transmission of packets. This may be needed to compare (save is available) the results at full load on the channel (for example, downloading a file) and at rest.
To start the test, just press the "Start" button and mark a certain period of time. Then the result can be saved to a text file, and then compared with the new data obtained during the "loading" of the channel.
Statistics
Most of all, this function will appeal to system administrators, since it is possible to conduct both a general calculation of traffic and display detailed statistics for each of the network users. Results can be exported to xls format (Excel spreadsheets) and saved on a computer.
There are also tools for backing up statistics and restoring it (for example, if you need to save all data after reinstalling the system).
Traffic quota
Moving on, we pass to the "Quota" section. This function is most suitable for users with a Dial-up connection or limited traffic (for example, mobile Internet). It allows you to set the maximum amount of information received or sent and will always warn the user about the overrun of the specified limit.
By default, the quota is set at 0.00 KB, so if you want to use this function, you will need to "Configure" it first :).
In the settings, we specify the type of quota (daily, weekly, monthly, last 24 hours) and the type of traffic (incoming outgoing or all). You can leave the clock as it is, and then specify the units of measurement and the quota itself.
To save the settings, click "Ok", and in the quota monitoring window, do not forget to check the box "Notify when the quota is used up, by%" in order to receive timely information about overspending.
Route tracing
We have already considered the "Settings" item, so we move on to the next one - "Route tracing". If you suddenly lost access to any Internet resource or you need to find out which path you are going through before you get to this or that site, try to trace this path. This can be done with the standard Windows capabilities, but with NetWorx it is much easier and clearer.
To start tracing, enter the site name (of the remote computer) or its IP address. Now you can set the waiting time for a response (although often the standard value is more than enough) and you can press "Start". In this case, we traced the site yandex.ru and saw that to access it, you need to go through 11 intermediate servers, and the total travel time of this path is 31 ms.
Ping
The next option is "Ping". The interface of the window of this function is very similar to the interface of the previous one, but its purpose is somewhat different. Ping, simply put, is the speed at which a remote computer responds to a request you send. The ping built into NetWorx is inferior in its capabilities to the “standard” one (there is no way to set your own keys to change the parameters), but it copes with the main task.
The disadvantage of the function is that you cannot directly enter the website's Internet address - you need to know its exact IP (you can find it out from the previous utility). Now, specifically about the use: enter the address of the remote PC, select the timeout and the number of echo requests and press "Start".
In our example, the site pinged vkontakte.ru... The average response time is not calculated automatically, but it can be calculated in your head as well, by subtracting all the received values and dividing by three :).
It turned out about 45 ms, which, in principle, is good (ping up to 50 ms ± 10 ms is considered good). The TTL value is the "time to live" of the echo packet. The number 64 means that the sent information packet can go through 64 intermediate servers.
Connections
The last tool is Connections. It allows you to monitor all applications that require an internet connection.
Immediately I advise you to enable the "Convert addresses to names" option. So you can see where this or that application is "climbing" and stop its attempt to connect to a suspicious resource. Pay special attention to "established" connections (ESTABLISHED) and listening ports (LISTENING), as these can carry hidden threats.
If a suspicious connection is detected, you can immediately terminate the application that installs it by right-clicking on it and selecting “End application”.
conclusions
Thus, we can summarize all of the above. NetWorx is not just a program for monitoring your Internet connection, but also a complex for ensuring security and comprehensive network diagnostics.
Therefore, if you suspect that some application is using traffic irrationally or even transmitting confidential information, try monitoring your network with NetWorx and you can easily find the "spy" :).
P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.