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  • how do you manage your family's internet quota

There are 5 - 6 devices at home and im finding it very hard these couple of months to keep track of the quota and not exceed it, I have a limited 40 gb quota 2 mb speed which used to be sufficient but since last month I am recharging 50 gb and we cant even make it to the 20th of the month without having only couple gbs left. I know there's nothing wrong with the quota meter , nobody is stealing from me, it's just that Facebook takes so much quota and when someone uses it all day it's taking like 1gb per device per day.

what measures can I take? any softwares to monitor usage and stop internet connection for example when someone crosses the limit? I used an app to monitor usage but I couldn't find an app that tracks wifi usage decently, all the apps focus in 3g consumption as no country has the quota problem on dsl as we have in lebanon
First, try the Facebook Lite app. Should use less data.
You need a router that support Open DD-WRT Custom Firmware which will give you everything you need!
You can use MAC Address filtering on your existing router to stop them from even connecting to the wifi.
Check out WifiKill if you have a rooted android device or Netcut on windows which keeps them connected to the wifi but it won't work.
Have you talked with them about the issue?
One thing I did in he past when I was managing internet for an office is install a caching proxy server.
So what this does is it keeps local copies of many things so that they don't need to be downloaded again.
How much it helps varies.
Realistically, though, this is not a paid job for which you have all day. So I would say start by talking to them.
You need to know exactly what the problem is, where the bandwidth is going. I don't know if you do. It could even be you neighbors stealing from your connection.
Then if that does not work you can try to install an appliance between your modem and network, that can do quota control, or upgrade your router to one that has such features. I am guessing there must be routers/ access points where you can do things such as set quotas and control access.
aliessayli2 wroteno country has the quota problem on dsl as we have in lebanon
That is true, but there are solutions. In most routers, you can go in the administration interface and see a listing of bandwidth consumed by each IP.
I have a ddwrt router which i added an external usb. I installed yamon from http://usage-monitoring.com/ which let you monitor each IP/device downloads/uploads. Dunno if lebanon have such devices but mine are r7000 and r8500.
Well, another way with the a ddrt router is to throttle the speed to each user. If you are running out by the 20th, maybe give them 2/3 or less of the speed they are getting now and if they don't spend any more time on the site, you should be able save some bandwidth that way.
rolf wroteOne thing I did in he past when I was managing internet for an office is install a caching proxy server.
So what this does is it keeps local copies of many things so that they don't need to be downloaded again.
How much it helps varies.
Realistically, though, this is not a paid job for which you have all day. So I would say start by talking to them.
You need to know exactly what the problem is, where the bandwidth is going. I don't know if you do. It could even be you neighbors stealing from your connection.
Then if that does not work you can try to install an appliance between your modem and network, that can do quota control, or upgrade your router to one that has such features. I am guessing there must be routers/ access points where you can do things such as set quotas and control access.
aliessayli2 wroteno country has the quota problem on dsl as we have in lebanon
That is true, but there are solutions. In most routers, you can go in the administration interface and see a listing of bandwidth consumed by each IP.
Caching proxies are useless with https sites like facebook aren't they? I am curious if you managed to get significant results from the caching proxy, as I have been experimenting with them for a while. But ran into a wall when it comes to youtube/facebook which is where most bandwidth go.

For the OP I would recommend the usual: disable their auto updates on apple store/google play, facebook has its own settings for updates so check those as well. Default their video loading to SD quality instead of HD and disable auto play.

If anyone at home uses youtueb there are plugins that auto decrease the quality when the video begins...
Adnan wroteHave you talked with them about the issue?
rolf wrote Realistically, though, this is not a paid job for which you have all day. So I would say start by talking to them.
You need to know exactly what the problem is, where the bandwidth is going. I don't know if you do. It could even be you neighbors stealing from your connection.
Actually I did many times and they always seem surprised by the amount of quota they used ( I can check the quota used by each device by an app I installed on all the devices) and the quota adds up so no one outside my home is using it my connection but I know for a fact how much facebook "browsing" uses data, I will try installing facebook lite on their devices as @Georges00 suggested
xazbrat wroteWell, another way with the a ddrt router is to throttle the speed to each user. If you are running out by the 20th, maybe give them 2/3 or less of the speed they are getting now and if they don't spend any more time on the site, you should be able save some bandwidth that way.
I have linksys x1000 which is both a modem and a router and apparently ddwrt doesn't work on modems, what router do you recommend for ddwrt ? a tplink ?

the x1000 software is very limited, I can't even check the mac addresses connected to my router in real time
user wrote
Caching proxies are useless with https sites like facebook aren't they? I am curious if you managed to get significant results from the caching proxy, as I have been experimenting with them for a while. But ran into a wall when it comes to youtube/facebook which is where most bandwidth go.
I dont know, that was a while ago. Back then, most traffic was windows updates being downloaded again for each computer. The right way was to install some sort of Microsoft server that would serve the updates from within the local network, but there was a trick to cache the updates on the proxy.

I dont think HTTPS would be cached.
Facebook is a bloat. If there was a way to cache assets it would help a lot.
But the core issue is quality and bloat, and nobody seems to want to do anything about that, other then superficial, cosmetic solutions. It has gotten to the point where I despair and loose my motivation to work in this field,
aliessayli2 wrote
xazbrat wroteWell, another way with the a ddrt router is to throttle the speed to each user. If you are running out by the 20th, maybe give them 2/3 or less of the speed they are getting now and if they don't spend any more time on the site, you should be able save some bandwidth that way.
I have linksys x1000 which is both a modem and a router and apparently ddwrt doesn't work on modems, what router do you recommend for ddwrt ? a tplink ?

the x1000 software is very limited, I can't even check the mac addresses connected to my router in real time
You don't need one persey, as I have a cheap Tenda one I bought at Khoury for 50K or $50 (can't remember which), and it gives me some capabilities which you are looking for. I am able for example to limit the speed to whatever device I want (needed to do that for an iphone and an ipad in the house--both upload and download) and also see how much each device is using. If you let them go for a while, you can see who the culprit(s) are and then take action. That, along with going with Facebook Lite and lowering the youtube video settings should allow you to manage your monthly quota a bit better.

gl
check for whatsapp backup settings. IIRC, setting backup in whatsapp caused huge upload amounts. just disable cloud backup if it's enabled.
and if you have a rooted android device, run wifikill and check what devices are using the most bandwidth
I'm currently trying to configure an Intel NUC to cache and monitor Internet usage. Will let you know how works out
Why not change your plan to 1 MB unlimited? who is your isp?
Nemesis-301 wroteWhy not change your plan to 1 MB unlimited? who is your isp?
I had once switched to unlimited. For I, have sinned. Never again, absolutely never.

Unless you're happy with a stable 300ms ping alongside a constant 10kb/s connection (if there is a connection), you should never switch to unlimited.

Note: I used to be a cyberia customer before I switched to the satellite ISP.
Nemesis-301 wroteWhy not change your plan to 1 MB unlimited? who is your isp?
I am with cyberia and as @Johnaudi said, it is a no go, unless you are with ogero, all isps throttle unlimited packages.
Johnaudi wrote
Nemesis-301 wroteWhy not change your plan to 1 MB unlimited? who is your isp?
I had once switched to unlimited. For I, have sinned. Never again, absolutely never.

Unless you're happy with a stable 300ms ping alongside a constant 10kb/s connection (if there is a connection), you should never switch to unlimited.

Note: I used to be a cyberia customer before I switched to the satellite ISP.
Do you mind PMing me the contact info of the isp?
xAzarian wrote
Johnaudi wrote
Nemesis-301 wroteWhy not change your plan to 1 MB unlimited? who is your isp?
I had once switched to unlimited. For I, have sinned. Never again, absolutely never.

Unless you're happy with a stable 300ms ping alongside a constant 10kb/s connection (if there is a connection), you should never switch to unlimited.

Note: I used to be a cyberia customer before I switched to the satellite ISP.
Do you mind PMing me the contact info of the isp?
no one will get offended if he said it publicly, all isps know that they suck
The ISP I'm using is a single person who installs a dish in your home and connects it to his dish in the Dekwene/Sin El Fil area, he has some kind of server from mobi and ogero. I cannot share his number to the public unless you live in that area whatnot.

I'm quite happy with it, up to 120GB per month (4GB per day), 8M connection before 12PM and 4M after that. 70-80ms ping on csgo. (For 100,000 / 66$)
It may be stressful to deal with such situations. It is not easy to tell family to tone it down on the facebook and youtube without invading their privacy.
What you can do is temporally switch to a cable guy. They usually don't monitor bandwidth and the ping is normally lower than DSL (no extra latency due to copper wiring).
Then once you switch to Ogero's unlimited plan, drop the cable guy. But in all fairness, it makes no sense in our day for ISPs (at least the non greedy ones) to meter connections below 2MB/second.
DSL providers are going to lose customers if they keep metering lower speed connections.

Regarding caching, squid can cache https. But your browser will have to accept invalid certificates. You will have to stick to the latest squid release since new browser versions keep closing security issues which makes caching https more difficult.