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"Mr. Cheap" is considering purchasing one of those 3G wireless plans for my laptop via one of those air cards. My provider (AT&T) offers 5 gigs/month for the flat rate ($48) then pay as you go after that (which is expensive per megabyte). I'd like to get a feel for how much data I am downloading by general surfing (City-Data forum, CNN, weather sites, traffic sites, google searches, etc). I think I can disable graphics from being downloaded so that would help prevent going over the 5 gigs.
So, I'd like to find a tool, activate it, surf for a couple hours like I'd normally do, and see how much data I am really downloading. Maybe it isn't even close and I have nothing to worry about. I don't do much streaming.
While we're on this subject, any recommendations or preferences for the types of air cards available? I think I like the USB cards but there are cards that fit into the side slot on the laptop too. I've used air cards before with a really flimsy plastic antenna. I'd like something more durable, preferably with no moving parts.
"Mr. Cheap" is considering purchasing one of those 3G wireless plans for my laptop via one of those air cards. My provider (AT&T) offers 5 gigs/month for the flat rate ($48) then pay as you go after that (which is expensive per megabyte). I'd like to get a feel for how much data I am downloading by general surfing (City-Data forum, CNN, weather sites, traffic sites, google searches, etc). I think I can disable graphics from being downloaded so that would help prevent going over the 5 gigs.
So, I'd like to find a tool, activate it, surf for a couple hours like I'd normally do, and see how much data I am really downloading. Maybe it isn't even close and I have nothing to worry about. I don't do much streaming.
While we're on this subject, any recommendations or preferences for the types of air cards available? I think I like the USB cards but there are cards that fit into the side slot on the laptop too. I've used air cards before with a really flimsy plastic antenna. I'd like something more durable, preferably with no moving parts.
As some have already mentioned, you can pick up specific programs for such or any packet sniffer/traffic analyzer will do the same. If overall load is your concern, then a simple solution is to use the built in performance monitor that windows has. Simply setup some counters to monitor traffic through your network interface and then capture it to get a baseline on the amount of bandwidth you are using during normal operation. That is the easiest (as in you do not need to install anything) and cheapest way, though specific programs as mentioned will likely tailor it more to your specific needs. Performance monitor is pretty generic and requires you to have a bit more knowledge on data packets and protocols to be able to properly identify where they are coming from and what they pertain to.
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