These days there are plenty of plans to choose from to get yourself on the Internet. Some offer various speeds, others impose a bandwidth cap, so on and so forth. Understandably, it is essential to monitor your connection to ensure you are getting the stipulated bandwidth and also keep a track of your usage statistics. This can be done easily with a simple, yet powerful tool – iTraffic.

iTraffic is a network monitoring and reporting tool. It lets you monitor your connection in real-time, providing you with plenty of information about your network connection. You can download and install iTraffic from here.

Once you install and run it, you are required to choose a network card that you would like iTraffic to keep an eye on. Once that is done, you will instantly see results in the form of a real-time graph, representing the current upload and download speeds. The monitoring and graphing options are fully customizable. You may visit settings panel via the tray icon to choose a different network card, set up graphing preferences like colors and units, etc.

iTraffic uses WinPcap for filtering network traffic so you can easily specify IP addresses to be ignored by iTraffic. Besides this, you can also tweak some general settings like starting automatically with Windows, tray icon and tooltips.

If you are looking for a precise speed rating, use the bandwidth stopwatch (right click on the graph). It allows you to measure upload and download speeds for a specific interval and shows you the results. Make sure you select a good server to upload to/download from for an accurate assessment.

A neat little trick that is worth pointing out is that you can double-click on the graph (or hit F8) and you will see the title bar and taskbar icon vanish, and boom you have got yourself a network monitoring widget. You can also right click on the graph and choose additional information that you would like to see.

iTraffic will also allow you to view past figures so that you can track what your network usage. I find it especially useful with the fairly stringent bandwidth caps here in India. You can easily keep track of your usage with the help of an overview report or you can dig deeper and analyze your weekly, monthly or yearly usages.

Screenshot Credit

One potential drawback (can’t really blame the application) is that for people like me who frequently work in different operating systems you tend to loose track of the total usage. Maybe there is a similar tool that works across operating systems? Let me know via comments if you know of one. Nevertheless, if you would like to keep an eye on your connection on a single computer, iTraffic is highly recommended.

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Well we can use this simple bandwidth monitoring tool called Networx. If you are paying for your internet per KB or MB than you can use this application to measure bandwidth usage and shut down your network when you reach a certain level.

So in addition to all the pretty graphs and charts we also get better control over our connection. You can use Networx to see how fast your connection actually is or see how much bandwidth your kids are using downloading MP3’s.

Networx has a installer and a portable edition. I used the portable 767kb file and ran it.

You will see a system tray icon appear like the one in the above picture. You can hover over the icon to get quick statistics also like you see in the picture.

Upon right clicking the icon you will get this context menu:

All of the options are pretty self explanatory but we will run through them anyway. By clicking on the first item Show Graph you will get a screen that looks like this:

That graph will keep updating and is very accurate. The only options it has is – open or closed

Next is the Speed Meter:

Go ahead and hit the Start button and let it calculate all your downloads and uploads – it will then calculate how much data is traveling through your system currently. You can start, stop, reset counters, copy .to clipboard or save to file. The incrementing numbers is simply a stop watch so you can see how long you have been collecting data for.

Next up is the usage statistics:

You can get detailed information for daily, weekly or monthly statistics. You can set up your own custom reports as well as set hourly rates. And for those of you still using dial up – it has some stats for you as well.

The Quota tab looks like this:

Using this tab you can have Networx alert you when you have used a certain amount of data.

Next up is our settings:

The last three options are graphical network tools. They are NetStat, Ping and Trace Route. Netstat will tell you what is connected to your machine:

Ping allows you to test connectivity over the network or Internet:

and Trace Route lets you “Trace” your network route step by step to see where it is failing (or that it is succeeding):

Do you have another way for keeping track of your bandwidth? Do you have other favorite network tool to measure bandwidth usage? If you do be nice, c’mon share them with the others…

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Comcast came out and admitted to it’s practices in the United States last year. You can read about it here on wired. Since then there has been lot’s of speculation on if other ISP’s are doing the same thing…

What do you think?

Yeah we do also!

Now there is a free tool that will simulate BitTorrent activities and let you know if your speed or activities have been effected and to what extent. This program (aka bittorrent throttling test) and group have picked up momentum since 2008 and now have the backing of Google and other big names.

Are you curious as to if your ISP is throttling your torrent downloads and doing you dirty?

Well so are we.

Run the tool below on any web browser on any operating system and post back what your results are in the comments. It is strictly web based and nothing gets installed. So you can try it pretty much anywhere.

I tried this in the office on my Cogent circuit. It is a 100mb Ethernet handoff so I was not really expecting any throttling. All you need to run the test is browse on over to:

a title=”http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest.php” href=”http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest.php”>http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest.php.

You will be greeted by a web page that looks like this:

Simply scroll down on the page until you see the Start Testing button. You can run the detailed or the simple test. The only difference is the intensity of the test. Some ISP’s are believed to only throttle torrents after a certain period of time (greater than 5 minutes) so this will have you covered.

After you hit the Start testing button your test will begin and you will see a count down in a window that looks something like what you see below.

When the test is complete you will get your results. They will also look something like mine which you can see below. My ISP is NOT throttling my BT downloads or seeding activity and they go into detail on each point they checked as well as the speeds they were able to achieve with the transfers.

I love geeky statistics. Here are my results:

I had a buddy of mine run this against his machine on Comcast in Manhattan and his results came through with Throttling and max speeds of only 25kbps… Whoa that’s slow! Thanks for the tip El Di Pablo!

Post your results in the comments. And if you have another method of testing if your ISP is getting it’s grubby hands on your torrents post that as well. Don’t be shy kids

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Ironically, the biggest disadvantages lie also with the ratio system. Don’t get me wrong, I think everyone should upload as much as they can, but sometimes your ratio obligations can put you in some pretty nasty situations.

I remember looking for a certain private tracker invite for a few months. When I finally got in, I tried to get my ratio up as high as possible – stacking up reserves. But however hard I tried, I wasn’t able to reach an approachably decent ratio. There were just too many seeds and too few leeches.

I had my computer running day and night, trying to upload as much as I could, but in the end I wasn’t even able to reseed my first download and I got nicked.

Cheat With Your Torrent Ratio

Some time ago, I found out that there were ways to manipulate your ratio. However, the consequences are not to be excluded.

(LEGAL) DISCLAIMER

Before we go on, I want to emphasize that everyone with a decent mindset should upload as much as possible. Don’t be the parasite on the backs of this unconditional medium, try to support it as much as possible.

Also – obviously – torrent trackers don’t like you doing this, and if they find out you’ll probably get banned. MakeUseOf will not be held liable in this matter – all blame for your actions lies with yourself.

Through the use of applications, we can spoof our upload count, and hereby alter our Torrent Ratio. There are several applications that can do this, all working in the same way. They fake the tracker update reporting protocol with fake data, to boost your ‘upload’.

Tracker Pro

Tracker Pro is one of these applications, and very easy to use.

To spoof your upload count, just add a torrent to the program. One of the great features that distinguishes this application from others is that you don’t even have to download the torrent to start “uploading”.

Tips For Staying Undetected

Like I mentioned in the disclaimer, if trackers notice that you’re spoofing your upload, you’ll most likely get banned. To prevent this, you need to lay low.

Limit your usage

Don’t use this application excessively. People will notice it if you suddenly become a master uploader – try using it only if you must.

Limit your upload bandwidth

You can limit the false upload speeds in the options. The lower you keep this, the harder it’ll be to get noticed. Note that this number is in Kbits (8 Kbits = 1 KByte).

Also, change this number as often as possible. Trackers use scripts to detect cheaters. By keeping your speeds low, and ruining your pattern, you can mislead these scripts.

Changing your User Agent

This is for the paranoid people amongst us.

Also in the options, you can also define which program you’re using, by changing the User Agent code and Client ID, although I’d advise you to refrain from this if you don’t know what you’re doing – messing up these codes will be like lighting a beacon.

You can search for these codes on User-Agents or plain ol’ Google.

Do you personally have any other tricks for getting one up on BitTorrent or any other file sharing network?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Speedtest.net is a good place to test your internet speed. They operate through servers all over the world, so you can connect to a server near you, which increases the accuracy of your result.

As you may realize, your internet speed does not only depend on your ISP, it also depends on the hardware and software used on your end of the line. If you are using hardware provided by your ISP, there shouldn’t be a problem. The bottleneck for speed often sits in the connecting computer.

Here are a few tips to Increase the Speed of Your Internet Connection

(1) Connecting Port

This may seem obvious, but you should connect to the internet though an ethernet port, rather than a serial, parallel or USB port. If ethernet is not an option, it may be advisable to update your hardware.

(2) Enough RAM

Make sure your system memory can handle the load! If you want to browse fast, you will need to close other applications in case your RAM is maxed out.

(3) Fast Browser

Mozilla based browsers generally are among the fastest browsers, while still being comfortable to use. Whichever open source browser you pick, make sure you don’t overload it with extensions or addons, those will just slow your browser down dramatically. On the other hand, if speed and RAM are not an issue, go for the luxury!

Also there are a number of tweaks and addons to increase the speed of your browser.

(4) Increase Speed under Windows XP Pro

Windows XP Professional reserves 20% of your bandwidth for services like updates or spyware checks. If you would like to exploit this reserve, do the following:

1. Click [Windows] + [R] and type gpedit.msc in the Run window.
2. Under Computer Configuration expand the Administrative Templates.
3. Go to Network and click the QoS Packet Scheduler tab.
4. Double-click on Limit Reservable Bandwidth and enable it.
5. Finally change the Bandwidth limit to 0% and click Apply.
6. Reboot your computer and enjoy.

(5) Tweak Tools

There are a number of programs that promise to increase your internet speed. They may work, they may not. They all apply a number of changes to optimize your network settings. Whether or not they will really improve your internet speed or which one will work the best for you greatly depends on your system, hence it’s difficult to recommend an application.

For further reading I will refer you to a set of articles found on About.com. Start with DSL and Cable Broadband Speed Tweaks and work your way through the links at the bottom.

Which tools and tweaks worked best for you?

(By) This post was written by one of our regular authors, Tina from Recommended.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Block Images

Go to the Tools >> Options dialog in Firefox. In the content tab, uncheck ‘Load Images Automatically’. By clicking on the exceptions button, you could add a few sites which can be allowed to display images. This way, you can set Firefox to download images from only a handful of sites. That means less bandwidth consumed, since every other page on the internet contains pictures. You’ll lose the full glory of a webpage, though.

Similarly you can also use the additional options present in the dialog to block Java Scripts and Java elements.

Block Obtrusive and Bandwidth Consuming ads using Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus is a neat addon for Firefox that blocks banner ads and images that consume your bandwidth hugely. Once installed, you can use the settings to add filters and block advertisements on webpages. Wildcards and regular expressions supported.

Right click, and set an image/ad to be blocked, it’ll never appear again. Otherwise, use the icon in the toolbar to view the page’s multimedia elements along with the networks that serve them, and block them.

Block Javascript, Java and other Special Executable Content from running with Noscript

NoScript blocks all scripts (ex. animations) in sites, and allows only a few trusted sites to run such applets on your browser.

Besides saving tons of bandwidth, you’ll also get improved security because only these executable elements do harmful things to your computer, most of the time.

Cap Download/Upload rates and monitor your bandwidth consumption

Firefox Throttle is a very interesting addon for Firefox that lets you limit the upload and download rates (throttling) for Firefox – this will affect not just the speed of your downloads, but also the loading time of web pages. Basically, by using Firefox Throttle you are able to reduce the speed of your connection.

You can also exclude websites from being ‘throttled’. There’s a little button to immediately turn on/off throttling. The Options dialog has a Stats tab that displays the amount of bandwidth consumed – how much data has been uploaded and downloaded. Quite useful if you’re sharing an internet connection across multiple computers.

Another addon worth a mention here is Bandwidth Meter and Diagnostics. Although it doesn’t monitor your bandwidth, it lets you test download/upload speeds.

(By) Shankar Ganesh, a 16 year old Blogger and Freelance Writer from India. He blogs about Computers and Software at Killer Tech Tips

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