I have satellite internet due to no other viable options in my rural setting. However, I've noticed lately that my usage according to the provider are usually close to double what my router traffic stats are. In fact, one week they were triple.
My router does not support SNMP or have port monitoring. I need to be able to figure out whether the ISP's figures are correct or my router's. Also, if the ISP's figures are correct, I want to track down where the extra usage is coming from and find out why it isn't showing up on the router's traffic stats.
We have several wireless devices that connect with the router - 5 Windows machines (3 desktops and 2 laptops) and a Mac laptop. There are also 3 XBoxes, a Wii, 4 smart phones, a few iPods and iPads. Plus there are 2 printers (one wifi, one wired). So, monitoring all the devices seems to be an impossibility. But everything goes through the router which has a single ethernet connection to the modem. Nothing connects to the modem directly.
The modem is a Hughs HT1000. The router is NetGear WNDR3700v3.
So as far as I can see there are 3 options:
Option 1: I am thinking of putting a gigabit switch between the modem and router, and then having my PC hardwired to the switch to monitor all the traffic. Will a simple switch be able to pull this off?
Option 2: Replace the router with a more expensive version that has SNMP capabilities. I don't know how much this would cost me, and the configuration is probably more complicated.
Option 3: Update the firmware on my current router to something like DD-WRT which has SNMP capability. I'm worried that this will be more complicated and potentially mess up the router.
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