Geek Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 <div class="KonaBody"><p><img src="http://osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/bandwidth-monitor-mac.jpg" alt="bandwidth monitor mac" title="bandwidth monitor mac" width="548" height="530" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-12316" /></p> <p>If you are using metered internet service either through a <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/12/19/iphone-wifi-hotspot/">jailbroken iPhone WiFi hotspot</a>, the <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2011/01/25/verizon-iphone-wireless-hotspot-cost/">Verizon iPhone hotspot</a>, the recent Canadian telecom disaster, or any other bandwidth restricted service, you’ll want to keep an eye on your bandwidth consumption. Here’s how you can do this in Mac OS X for free. <span id="more-12313"></span></p> <h2 style="font-size:1.2em;">How to Monitor Bandwidth Use on your Mac</h2> <p>We are going to use a free utility called SurplusMeter, it runs atop Mac OS X and tracks all network traffic. </p> <ul> <li>First, <a href="http://www.skoobysoft.com/downloads/SurplusMeterv203.dmg">download SurplusMeter 2.0.3</a> (Direct Download link) and install the app into /Applications</li> <li>Launch SurplusMeter</li> <li>Set the day that your monthly billing cycle or bandwidth use starts on (most people will use 1)</li> <li>Set your download cap limit and whether or not to include uploads in your allotted bandwidth</li> <li>Set your connection type (ethernet, AirPort, etc)</li> </ul> <p>After all your settings are squared away, SurplusMeter will start to monitor all up and down network traffic from your Mac. You may notice a “SurplusMeterAgent” running in <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/08/15/mac-task-manager/">Activity Monitor’s task manager</a> too, that’s normal and launches automatically on system boot.</p> <p>The main problem I see with SurplusMeter is that it doesn’t seem to differentiate between local network and internet traffic. If you transfer large amounts of data from your Mac to something else like a <a href="http://osxdaily.com/2010/06/18/mac-media-center/">media center</a> or Apple TV, you may need to manually tweak the bandwidth use or ‘pause’ SurplusMeter during large LAN file transfers.</p> <p>You can also get this kind of data from most routers, but for most people it’s not as user friendly. So SurplusMeter isn’t perfect and it’s a little outdated, but it does work fine in Mac OS X 10.6.6, and it’s free so how much can we complain? It would be great if the developer updated it a bit and then submitted for the Mac App Store, there’s clearly an audience for this kind of tool now. </p> <p>I would say this app is absolutely essential for any Mac user that is faced with a bandwidth cap. Thanks to <a href="http://www.macgasm.net/2011/02/01/canadians-monitor-bandwidth-surplusmeter/">MacGasm</a> for finding this utility.</p> </div> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/DgPtkcNma7Pl3WSBce-86_vGfOU/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/DgPtkcNma7Pl3WSBce-86_vGfOU/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/DgPtkcNma7Pl3WSBce-86_vGfOU/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/DgPtkcNma7Pl3WSBce-86_vGfOU/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=alvCBB47vOs:VnEMU4oqHI8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=alvCBB47vOs:VnEMU4oqHI8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=alvCBB47vOs:VnEMU4oqHI8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=alvCBB47vOs:VnEMU4oqHI8:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?i=alvCBB47vOs:VnEMU4oqHI8:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=alvCBB47vOs:VnEMU4oqHI8:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?a=alvCBB47vOs:VnEMU4oqHI8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/osxdaily?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/osxdaily/~4/alvCBB47vOs" height="1" width="1"/> View the full article
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