Can wifi usage be monitored

How to Check Data Usage on a Wi-Fi Router

Jon Martindale has been a feature tech writer for more than 10 years. He’s written for publications such as Digital Trends, KitGuru, and ITProPortal.

Jonathan Fisher is a CompTIA certified technologist with more than 6 years’ experience writing for publications like TechNorms and Help Desk Geek.

• Routers & Firewalls
• The Wireless Connection
• Network Hubs
• ISP
• Broadband
• Ethernet
• Installing & Upgrading
• Wi-Fi & Wireless

What to Know

• Login to your router using the admin settings or the default credentials.
• Look for a statistics section. You’ll find the data usage information there.
• Use a third-party application for more detailed statistics or routers that don’t track it.

This guide will explain the best ways to check data usage on a Wi-Fi router, using both the router’s tracking systems or a third-party application.

How Do I Check My Wi-Fi Usage?

Most home routers have some form of built-in data tracking. You can access that via your router’s admin settings page.

1. Navigate to your router’s admin login screen and log in as an administrator (you should have set this up when you first set up the router). Alternatively, if you never changed the details, you can find the default login credentials on the router sticker, in its manual, or on the manufacturer’s website. In some cases, rather than logging into your router on a web browser, you may have an app through which all your administrator tasks are completed.

If you’re still using the default login credentials for your router, it’s a good idea to change your router’s admin password as soon as possible. A default password makes it very easy for hackers and malware to attack your home or office network.

Navigate to your router’s status page or statistics page. Each router will be different, so consult your manufacturer’s website or router manual for detailed instructions on how to find it. For example, the below image is from a TP-Link router’s Status page. You can see the Traffic Statistics, which detail how many Bytes and Packets have been sent and received, which can be extrapolated into megabytes and gigabytes of data. This can, however, include any wired Ethernet connections you are also using.

For more detailed statistics on how much data individual Wi-Fi frequencies are using, you can navigate to the Wireless Statistics page on your router settings for each frequency. How you do so and what it’s precisely called will vary by router model and manufacturer, so consult your manual or manufacturer website for detailed help navigating to it. The below screenshot was taken from the Wireless Statistics page under the Wireless 2.4GHz heading on a TP-Link router. It shows individual devices’ MAC addresses and bytes sent and received on the 2.4GHz wireless network.

How Can I Monitor My Home Wi-Fi Usage?

The easiest way to continue to monitor your Wi-Fi usage is to reboot your router, so the bytes received and sent also reset, giving you a firm baseline. From there, when you begin checking again, you’ll know from then on how much Wi-Fi data you’re using on a per-day and per-week basis.

How Can I track Wi-Fi Usage Per Device?

Like the TP-Link router in this example, some routers offer individual device tracking by giving you their MAC address. However, you can use a third-party network analyzer tool, like Wireshark, for more in-depth monitoring. It’s a great way to monitor your network traffic and, in turn, can give you heaps of information about which devices are using your Wi-Fi connection and how much data they’re using when they do.

Log in to your NETGEAR router and go to Advanced > Advanced Setup > Traffic Meter. Select the Enable Traffic Meter check box. Then, in the Traffic Counter section, set the traffic counter to begin at a specific time and date and click Restart Counter Now.

Log in to the Linksys router admin page. Go to Administration > Enabled and select Save Settings to apply the changes. Select the View Log button to check the traffic between your local network and the Internet.

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How to Check Data Usage of Devices Connected to Wi-Fi? (Simple Ways to Monitor Your Data Usage)

Did you know that your Wi-Fi network will slow down when there are many simultaneously connected devices, especially when some devices use data-sapping applications such as 4K video streaming , online gaming , and downloading/uploading large files? Luckily, there are ways to check the data usage of devices connected to Wi-Fi. And you can find out how much data each device utilizes if you know its MAC address and the IP address of the devices and router.

The MAC address for each device is a unique combination of letters and numbers embedded in its chip. You need to get to your router’s admin page to check the data usage information for each device. You can identify which devices are using more data by their MAC addresses. This guide will show you how to use your router to track data usage for every device connected to the router.

Getting Your Router’s IP Address

Firstly, you need to find out your router’s IP address so that you can log into the router’s admin page . You can follow these steps:

• Press the Windows and the ‘x’ keys simultaneously. You can view the menu. Or, right-click on the Windows icon at the bottom of your computer screen on the left. Alternatively, you can also click the Windows icon, then click Settings and choose Network & Internet.

• Then, choose Network Connections from the menu on the left.

• Under Status, choose Properties.

• Then, find the properties section by scrolling to the bottom.

• The router’s IP address is at the IPv4 DNS servers. The number set may look like ‘ 192.168.0.1 ‘.

How to Find Default IP Address in Windows

How to Find Your Default IP Address in macOS

Log in to the Router’s Admin Page

The next step is to log in to your router as an administrator with the following procedure:

• Connect to the internet and open the internet browser.

• Type the copied or memorized IP address on the browser’s address bar located at the top of your computer screen.

• Type the username and password when prompted. You can find the credentials at the back of the router or in the router’s manual. Otherwise, you can also search them online, e.g., at routerpasswords.com.

• Navigate the Status or Statistic page.

• You can view the traffic statistics, which contain details on each device’s MAC address and the amount of data it uses.

• Each Wi-Fi frequency band and the Ethernet connection keep its own set of data usage information.

Note: We recommend changing the router’s admin username and password if you’ve not changed it earlier. Intruders can easily log into your router if you still use the default credentials provided by the manufacturer.

Monitoring Device Usage

Every time you reboot the router , all the data usage records will reset to zero. So, rebooting your router daily or weekly would give you a great base to check and monitor individual devices’ data usage. Detailing the usage records into a graph or other charts would give you a better view of what is happening on each connected device.

If manual tracking is something you hate doing (understandably not a wise choice in this online era), you can always turn to the app. These apps can assist you in identifying heavy data users, and you can easily monitor the data utilization of such devices.

Using Windows Resource Monitor

Not many users realize how easy it is to view data usage using the Windows Resource Monitor. The following steps guide you on how to use it:

1. Right-click on the Windows icon at the bottom-left.
2. Select Task Manager.
3. Click on the Performance tab.
4. You can view the Wi-Fi performance on the Performance page at the Send and Receive spaces.
5. Click on other applications and activities to see their data usage.

Note: Using Windows Resource Monitor will only allow you to monitor traffic on the specific device (laptop/PC) that you are using. You won’t be able to see data usage for other devices connected to your Wi-Fi.

Number of Connected Devices

The number of devices connected to the Wi-Fi network has a huge effect on your overall Wi-Fi performance – the more devices connected simultaneously, the poorer it will perform. Therefore, it’s important to set a limit to the number of devices you want to connect to your Wi-Fi network.

If your router can take up to 100 devices at a time, it doesn’t mean you should always have the max number of devices connected. When the router provides a fast connection to a few devices, it has limited ability to offer the same to other devices. So, you need to determine an optimum number of connected devices at any given time to have equal bandwidth distribution.

Conclusion

When you have multiple simultaneously connected devices performing complicated tasks, which is a necessity these days, you need to check the data usage of devices connected to Wi-Fi.

We have highlighted that having too many devices may cause the Wi-Fi speed on each device to drop. Therefore, you can use this guide to identify and monitor your devices’ data usage and remove devices from your Wi-Fi network in case you don’t need them.

Hey, I’m Jeremy Clifford. I hold a bachelor’s degree in information systems, and I’m a certified network specialist. I worked for several internet providers in LA, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Seattle over the past 21 years.

I worked as a customer service operator, field technician, network engineer, and network specialist. During my career in networking, I’ve come across numerous modems, gateways, routers, and other networking hardware. I’ve installed network equipment, fixed it, designed and administrated networks, etc.

Networking is my passion, and I’m eager to share everything I know with you. On this website, you can read my modem and router reviews, as well as various how-to guides designed to help you solve your network problems. I want to liberate you from the fear that most users feel when they have to deal with modem and router settings.

My favorite free-time activities are gaming, movie-watching, and cooking. I also enjoy fishing, although I’m not good at it. What I’m good at is annoying David when we are fishing together. Apparently, you’re not supposed to talk or laugh while fishing – it scares the fishes.

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WiFi Usage Monitor PRTG

«Who is hogging my WiFi bandwidth?» — maybe you hear that frustrating question over and over again from your users. They are complaining about a slow network and you need to identify the root of the problem.

PRTG Network Monitor helps you determine how much bandwidth your devices and applications are using via WiFi. Depending on your network and hardware, you can use different protocols like SNMP, flow or packet sniffing.

How to check WiFi usage

Most bandwidth and traffic analysis solutions are only able to check WiFi traffic on a single device. For measuring all the traffic in your network, you need to monitor the data directly on your routers. By using the WiFi usage monitor PRTG you get informed about all ingoing and outgoing traffic and see what applications and devices using up your WiFi bandwidth.

Why a WiFi usage monitor is a good idea

These days, many businesses and organizations operate on the «bring your own device» principle. Tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices must however also be granted access to the WiFi network.

Furthermore, laptops are often used for presentations in conference rooms and likewise require an WiFi Internet connection. As a result, WiFi usage monitoring quickly becomes an very important issue for administrators.

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