How To Monitor Home Bandwidth Use Of Each Device

How to monitor home bandwidth use of each device? Normally this question comes up when you are sharing your home wifi network with other family members. In some moments you will need to check or monitor whom you are sharing your home wifi network bandwidth with.

For example, you require the bandwidth for a work video conference, but the flow is not running well. This can be due to the bandwidth you are using is too small. It is because someone else is using your home wifi router connection.

Take for example, both your sons are playing an online game, while your wife is watching Youtube. This can lead to a bad situation for you. The reason why your connection is not good can be because of the lack of bandwidth share you get on your device.

In this kind of situation, you must be curious, who is using your bandwidth. Therefore, by following this article, you will able to monitor who is using your home bandwidth. By then, you can limit each device’s bandwidth so that each person can get a fair bandwidth share.

In some cases, there might be unwanted malware that might be using your bandwidth without your notice. When there is an intruder get into your bandwidth and taking the share, you can take the action to defend.

So, here are what you can do to monitor your home bandwidth use of each device.

Monitor Bandwidth Use With Capsa

The first thing you can do to check and monitor your home bandwidth use on each device on your wifi network by using Capsa. Capsa is a third-party program well-notably for bandwidth use checking. The good news is that there is a free version of the app despite the paid version.

For your information, for the free version, of course, have limited ability compare to the paid version. Though it does not mean that it will retain the basic functionality you need, that is to monitor the bandwidth use of each device.

The free version’s feature is limited to the number of IP addresses that can be checked, which is ten private IP addresses. Also, it can only work on one project at a time and one network adapter.

How to use Capsa to Check Bandwidth Use

1. Find and click on the network adapter in your system (it can be a Wi-fi adapter, Ethernet, etc). Select on Fill analysis and click on Start. It will then do the command by itself.
2. Find the Node Explorer on the left side >> Protocol Explorer >> (Your adapter type) >> IP. At this point, the analysis tree will expand.
3. Head to the analysis panel and choose the Protocol.
4. Find the analysis toolbar, select MAC Endpoint, double click on the IP address to show more detail of the data packet analysis.

If you are a Windows user and thinking of using the Capsa, you can go to THIS LINK to get the free version of the software.

Check The Bandwidth Use With Netstat

Netstat or Network Statistic is another way you can use to check your bandwidth users. By using the netstat, you will be able to monitor the incoming or outgoing network to your system.

Eventually, this can not be used to monitor through your wifi router. This is because that netstat is carried from the command prompt.

Here is how you can use netstat to monitor your home bandwidth use:

1. Type “Command” from your search bar on your Windows start menu.

   

2. select the “Run as Administrator” until the command prompt opens.

   

3. Next, type “netstat-o”.Hit ENTER.

   

After finishing the above steps, you will see a list of active connections to your computer. By doing this and being able to see the list of connections, which means you can further check if there is some strange connection that takes your bandwidth.

After getting the list of connections, you can further analyze the suspicious network connections. Additionally, you can go to urlscan.io to see and check who the server’s owner and what the server is.

Use The Router To Check Bandwidth Use

You can also use your router to monitor the bandwidth usage on your network. As all the network traffic are all passing through your router. Therefore, logically to check and monitor is possible with the router.

If you care enough, you must notice that there is a setting section in your router where it shows all the devices connected to it. This section of the setting menu shows the MAC and IP address and connection status.

For certain routers, it is accessible for you to check the detailed network status. Such as the data consumption of each device, connection speed (download and upload), etc.

Hence, by having the access to check the bandwidth use of each device from your router, you can see if the connected devices are truly from your trusted subject. Supposedly you find a suspicious device, you can surely delete it from your network.

Windows Resource Monitor To Monitor Network Activity

Besides the above-mentioned things, we can also use the Windows resource monitor to check the bandwidth or network activity. The Windows resource monitor is a very good and useful means for bandwidth monitoring.

To perform the bandwidth monitoring with Windows resource monitor, follow these steps:

1. Open your Task Manager
2. Find the “Performance” tab and click on it.

   

3. Click on the “Resource Monitor“.

   

   

    

By doing this, you will see a list of the processes of your network activities. Therefore, you can check any suspicious or unwanted connection from the list. Are you find any, this may be the reason for your bandwidth drain. So, you can further check and investigate it. Whether or not to remove this network.

Investigate for Malware Occupancy in Your System

Malware is also another possible cause of your draining bandwidth. Is it possible? Yes, it is. In some cases, there are external factors that cause the odd bandwidth consumption in your network. While, you keep on searching on your local network, but the problems not in your network.

Malware gets into your system without being noticed. It can infect your system through spam email or any other means. There are several signs of malware infection. When it succeeds getting into your system, it then taking the bandwidth in your network. Consequently, when you or people on your network may suffer from bandwidth drain.

Therefore, this is why you need to install the appropriate antivirus on your devices to avoid malware infection in your system.

Conclusion

You need to monitor your home bandwidth use of each device. This is to prevent any unwanted intruder in your network that may cause the bandwidth drain. If there is any, this can cause trouble for your own need of the bandwidth.

Nevertheless, there are several causes of the bandwidth drain. One of them is the malware occupancy in your system. By monitoring the bandwidth consumption, it may also give you the prior notice in case there is a malware thread in your system.