Who is consuming my bandwidth

I will read that post. Rockn: I don't know what a UTM device is and assume that we don't have one. GnRLies: Thanks for the tip about Watchguard firewall. I have no idea how to set that up either, but wonder if it is able to monitor individual PC activity.

Chris Not so easy to unplug a network cable in the current configuration. Is prtg set up to monitor all your switch ports? If it is then you should be able to see which port is taking the most traffic, both at a max spike and over time. I guess the third way if you don't have managed switches is if your firewall can export netflow, then prtg can read that.

However if you don't have managed switches you most likely don't have a firewall that does netflow. Are you running Spiceworks? While I don't care for the bandwidth collection in it myself it does offer this feature, you might start there.

You need to have managed network equipment to best take advantage of this. On the managed equipment you need to turn on SNMP and set the community strings to get information from it. There is an SNMP agent that can be installed on windows 7 and above if you manage the devices and don't have managed devices.

From the look of the router you have which is a consumer model I think you may have to go either promiscuous or proxy monitoring. If the router is also the Wireless access point for the network you might have a real issue getting the information you want. Your right it could be wireless. I have seen this. Unplug the wireless and or change the wireless password, for sure someone will yell because they cannot stream audio or watch netflix anymore on their tablet or phone.

Or perhaps someone from a neighboring business has the wireless password and is using it, I have ran into that too. People do talk even though they say they do not, and wireless passwords do get out. I changed my wireless policy here because I ran into those issues.

Now the wireless password is not given out anymore due to those reasons. The only wireless password given out is the guest wireless network, which is throttled. Chris One more characteristic of the system that I didn't mention: some of the wireless access is actually provided in a motel style camping facility.

I WANT to provide some wireless access to cell phones, if that's the problem, so I don't really want to put on passwords or throttle the speed if I could figure out how to do that. But I DO want to know via some sort of network monitoring whether that's the problem. Sorry, I really have to leave for the weekend!!!! Thanks again for all of your comments, and I will be back next week.

Can you give us more information on the whole setup. As you can see in the above image, some devices are consuming a considerable amount of data. Although the Setting page will differ between router manufacturers, you should be able to find a page that details data use on your Wi-Fi router.

So again, if you spot an unknown device consuming lots of Wi-Fi data, you may have found your bandwidth-consuming culprit.

Your second option to check what is using your bandwidth is via a third-party program. In this case, you can use Capsa, a free network analysis app that captures every data packet engaging with your system. What is handy is that loads of common traffic have easily identifiable addresses.

In other places, Capsa marks the traffic for you. You can organize this information differently, too. The analysis toolbar shows all incoming and outgoing connections for the localhost, its geographic endpoint, and more. The Node 2 column can make for interesting reading! But for the most part, these limitations shouldn't affect your ability to figure out what is stealing your bandwidth. Download: Capsa for Windows Free.

The other possibility is that your bandwidth issues aren't coming from your local network. You may well have picked up some nasty malware that is stealing your bandwidth as it communicates with an external server or acts as a spam email bot.

Malware can consume your malware in numerous ways, although it isn't always "all-consuming. You should have an antivirus suite installed. Browse All Buying Guides. Best Portable Monitors. Best Gaming Keyboards. Best Drones. Best 4K TVs. Best iPhone 13 Cases. Best Tech Gifts for Kids Aged Best 8K TVs.

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