Apr 26 2012

Loving DU Meter

Published by at 7:22 am under Technology

One of the frustrating things about Internet usage has become the dreaded ISP bandwidth limitations. Just when they announce new, faster speeds, you also learn in the fine print about data usage limits. Some US ISPs will limit its customers to just 100GB a month before they cancel your account, leaving you high and dry. For me, it’s 250GB. It may seem like a high number, but with high-quality video becoming ever popular, 250GB really isn’t that much data.

You would think that all ISPs with bandwidth limitations would provide its customers with free tools to monitor their bandwidth. Not in my case. Charter Communications has repeatedly said they are working on them. I eventually said “enough” and went in look for tools to do the job.

I’ve tried a few different programs which promised to monitor bandwidth for my computers but it wasn’t until I came across DU Meter from Hazel Technologies that I found what I had been looking for.

DU Meter had a very easy to use installation wizard. You don’t need to be an educated network administrator to be able to use DU Meter. It’s simple and straight-forward. The default settings will work for 99% of users. I expected I’d have to customize the heck out of it, but that wasn’t the case. It was clearly programmed by someone who knew what they were doing. I’m sure customer feedback has been tremendously helpful.

One of the things I found frustrating with other bandwidth monitoring software had to do with cross-network file transfers. Most of the software chose to include that in the bandwidth totals. DU Meter, by default, chooses to monitor “Internet only” transfers. This has been an enormous help to me. I don’t have to constantly change a setting every time I want to transfer something from one computer to another.

Perhaps the best feature of DU Meter is the archived data transfer stats. You can go back days, weeks, even months to see how your Internet habits have affected your Internet data usage.

There are only two drawbacks to DU Meter. One of them is the program can’t monitor all of the bandwidth across the network. You’ll need a router with bandwidth monitoring technology if you have gaming consoles and the like which are hooked up to the Internet. If you only have computers or you don’t do very much online with those consoles, you’re going to be just fine with DU Meter.

The other drawback is that it’s not free. However the price is quite reasonable considering the frustration that I’m sure would ensue once your ISP cut you off for going over your bandwidth for the month. It has really put my mind at ease. If your ISP has bandwidth limits, I highly recommend giving DU Meter a try. Its 30-day trial offers you plenty of time to give it a shot.

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