Monitoring Bandwidth on a Mac - Activity Monitor, iStat Pro

jackrodgers · EVDO Addict Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1131

iStat Pro Widget shows many features on my MacBook Pro. One of interest to this list would be bandwidth. A simple counter shows bandwidth in action and total consumption

It shows my values after clicking on the hot tab that opens 19 tabbed windows for down and up plus a total.

My downloads vary from 15 to 78 KB and my uploads from 1 KB to 5 KB. Since these web pages are downloading various bits and pieces I am unable to interpret what this means.

I downloaded a 20 mb file from versiontracker. Amazingly the download speed varied from a low of 67 KB to a high of 140 KB. The upload ranged from 1 KB to 5 KB. Perhaps someone can translate this into what the speed sites use.

The results were similar when downloading a moview preview from Apple.

This supports my feelings that the speed test sites aren't giving reasonable information.

So, I tested SpeedTest.net watching what they were doing and the results and found that data was transfered SLOWER during the test than when I opened the site or they posted results.

Information transfer on the web is in bursts, packets and pauses. You never know who or what is going to interfere or permit your activity or if there is a corrupted package or many that have to be resent.

On the Mac, open Apple's Activity Monitor in the utility folder. I'm sure there is similar software on Windows but I don't know the names. Click on the network button and you can watch and graph the flow of data. Once again, this shows how the data flow is not continuous but varies.

There is also compression. In the old dialup days, hardware compression in the modem would enhance the speed of transfer of text but reduce it for already encrypted data such a s sit or zip file. How this works with EVDO, I am not informed.

So for those folks upset over their speed test results, keep in mind that some of the sites are just plain bad and the results of the good sites are incomplete and less informative that measuring the actual moment by moment data flow. Use one of the methods mentioned here or elsewhere to watch a graph of the data flow and the peaks and valleys. It's far more exciting to see a 150 KB burst...

8wheels · EVDO User Joined: 24 Mar 2007 Posts: 89 Location: DFW

Hi Jack - might as well make my first post be a useful one...

I've been using an app called netmonitor http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6172 for Macintosh a long time and is another tool you might want to check out. A lot like the old DUMeter on the PC. No affiliation.

Only been evdo'ing a week now, and unfortunately bought the card before discovering this site. Oh well, next purchase.

-Chuck