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True “unlimited” bandwidth is pretty much dead these days, and so it should be in my opinion. I would much rather have high speed and a fixed amount bandwidth than be forced to a limited amount of bandwidth by having a slow access speed.

Whether you have a shared hosting, a vps or a dedicated server you are most likely to have a fixed amount of bandwidth whether you know it or not.

I’ve decided to monitor and measure my bandwidth usage from the start. I think its generally good practice and I certainly don’t want to get stung by excess charges if I use more than my host allows. Also a sudden increase could be a sign of a security breach.

I installed a couple of applications, the first was a real time bandwidth monitoring tool.

# apt-get install bwm

sailes:/# bwm

Bandwidth Monitor 1.1.0
Iface        RX(KB/sec)   TX(KB/sec)   Total(KB/sec)

lo            0.000        0.000           0.000
eth0            5.497       21.489          26.9860

Total            5.497       21.489         26.9860

Hit CTRL-C to end this madness.

The second records and summaries my bandwidth usage by hour and day.

# apt-get install vnstat

Check your interfaces with ifconfig

# vnstat -u -i eth0

sailes:/# vnstat

Database updated: Sat Aug 16 22:20:01 2008

       eth0

           received:         895.92 MB (45.9%)
        transmitted:           1053 MB (54.1%)
              total:           1949 MB

                        rx     |     tx     |  total
        -----------------------+------------+-----------
        yesterday     12.75 MB |   83.79 MB |   96.54 MB
            today        25 MB |  104.73 MB |  129.74 MB
        -----------------------+------------+-----------
        estimated        26 MB |     111 MB |     137 MB

Tags: administration, bandwidth, debian