Determining actual DSL bandwidth usage

Question

Hello All,
           I am seriously considering going to truly wireless (MiFi) internet after years of using DSL service.  However, there's one thing I have no data on:  my actual bandwidth usage month by month.
           Obviously I know I can't go back to day one and get this data, but I find it impossible to believe that it cannot be obtained relatively easily.  There is an old thread from 2010 where someone implied that one could query the DSL modem or modem/router could be queried to get this data.  I was not able to post a reply on that thread, and I presume that's because it's closed to new messages.
            Right now I have the latest D-Link router from Verizon and am able to log in to it without problems.  But this particular router has more possible options on more web pages (or their equivalent) than I've ever seen before.  Although I am a "tech geek" I have no idea where to look among the myriad options to seek out this data.
            If anyone has an answer as to how to query this router, or knows of a web resource that tells you how to do this "generically," I'm sure I can do so after a little noodling around.
            Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Brian

Answer 1

I'm not the most familiar with the D-Link routers Verizon hands out, but what you're looking to find is some information on the WAN or "Internet" end of the modem for how many bytes of traffic you have sent and received. This information may be for when the router was last rebooted or it may be from the last time your connection re-connedcted if it has dropped, so it isn't really accurate when it comes down to a breakdown of things. If you can get a byte count, it is easy to convert to Megabytes or Gigabytes from that point (Factorsof 10 in a general sense). By definition a Kilobyte is 1024 Bytes, but in some cases a factor of 10 is applied so a Kilobyte is 1000 Bytes. A Gigabyte can be 1024 or 1000 Kilobytes depending on how the data is being measured like previously mentioned.
So, 40,960 Bytes / 1024 = 40 Kilobytes / 1024 = 0.039 Gigabytes.
Considering how large (or small) the data plans tend to be on a Mi-Fi device, consider the type of network traffic you currently have and gauge it against future use. If you currently have gamers in the house, a Mi-Fi should already be off the table as a full blown replacement as cellular connections are poor quality connections for playing video games on. Not to mention, games and patches can consume the cap quickly if the gamer has a lot of games that they play. Also, if your home is Netflix or YouTube heavy, without turning down the video quality you'll find it's quite easy to run over a cap. On a Mi-Fi myself, I have to restrict my YouTube access since I am picky about low quality video, and force everything to HD. I can slip in a few videos on a Grandfathered 3GB plan with Verizon but if I watch some of the common, 20 minute videos I watch, that's a Gigabyte per video on average. My normal net usage would burn me through the cap in less than an hour.
Just some food for thought, but keep in mind Verizon will most likely be unable to provide any sort of data usage counter. You may need to use third party routers or software in order to determine your usage per month.
========
The first to bring me 1Gbps Fiber for $30/m wins!