NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Visualizing your bandwidth...
I do feel that this is a fine idea for the techies who are ready and willing to provide special "high quality" data feeds based on modified firmware. But ideally we want *vast* numbers of volunteers, and it's very likely that most of them won't be hardcore techie types. I suspect that it will be a lot easier to convince folks to run an open source software package on their existing computers, as opposed to getting most people to make firmware modifications to their router hardware or convincing them to obtain new routers. Flashing WAN router firmware is simply going to be too scary for many users, and not necessarily without good reasons (I've personally seen a WAN router bricked by flashing an official firmware update, by the way...) --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator > On Nov 26, 2007 8:57 PM, Warren Kumari <warren@kumari.net> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > So, I was thinking that it might be useful for consumers to be able to > > see how much bandwidth they are actually using -- sure there are many > > consumer applications that will monitor the bandwidth that the local > > machine is using, but monitoring the bandwidth that all of the > > machines behind your NAT is somewhat trickier for most users. > > > > There exists replacement system software/firmware for most home/office > routers. One such project is OpenWRT ( http://openwrt.org/ ). Installation > is pretty simple, in many cases the user is able to use the router's web > interface to flash the OpenWRT firmware onto the router. OpenWRT > incorporates many cool features, such as throughput graphs, tracked > connection graphs, and many more real time graphs. Since it is Free Software > ( www.gnu.org/philosophy/*free*-sw.html ), any features that you want you > can easily add. > > ------=_Part_29536_23372532.1196139658555 > Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Content-Disposition: inline > > <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Nov 26, 2007 8:57 PM, Warren Kumari <<a href="mailto:warren@kumari.net";>warren@kumari.net</a>> wrote:<br><blockquot > e class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> > Hi,<br><br>So, I was thinking that it might be useful for consumers to be able to<br>see how much bandwidth they are actually using -- sure there are many<br > >consumer applications that will monitor the bandwidth that the local > <br>machine is using, but monitoring the bandwidth that all of the<br>machines behind your NAT is somewhat trickier for most users.<br></blockquote></div><br > >There exists replacement system software/firmware for most home/office routers. One such project is OpenWRT ( > <a href="http://openwrt.org/";>http://openwrt.org/</a> ). Installation is pretty simple, in many cases the user is able to use the router's web interface > to flash the OpenWRT firmware onto the router. OpenWRT incorporates many cool features, such as throughput graphs, tracked connection graphs, and many more r > eal time graphs. Since it is Free Software ( > <font size="-1"><span class="a"><a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/";>www.gnu.org/philosophy/</a><b>free</b>-sw.html ), any features that you want you can > easily add.<br></span></font> > > ------=_Part_29536_23372532.1196139658555--