CNET Editors' review
This application effectively monitors and logs your bandwidth, but will not return accurate results unless you alter a select setting. WatchWAN's small tabbed interface is well designed to display pertinent data. This utility monitors TCP, UDP, and ICMP traffic, though each can be easily set to ignore. Current speed is displayed in a scrolling bar graph that can be frozen, but not enlarged. The packet display features the From and To IP addresses for each packet, along with the port, type, and amount of data transferred. The ability to scroll the packets display is available in WatchWan's settings. Scrolling helps users note select IP addresses to better discover hidden spyware or match URL to IP address. The log display merely lists the total data transferred per day broken down into upload, download, and pass-by usage. The utility does not include a needed help file, but offers a link to the publisher's Web site. On the site is a brief mention of a required setting to accurately measure usage. Novices will have little need for this helpful freeware application, but power users will find it one of the better bandwidth monitors available.
Publisher's Description
From Genesys Softwares:
WatchWAN is a more accurate alternative to DU Meter, Netmeter and other bandwidth monitors. Unlike others, it allows you to set filters to capture only the traffic you are interested in. It shows all the active connections you have to the Internet at any given moment and also the volume of traffic flowing through them. Of course, keeps an exact record of your bandwidth usage too.
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All versions:
3.6 starsout of 20 votes
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Current version:
3.6 starsout of 20 votes
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My rating:
Write review
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"Great utility but could use help file"
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
It worked for 12 months without a hitch and gave me all the information I needed along with a log of each days download usage-with NO Problems.
Cons
In mid December, the program window came up like normal but registered NO activity for several days although I was using the internet constantly. I uninstalled the program and downloaded and installed it again. However the new installation does not register any internet activity
Summary
I'm using it on windows XP pro. Any ideas as to how to make it work would be appreciated.
sbheck1929@hotmail.com -
"Windows 7 ERROR reading network"
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
Don't know
Cons
Can't read network card or won't show it
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"Accurate, Useful, and helps identify shared usage hogs."
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
With a whole family of internet users, no-one seems to know where the account download quota has disappeared to each month. I was considering an expensive router with byte counts per port. This utility does better by counting WAN and not LAN.
Cons
Nice as is, but I really would like the log to do an AM/PM split to see our peak/off-peak quota usage. Being able to minimize the stopwatch would be nice. Being able to dump the log to a file (name based on IP addr or MAC addr) would be excellent.
Summary
The author is to be commended for this fine piece of engineering. It is a tool for a specific task that most of us come up against.
I have used Ethereal to diagnose some very tricky problems and understand the parentage of this program. Paired down to basics, WatchWAN does what it says and measures the internet traffic to and from the installed workstation that is destined for the internet.
It does not have a help or about menu items, or any identifiable command line parameters. Just an instruction or two, or perhaps a URL to reference would have helped me a little. Even so it solved most of my problems with accounting for internet quota usage.
We are still on an AM/PM split usage plan that has an off-peak/peak quota measured separately so being able to log that kind of usage directly to a file as a CSV format would allow charting with a spreadsheet. I would pay ten bucks for shareware that did that. Free as is, the author has given us an excellent gift. -
"Excellent free software."
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
It keeps track of how much you download. Very important now with bandwidth caps coming in the future.
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"BEWARE!!!PLS HELP!!!"
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
at first iam amaze coz it records all the ports and ip's that iam connected!! BUT!!!
Cons
BUT!!! after a few minute's this software ruined my internet connection setting and it insist to use an IP address not registered in my connection! my broadband network connection tells me that iam not connected in the internet BUT the watchman icon at the lower right with 2 monitor screens like my broadband connection says that iam connected! the watchman programs connects and sends unknown data's somewhere! i tried to manually configure my connections by entering the IP etc etc and i entered them correctly BUT still i cant connect my broadband internet connection! and when i click the REPAIR in my broadband connection tools the watchman etc keeps on putting a different ip!!! i disconnect my internet hub and i unstalled the watchman program...BUT the Netson etc i dont remember the exact name is still on my connection tools with the options internet protocols, Qos packets scheduler etc and then i unstall the Netson etc and when i use the FIND tool in my computer i typed WinCap the ones it wanted to install the second option when you first intall this program the wincap thing...it says theres no files that goes by that name...BUT! when i use FIND tool again and i type win the WinCap folder showed and when i opend it, it says GHOST INSTALLER etc!!!!!! OMG!!! iam not even sure that my pc is still SAFE!!!!! pls help me any idea how to clean my pc??? i cant use the FORMAT option i cant reformat my pc! huhuhuh pls help
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"Some good, some bad"
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
All in all a great idea. The statistics come through well and the idea is good. I like that you can change the graph mode and the filter idea. Needs work as explained below.
Cons
First, this program doesn't seem to have a way to set a polling interval (very very important IMO) - this was the reason I uninstalled it - it actually took CPU to run this (which is silly).
Secondly, it simply needs more options. The filtering is cool but not very well explained. I hope to see the future releases still free with more options.
Another thought, a cool taskbar system would be good. Choosable icons and graphs would be good for the taskbar and such. An option to have 3 different taskbar windows would be sweet also, perhaps even with their own polling intervals... the 3 taskbar icons could be set to different things you wanted to poll... upload, download, average, totals for each... why not just make it dynamic and have as many taskbar icon graphs as you want with different settings and colors for each...
OH and one last thing this needs... an always on top skinnable / transparent-able click-through graph!
Final thought: Wait to download this till it's more mature. :-)
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"not intuitive"
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
Easy to install. Compact display. Uninstalled easily, I think.
Cons
Needed another application winpcap, I think it was. Came up with 4 different network connections and it wasn't clear which one was the main one. It worked with one connection while the app was open but didn't record in the background when I exited. There was no help of any type. Overall it didn't seem worth the bother even though it was free. I was also a bit worried about it being a security threat and will need to check if the winpcap is still on my PC as it seems to be a deep network burrower.
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"Exactly what I needed and Free"
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
1) It gives exactly the data I'm interested in
2) It's free!!!
3) Using it is mostly straightforward
4) Not too much CPU usage (seems to average 0.5-1% on my 1.4 GHz laptop)
Cons
1) A help file would be... helpful
2) Getting complete accuracy takes some a bit of effort on tweaking the settings. However, the author's website provides a resource to help with this until the issue is fixed with a new version of the app
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"Better than any alternative..."
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
It provides accurate bandwidth measurement, but most importantly it doesn't crash or measure bandwidth improperly when using with a disappearing network adapters, such as the Verizon Wireless Broadband (WAN) cards. This is the ONLY bandwidth monitor out of the 6 or 7 I tried that is of acceptable quality. The others were unstable, would not save bandwidth logs when rebooting, would incorrectly measure the wrong network adapter when my wireless broadband card was removed, etc...
Cons
It appears to delay the tray icons from loading for about 30 seconds after booting. It doesn't allow reporting on the past 30 days activity (vs the month). No alerts. However, since it is the only one that worked with my card, I still give it a 4.
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"I didn't install it because it requires WinPcap 3.1"
Version: WatchWAN 1.0.0.1
Pros
Well, it's free. I didn't actually use the app, since it tried to install WinPcap 3.1 (which I didn't want).
Cons
Any version of WinPcap prior to 4.0.1 is vulnerable to intrusion. WatchWAN's installer pushes WinPcap 3.1b4. Google WinPcap & iDefense, the security advisory should be the second link there.
