I know that in many countries, there is an open-bar bandwidth level, and we can transfer terabytes of data without any problem. And that’s cool! But in other countries or on some Wi-Fi hotspots, you sometimes have to do what the chocoholic that I am does: watch your consumption.
It’s not easy without the right tool. That’s why today I’m bringing you this software for Mac named Bandwidth+.
This small utility allows you to monitor your data consumption, whether you are on Ethernet or Wi-Fi. It fits in the menu bar and doesn’t require any complex configuration. It starts counting as soon as it’s launched, and you always have a view of what you’re consuming in real time.
And what I can tell you is that the data goes off very quickly… You’d be surprised. I often hunt for files that take up unnecessary space on my hard drive, but never for all those applications that transmit data in all directions.
Bandwidth+ displays the cumulative amount of what comes in and what goes out, like a good dealer, and above all, the tool respects your privacy since it does not collect or transmit any user data. It’s a minimalistic and healthy software.
In short, whether you’re on a “limited” Wi-Fi or you want to track the use of your iPhone in tethering mode, it’s a real pleasure to avoid unpleasant surprises with your plan. However, it should be noted that local network traffic is not ignored, and therefore, Time Machine or other backups are counted. But the dev plans to improve this in a future release.
What would also be cool is if the dev built in an automatic block as soon as a certain threshold is exceeded. This would make it possible to avoid additional costs even better. To be continued.
