Monitor monthly Bandwidth usage per device and not use the router as hdd to save usage data

[MalcolmExx]

Want to monitor each device usage of bandwidth as my ISP is limited.
I used vnstat before but don't know if still running or not as I heard it damages the router if no usb attached as it will write and remove data all the time and routers are not built for that.
Attached is an image of the router interface page so you could tell me if the vnstat is there or not.

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*Please provide detailed guide on how to install the bandwidth monitor as I am a newbie
*Excuse my bad English as it isn't my first language

[frollic]

@MalcolmExx

I heard it damages the router if no usb attached as it will write and remove data all the time and routers are not built for that.

AFAIK by default vnstat data is written to /tmp, which is RAM.
downside is, it's lost if the router is rebooted.

@MalcolmExx

so you could tell me if the vnstat is there or not.

checked the list of installed packages ?

@MalcolmExx

Please provide detailed guide on how to install the bandwidth monitor as I am a newbie

every one of them will have the same limit/issue as vnstat, unless you store the DB externally.

[MalcolmExx]

yea it's there
what's a better program and how to make it save data on USB?

[frollic]

@MalcolmExx

yea it's there

Not where you were supposed to check, but ok ...

@MalcolmExx

what's a better program

There's Bandwidthd installation

@MalcolmExx

to make it save data on USB?

Change the config, so it points towards the USB ?

Database "vnstat2" is gone

Second time mysteriously the entire vnstat database is gone. I'm using vnstati2 luci-app-vnstat2. [Screenshot from 2023-03-29 12-48-37] [Screenshot from 2023-03-29 12-48-46] System Log Wed Mar 22 19:03:57 2023 user.notice firewall: Reloading firewall due to ifup of wan (wan) Wed Mar 29 10:44:28 2023 daemon.info dnsmasq[1]: exiting on receipt of SIGTERM Wed Mar 29 10:44:28 2023 daemon.info dnsmasq[1]: started, version 2.86 cachesize 150 Wed Mar 29 10:44:28 2023 daemon.info dnsmasq[1]: DNS s…

[RuralRoots]

If you are using vnstat you can point the db to save on usb in /etc/vnstat.conf.

# location of the database directory
DatabaseDir "/mnt/usb/vnstat"

About line 8 in the config.

[MalcolmExx]

@frollic

There's Bandwidthd installation

is it ip dependent?
devices ips are constantly changing as i fet daily power outages

[frollic]

if the devices are always the same, you can assign them static IPs in the DHCP.

[RuralRoots]

For the record Bandwidthd has been dropped from the package list #22008.

[MalcolmExx]

So what to use?

[MalcolmExx]

Are these the correct steps?

[RuralRoots]

Good question. I still use it. Just because the buildbots don’t doesn’t mean it’s not available and you can still build from source.

[RuralRoots]

See my response to Monitor monthly Bandwidth usage per device and not use the router as hdd to save usage data - #10 by MalcolmExx

[richb-hanover-priv]

Maybe OT at this point in time... A long time ago, there was YAMon at https://usage-monitoring.com/index.php I believe it also wrote to /tmp (i.e., RAM) so it wouldn't wear your Flash.

The project has a Github page, but that doesn't seem to have been updated in several years.

It's a fussy install from the command line. But... it seemed to work well. I have no information about how it might work on modern OpenWrt like version 23.05...

[fawzy46]

which source did you use, i found multiple repos for bandwidthd

[RuralRoots]

I pulled it from main/master before it disappeared and put it on my local source. I continue to build it on main/master from there.

It should still exist on 22.03, and even 23.05.

[fawzy46]

I couldn't find it on 23.05, the latest one was from the 23.03 branch.

is there any chance you built it for x86? if so would you mind sharing the compiled ipk file?