Monitor Internet Bandwidth Usage with iTraffic Monitor

Some of you might be using an Internet plan from your ISP which has limited bandwidth. As far as I know, ALL of the wireless broadband in Malaysia allows unlimited usage BUT there is a fair usage threshold where once you go over the limit, your connection speed will be throttled to a very slow dial-up speed. I have a Celcom wireless broadband subscription and they offer two types of plan which is 384Kbps or 3.6Mbps. Both package allows you to download stuff at maximum speed but once you reached 5GB limit PER month, then you’re screwed with a really slow speed. Honestly it doesn’t make any sense to subscribe a 3.6Mbps download speed when you can only use 5GB of the bandwidth per month. The worst part is even the uploading bandwidth is counted to the usage.

At least they now tell us in advanced that there is a fair usage policy because last time they never expose this information publicly and you can only find it in their really long list of terms and conditions page which no one really reads. When you find out that there is a fair usage policy and file a complaint, they blame you for not reading the terms before signing up. For those that are subscribed to an internet connection package which has limited bandwidth usage, it is important that you keep track of your bandwidth usage. Here’s a free internet traffic monitoring software that works.

iTraffic Monitor is a network monitor and reporting tool. It provides real time graph of network traffic. Detailed stats provide daily/weekly/monthly/yearly stats. Stop watch, Session stats.

• Monitor and review your Internet or network bandwidth usage with ease
• How fast your internet connection? We can graph it for your review
• How much data do you transfer? We show you a real-time graph or numerical display, as well as daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly reports
• Requires minimal desktop space and system resources

This is how iTraffic report looks like. It’s easy to read and nothing too fancy or complicated.

iTraffic Monitor is relatively new as this is their first version released on 4/22/2009. A few small bugs here and there such as copying the report to clipboard generates an access violation error but it’s no big deal and hopefully they’ll fix it in their next release. What I like about iTraffic Monitor is it can filter out local network traffic or traffic between specific IP addresses. This is very important for people connected to the internet via a local area network (LAN). Very few network monitors can do this and the ones that do usually is a shareware that cost money.

This software is free and takes less than 2MB memory while monitoring your bandwidth usage. Claims to work on all Windows.

[ Download iTraffic Monitor ]

EASEUS Todo Backup Free Disk Imaging Software (Norton Ghost Alternative)

Macrium Reflect is a great software to create a full backup of your hard drive or partition so that you can restore it back exactly the way it was when you created the backup. I have the full version of Macrium Reflect installed on my Acer laptop running Windows 7 and I find it very useful whenever I want to install and test any software because I can first create a full backup and then if anything goes wrong, I can simply restore it back. FYI, I never used System Restore and that’s the first thing I disable after installing Windows :P Don’t ask why, I just prefer to put my trust in disk imaging rather than Windows System Restore. Recently I got to know another disk cloning software which is FREE from EASEUS called Todo Backup.

EASEUS Todo Backup is comprehensive backup software, which not only provides convenient user-interface to simplify your tasks but also enables you to backup and restore an image of your partitions or entire hard disk. EASEUS Todo Backup enables users to backup and restore data in multiple ways for their data security. At the same time, for user-friendly operation, EASEUS Todo Backup also provides journaling.

Let’s check out EASEUS Todo Backup…

The main function for EASEUS Todo Backup is Backup, Restore, Check image file, Mount, Unmount and Clone disk. When I say backup, it doesn’t mean backing up a files or folders. It means backing up the entire current state of your computer into a file. For example, let’s say you created a full backup on 1st January 2009. Then after 8 months of messing around with Windows, it became very corrupted and unable to boot up. So now you restore back the Windows using the image that you created 8 months, it actually gives you back Windows the way it was when you created the image on 1st January 2009. Get it?

The program itself is pretty self explanatory. When you launch the program, you will see 3 main big buttons which is Backup, Restore and Clone. Mount is for mounting the image file as a virtual physical partition to explore or copy files in the backup image.

EASEUS Todo Backup also includes a Media Builder where it allows us to create a bootable CD/DVD. I’d say that the bootable disc is a must to create because most of the time you’ll only need to restore your computer is when you cannot boot up Windows. To create bootable media, run Todo Backup 1.0 Media Builder wizard by selecting “Tools” and “Create Bootable CD”. You can also run Bootable Media Builder without loading Todo Backup 1.0 by selecting “Programs”-> “EASEUS Todo Backup 1″-> “Bootable Media Builder” from the Start menu. You can also directly burn a bootable disc from the ISO image file located in C:\Program Files\EASEUS\EASEUS Todo Backup 1.0\bin\image.iso. When you boot up the computer with the boot CD, you should see a screen like the image below.

Just like Macrium Reflect, Todo Backup 1.0 bootable CD can ONLY restore and does not create backups. The backup can only be done in Windows…

I tried creating an image on my desktop running Windows XP Professional SP3 that’s taking up only 2.55GB of space. I saved the image to my second hard drive. The backup with no compression took 1 minute, 10 seconds to complete and image file size is also 2.55GB since the compression is disabled. Then I tried the normal compression, it took 3 minutes, 43 seconds to complete and compressed the file size to 1.28GB. As for restoration, the not compressed image took 4 minutes and as for the normal compression image took 4 minutes, 25 seconds. Looks like the compression only speeds up the backup process and not much on the restore.

Todo Backup v1.0 supports Windows 2000 (SP4), XP (32 and 64 bit), Vista (32 and 64 bit), Server 2003 (32 and 64 bit), and Server 2008 (32 and 64 bit). Verified not working on Windows 7 because I tried creating a backup and my computer crashed.

[ Download EASEUS Todo Backup ]

Enable Disabled Buttons in Windows with Enabler

There are times when Windows or a software doesn’t allow us to click a button. It could be a shareware that only after registering the button would be enabled or a feature that doesn’t make any sense if it was enabled. For example, if you run Windows Task Manager, go to the Users tab and click on the user that you are currently logged on as, the Send Message button is disabled. This sending message feature is useful if there are a few users logged on and you can send a message to another user but there is no logic in sending the message to yourself. That explains why the Send Message is disabled for currently logged on user.

Jack ONeill, the owner of EvilFingers has created a simple free tool called Enabler that can enable any disabled or grayed out buttons in Windows. There is no requirement or need for privilege escalation because this will enable any button on the user’s windows and there is no requirement to be a root or super user for enabling the buttons.

Here is a simple proof of concept on how Enabler works. Right click on Windows Taskbar and select Task Manager. Click on the Users tab and then select the current logged on user. The disconnect and Logoff button is enabled but the Send Message button is not accessible. Keep Windows Task Manager open and do not close it.

Now run Enabler and click the Enable button.
Click OK when you get a confirmation window saying that it’s Done.

Go to the Windows Task Manager again and you should see that the Send Message button can be used. Try clicking the Send Message button, type any message and click OK. A new message window should appear with the message that you’ve written.

It is important to make sure that the user is in focus/selected after enabling the button. Once you click on other areas and then you go back to the user again, the button will be disabled and you have to use Enabler to bring it back. If Enabler doesn’t work for you, then perhaps you can try DM2 or TurnItOn.

[ Download Enabler ]