TechnoPhillia!!

In my earlier post, I mentioned how Gmail can be used on your desktop using ‘Google Desktop’, but after using it continuously for a day, I realized that Google desktop consumed a lot of my bandwidth. Also I came to know that, the problem was not only with me but many other Google desktop users too complained about the same thing. Some even said that it burned off their 1 GB of bandwidth in a single day. I think this is not an issue for users with unlimited bandwidth plan, but those users having limited bandwidth plan will have to end up wasting their whole month’s usage limits in a single day. So, this is my responsibility to alert you about such problems.

Well, you need not be sad thinking you need to uninstall Google desktop. Actually, after installing Google desktop, it automatically indexes your hard disk which utilizes a lot of bandwidth. By preventing this, you can save a lot of your bandwidth. To stop Google from indexing your hard disk, just follow these step by step instructions:

1. Right click on the tray icon of Google Desktop and select ‘Options’.
2. As shown on the image below, uncheck ‘Enable content indexing’ option from the window that appears next to clicking ‘Options’ button.
   
3. Save you preferences and you are done.

Just by following these three simple steps, you can save a heavy amount of bandwidth without even uninstalling Google Desktop. Also as an extra precautionary step, I would suggest you to use bandwidth meter on your system, which will monitor live data usages of your computer.

Many broadband Internet users have monthly data transfer limit so such tools help them not to get over-billed at the end of month.

After lots of search and testing few, we found NetMeter to work best for all kind of users. Not to mention separately its free and no registration is needed. Just download and install.

For the first time you need to setup few thing like your data-transfer limit, notification settings, etc. Actually it has too many options to confuse a home user but its really worth using. Still for your help I will show minimum important setting you need to configure before using NetMeter.

This is only thing you need to do to get started. On starting, NetMeter sits in system-tray. To see NetMeter options as shown below, right-click on NetMeter icon in system tray select options from context-menu. Then go to Notifications tab.

Only things you need to change are reach(es) and during current fields. Both highlighted in screenshot below. Its better to set limits less than actual limits so that you can get notified before crossing data transfer limits!

# Checking your actual usage and projected usage

From same NetMeter context menu mentioned above select Totals option. You will see following details.

Also check projected tab for more info!

Link Summary: NetMeter Home | Download Page (Alternate Link)