you may keep an eye on what everyone using your router is doing online if you enable the correct settings. Routers do much more than split internet traffic between devices and generate a wireless signal. They give you control over your entire network, including prioritizing traffic to particular devices or shutting down others at specific times.
How Does Traffic Monitoring Work?
Your router takes each request to visit a site, download a file, or make a connection away from your home and helps put the appropriate content on your screen. To do this, it notes what each request is, which device submitted it, and other information about the request.
However, it doesn’t necessarily store this information automatically. There’s no need for most routers to compile and keep the data since most people don’t need to see it. Instead, it’s an optional feature that many routers offer. While not all offer it, most newer ones do as long as you may access router administration features.
Should I Monitor My Internet Traffic?
There are a few reasons why you might want to considermonitoring your internet traffic.
The more information you have about what is happening on your network, the better your chances of staying safe online.
How to Use a Router to Monitor Network Traffic?
Not all routers can monitor network traffic, so ensure yours can before you enter the settings and start looking for the options.
On my router, I log in and go to Advanced, Advanced Setup, and Traffic Meter. Your router may have different labels on each option, but you should be able to find the exact options in your manual. Almost all manuals can be found online in PDF format if you don’t have them anymore.
If you haven’t logged into your router before, the default username and password may be on a sticker on the back of your router. If not, you may usually search online for the router log-in address, the default username, and the default password. You should always change the sign-in credentials as soon as you set up your router; it’s essential that other people can’t access it.
How Do I View the Traffic Logs?
Once you’ve got a monitoring setup, you need a way to see the data it captures. Again, the exact steps will vary depending on your router. However, it should all work basically the same way.
Check the router’s manual if you may’t find the logs in a similar location.
What Information Is in My Router’s Traffic Logs?
