What is internet traffic. What is “Internet traffic” and how you can save it very effectively What is incoming Internet traffic

06.01.2022

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In the settings of the mobile phone, you can find a section called "Data transfer" or "Data usage". In this section, there is a calculation of the traffic that the user spends on his phone.

But, many users do not know what traffic is and what to do with those traffic values that are displayed in the mobile phone settings. If you also have not yet figured out this issue, then we suggest that you read our article.

Traffic is the amount of information that a mobile phone sends and receives from the Internet. Traffic can be measured in packets, bits, or bytes. But, in phones, bytes and their derivatives (kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes) are usually used as a unit of measurement. Traffic counting is necessary so that the user can control their Internet costs.

When counting traffic, it is usually divided into several types. It can be incoming, outgoing, internal or external traffic. But, on the phone, there are usually no such detailed statistics on the use of traffic. Instead, the phone simply shows the total amount of traffic that has been used over a period of time. In some cases, there may be a separate calculation for mobile internet (traffic transmitted over a cellular connection) and Wi-Fi.

If necessary, traffic counting can be organized on any device that is connected to the network or the Internet. For example, if you need to count traffic on a computer running Windows, then you can use such programs as TMeter, NetWorx, BWMeter or DU Meter.

How to view traffic on android

In order to view the traffic consumption on a mobile phone with Android, you need to open the application " Settings" and find the section " Data transfer" or " data usage". For example, on pure Android 8.0, to do this, you first need to go to the " Network and Internet", and then open the subsection" Data transfer».

Here you can see how much traffic was used in the last month and take advantage of the features that allow you to manage your mobile Internet costs. There is also information about the amount of information that was transmitted via Wi-Fi.

If the information that Android provides is not enough for you, then you can install special applications for calculating traffic. For example, you can use applications or.

How to view traffic on iPhone

There is a similar section with information about traffic on the iPhone. If you have an Apple mobile phone, then you need to open the settings application, go to the " cellular” and scroll the screen to “ Statistics».

Here you can see the total amount of data from the Internet, as well as the data that was received in roaming. In addition, the iPhone gives the exact amount of traffic for each installed application. This allows you to quickly identify the applications that access the Internet most often and increase your mobile phone bills.

If the information that the iPhone provides is not enough for you, then you can install special applications for counting traffic. For example, you can use applications or.

How to save traffic on your phone

If your Mobile Internet costs seem too high for you, then you can take a number of measures in order to reduce the amount of traffic consumed:

Turn off mobile internet when you don't need it. A simple but very effective tip. If you are very limited in mobile traffic, then the mobile Internet should be turned off at every opportunity.
Explore phone settings. Explore the settings that are available on your phone. You will most likely find many features and capabilities that will help you reduce data volumes and control your mobile Internet costs.
Use a browser with a save feature. Many browsers have built-in tools to save traffic. For example, you can use the Opera browser. This browser passes all traffic through its own servers, where it is pre-compressed.
Try to always connect to Wi-Fi. While you are connected to a Wi-Fi wireless network, you transmit traffic through this network, while the mobile Internet is actually disabled.
Explore app settings. In the settings of many applications there is an item "Only via Wi-Fi", after enabling it, the application will use only the Wi-Fi network.

Today we decided to talk about what traffic is, as well as how it can be determined or calculated. From the point of view of a simple user, this concept means a certain amount of sent as well as received data. Surely each of you often uses the Internet, and you have encountered this concept more than once. If we begin to consider it from the point of view of computer technology, then traffic is a certain amount of information that is transmitted via the Internet. It can be both outgoing and incoming, we already wrote about this a little higher. Today, almost every provider provides its client with an unlimited package for consideration, or rather, this package means an unlimited number of traffic used. Therefore, many users of such services simply do not pay attention to the incoming and outgoing amount of information. In principle, there is absolutely no need for this.

Limit

Previously, such packages were simply not provided, so large companies that also had to work with the help of the Internet had to pay really large sums for using it. Surely, all people who have new mobile devices with the function of accessing the network know what GPRS traffic is. Internet settings can be set both automatically and manually, according to the instructions. I would like to note that the mobile Internet consumes a significantly smaller amount of data, but this, in general, can affect the download speed.

Older people who simply do not need the Internet and, most likely, have never visited it, probably know little about what the concept of interest to us is. Then it will be very difficult for them to explain, for example, what traffic is on a tablet or on any other device. However, we will try to give a general description.

What is traffic and should it be measured?

When there were no unlimited packages for data use, then all Internet users had to save in every possible way. After all, if you go beyond the established levels, then the cost of one megabyte could reach a large amount, and these units of information left very quickly with active use of the Internet.

Traffic, as a rule, can be measured in kilobytes, megabytes, and also gigabytes. There is currently no other dimension, although perhaps modern technology will bring us something new.

About what is traffic on the Internet

In fact, this is the same as what we talked about above. When you visit certain sites, you will have both outgoing and incoming traffic. Some providers create a certain range of projects on the Internet, which the client can visit, while the data consumption will not be paid. This, of course, is a great advantage, but still one day you will need to go beyond this circle, for example, to search for some information or just download a file. Providers prefer to create their own networks, which may contain various kinds of file hosting, chats, and in more developed and advanced networks, there may also be music or television projects where each user can listen and download music or watch selected channels for free. Of course, this can only be attributed to a marketing move in relation to providers, since some services will not be free. On this we have analyzed what traffic is on the Internet. We hope that after reading the information, you have generally understood what this concept is.

Mobility

Let's now analyze what traffic is on the phone. In fact, it is no different from any other. Of course, the mobile Internet has a number of advantages, which we now decided to talk about. Firstly, mobile traffic is spent significantly less if you are only on those sites that have mobile versions. Secondly, accessing the Internet from a mobile phone is very convenient; you can do this from almost anywhere. Today, mobile traffic is provided by network operators with high speeds. And if you need to download a large file, you won't have to wait long for the download, especially if your device supports the 3G function.

third generation

To date, only two types of traffic can be identified, or rather, it can be useful or useless. It is customary to refer the so-called "garbage" to useless. This type of traffic can occur after various requests, as well as in the case of virus activity. An example is the worst virus currently available, which can scan your network when the Internet is connected. And you may not even be aware of its presence, but constantly the information will disappear somewhere in an unknown direction. Some viruses know perfectly well what traffic is, so they will use it as soon as possible.

If you have a non-unlimited Internet service package installed, then you should definitely monitor the amount of information transferred and regularly check the system with an anti-virus program. In some cases, you cannot do anything yourself, even if you are a professional computer scientist, in which case you will definitely need to contact your provider. And the faster you do it, the more data you can protect from this malicious system.

findings

So, we figured out what traffic is and what it is. Finally, I would like to generalize the definition of this concept. So, traffic is the allowable amount of information that you can download at any time. And if you have unlimited services connected, you can generally ignore the amount of information consumed by the computer, since it will simply be irrelevant for you. We hope that this article was able to give you a general idea of what constitutes traffic.

Almost every user of the World Wide Web knows such a thing as Internet traffic. If speak about mobile operators, then they have, the greater the amount of available traffic, the higher the cost. Most operators have tariffs that do not have traffic restrictions, but their cost is significantly higher than that of analogues with restrictions.

Determining where precious megabytes go is half the battle. The rational use of all the services of the global network should become a habit. Programs like uTorrent.exe should not run at startup and run idle.

How is Internet traffic measured?

The smallest unit of measurement of the received information is Bit. Depending on the situation and the volume consumed, the consumed data can be counted in Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes. The most common unit is Megabyte (MB).

Average sizes of the most popular files:

three dozen pages on the Web or 400 text pages: 1 Mb;
5 high quality photos: 1 Mb;
one audio file: 3-12 Mb;
one video clip: 30-200Mb, movie: 600-1400Mb.

In conclusion, it should be said that the control and calculation of Internet traffic allows not only to avoid the need to pay inflated bills, but also to significantly save money without limiting yourself in using the Internet.

Greetings, dear readers! Most likely, you managed to work in Windows 10 for some time on a computer, tablet or laptop, got a little used to the new product from Microsoft, and downloaded a lot of important and useful programs from the Internet. Or not very helpful. And one day you might have thought: what is the amount of traffic I downloaded this month? Interesting? This is where I became interested. And now I'll show you where to find information on Internet usage for the last 30 days.

Let's go to Start -> Options -> Network and Internet. You can quickly open Settings with Win + I.

In chapter Network and Internet tab data usage you can see general information on all your network interfacesfor which the system has accumulated statistics. In this case, I only see Ethernet (a regular dedicated line via a cable). On tablets and laptops, Wi-Fi statistics will be displayed in this section.

So, you saw the numbers of downloaded gigabytes, your eyes widened and you wanted to know the details immediately. What applications on your device ate how much traffic you can find out if you click on the link Usage details.

Clicking on the link will open up more detailed information. You can clearly see which applications consumed the Internet how much. At this point, the data detailing ends, that is, you cannot find out the specific addresses of sites, which files were downloaded.

But that is not all! Information on downloaded gigabytes of invaluable traffic can be displayed as a live tile on the Windows 10 start screen. To do this, right-click on the section name data usage and click on the item Pin to home screen.

A confirmation pops up, click Yes.

The tile will appear on the home screen. If its size does not seem large enough to you, then right-click on the tile and select Resize -> Wide, as shown in the screenshot.

Well, it's become much more convenient, isn't it? Now you can always quickly assess the amount of downloaded data, just by opening the Start menu and glancing at the tile.

Measure traffic with the right software

Anyone who has been on the phone for ten minutes and is not using a plane can still accurately appreciate that the cost of a call is dependent on the floor price. The situation is different from mobile internet access, which remains permanently activated on most smartphones and is billed instead of online time for the amount of data consumed.

The borrowing of this term from the English language occurred relatively recently, therefore, in the Russian-language spelling, a single version has not yet been established in relation to the word “traffic”: in particular, in written speech one can find its spelling with both one letter “f” and two, similarly English original.

Term meaning

The general term "traffic" is used to refer to the total amount of information coming from the user to and from the network. At the same time, among specialists it is customary to distinguish two of its main types. The first of these is incoming traffic, that is, content downloaded by the user from the Internet. For example, if you download music or movies from the network, the amount of information received will be the amount of incoming traffic. The second type is outgoing traffic, that is, content sent by the user to the Internet. For example, you post your photos on a social network: in this case, you form a flow of outgoing traffic.

On the Internet, there are special indicators designed to measure this volume. So, the amount of information is usually measured on the basis of using a special unit - a byte. However, a byte is a very small value, therefore, in practice, derivatives of it are more often used - a kilobyte, which represents 1024 bytes, a megabyte, whose size is 1024 kilobytes, a gigabyte, corresponding to 1024 megabytes, and so on.

However, to measure traffic, not only its absolute volume is important, but also speed, that is, the amount of information transmitted per unit of time. At the same time, the data transfer rate on the Internet is usually very high, so very short periods of time, for example, seconds, are used to estimate it. As a result, the commonly used units for measuring Internet traffic are kilobytes per second or megabytes per second. These indicators are used to measure the speed of both incoming and outgoing traffic.

“Internet traffic” at your fingertips

Billions of computers interact with each other daily via the World Wide Web. Some produce information, others consume. Thus, users exchange data with each other, the so-called internet traffic.

In fact, Internet traffic is a mathematical indicator that determines the speed and volume of information exchange. The amount of traffic is measured in gigabytes, megabytes, kilobytes.

The Internet for a PC, which is provided by the provider, is estimated, just by the number of megabytes. Traffic is divided into two types:

incoming - received data
outgoing - data being sent

For example, you sent a message to a friend through the VK service - this is outgoing traffic. A response message from a friend, respectively, incoming traffic.

A quick way to check spent traffic on a PC

Using standard PC functions, you can quickly find out how much Internet traffic has been spent during the current session.

Walkthrough:

The method is quite simple, however, after turning off the PC, the indicators will be canceled, which means that it is impossible to see the Internet consumption for a longer period. Also, if several accounts are used, it is necessary to conduct an analysis in each cabinet separately.

Deeper check of the spent Internet on the PC

Special third-party services and programs can most effectively solve the problem of checking the network flow. The choice of such programs is huge.

The service for checking traffic is easy to manage. After installation, the software menu will automatically be fixed to the "taskbar". By clicking the program icon, you will get an instant report on the speed of the incoming and outgoing stream. Going to the details, a special window with numerical indicators will open:

route analysis;
data transfer;
internet speed analytics;
information about the programs used;

Let's conduct a demonstration on the example of the Networx service

Networx is a clear and accessible program, suitable even for dummies. Networx is a free Windows application that counts network traffic, determines download and upload speeds. With the help of special program options, you can track both all system connections in the aggregate and the connections of a single network adapter.

How to get mobile traffic information

The difference between regular and mobile traffic is in the amount of packet data consumed. On smartphones, the Internet is spent in less quantity, due to the adaptation of sites to a compressed mobile version.

There are three ways to determine mobile traffic:

sending a short number to receive information;

viewing the statistics section in your phone settings;

By installing a special application from the telecom operator, you can find out how much mobile Internet is spent. For quick information, you can also use short USSD numbers.

Information about the Internet resource spent on the phone is stored in the "statistics" section. For example, the path in an Android smartphone with a Megafon operator looks like this: “Settings> Data transfer> MEGAFON”.

5 Ways to Save Internet Traffic

What to do if there is little traffic left:

Programs and services for traffic compression

TrafficCompressor - utilities can be downloaded for free from the official site, compresses the download twice. Does not require manual settings.
Onspeed is a paid service. It is one of the most effective today. The principle of operation is that the computer downloads the page not directly from the Internet, but through the Onspeed server.