[ubuntu-za] ADSL Traffic

[Bill Cairns]

Hi Everyone,

I have a 3 Gig contract with Telkom which should surely be enough for
the internet stuff that I do. But I regularly exceed that cap.

Something is obviously chowing my bandwidth while I am not watching.
It could be something on my 08.04 Ubuntu box, but of course it is just
as likely to be one of the two XP machines or the one Vista machine
that is the culprit. Of the Windows machines, only the Vista machine
runs regularly, the XP machines are notebooks which are used far less
often.

But, starting at the beginning, is there a program that I can run on
by 08.04 Ubuntu machine that I can use to see if there is anything
behind the scenes who is downloading things while I am not watching?
Searching for "Monitor network traffic"  on synaptic gives quite a few
candidates (perhaps MRTG looks the most promising but also looks the
most complicated). Advice?

Also (off into a dreadful topic I know) any advice on what I could use
on XP and Vista?

Lastly, any suggestions about who can be stealing all that bandwidth?
(My wireless connection is enabled but password protected. I live in a
retirement centre and doubt anyone here has hacked into my router but
I suppose it is possible!)

Bill