Windows – Internet via tethering: How to limit PC internet usage?

androidbandwidthinternettetheringwindows

Occasionally, I need to tether my android phone to my laptop to get internet. I have very little mobile internet (500MB /month) and it can disappear very quickly. I need a few tips on how to use force windows and all applications to use as little bandwidth as possible.

Here's what I do:

Close all programs running in system tray
Turn off windows udpate
Use opera with "Opera turbo" and turn off flash

Any more tips? Especially a program that would block EVERYTHING from accessing the internet except the browser and another program occasionally (skype)?

I just closed all programs and updates and tethered my laptop today. Within a few seconds doing of nothing, it downloaded 20MB over 3G.

Best Answer

You're looking for a firewall. Most firewalls of today are configured to disallow incoming connections, but you can just as easily configure them to block outbound connections as well. Windows includes a free firewall that you merely have to enable, called, appropriately enough, "Windows Firewall."

You want to disallow everything except a list of what you want to be able to get through--this is called a "whitelist." The Windows firewall doesn't make this very simple, but it is possible. Check out the Super User thread over here for details. Alternatively, just install a better firewall, and configure it to prompt you for outgoing traffic.

Related Solutions

Skype Bandwidth Usage

From what I've read on Skype faq recommended speed for calling is 100kbps, from that we can calculate bandwidth usage per hour.
100kbps*60*60 = 360000 kb(kilobits)/h = 43.9453125 MB(megabytes)/h

44MB*8h(max)*3days = 1056MB ~ 1GB

Video calling/Screen sharing requires 3x bigger bandwidth but that's not even close to 16GB!

But if you were browsing the internet and watching videos while chatting 16GB seems reasonable.

Windows – How to see which applications use “Host process for windows services” to eat metered data

I asked a similar question some time ago, and finally found an answer on a Server Fault question about services memory usage. The answer is to split each plausible services from Host Process so it works for network usage too. (Even after the split, I'm not sure GlassWire distinguishes the different services but Nirsoft CurrPorts or Sysinternals Process Explorer does it)

Peter Mortensen:

Split each service to run in its own SVCHOST.EXE process and the service consuming the CPU cycles will be easily visible in Task Manager or Process Explorer (the space after "=" is required):

SC Config Servicename Type= own

Do this in a command line window or put it into a BAT script. Administrative privileges are required and a restart of the computer is required before it takes effect.

The original state can be restored by:

SC Config Servicename Type= share

Example: to make Windows Management Instrumentation run in a separate SVCHOST.EXE:

SC Config winmgmt Type= own

This technique has no ill effects, except perhaps increasing memory consumption slightly. And apart from observing CPU usage for each service it also makes it easy to observe page faults delta, disk I/O read rate and disk I/O write rate for each service. For Process Explorer, menu View/Select Columns: tab Process Memory/Page Fault Delta, tab Process Performance/IO Delta Write Bytes, tab Process Performance/IO Delta Read Bytes, respectively.

On most systems there is only one SVCHOST.EXE process that has a lot of services. I have used this sequence (it can be pasted directly into a command line window):
rem  1. "Automatic Updates"
SC Config wuauserv Type= own

rem  2. "COM+ Event System"
SC Config EventSystem Type= own

rem  3. "Computer Browser"
SC Config Browser Type= own

rem  4. "Cryptographic Services"
SC Config CryptSvc Type= own

rem  5. "Distributed Link Tracking"
SC Config TrkWks Type= own

rem  6. "Help and Support"
SC Config helpsvc Type= own

rem  7. "Logical Disk Manager"
SC Config dmserver Type= own

rem  8. "Network Connections"
SC Config Netman Type= own

rem  9. "Network Location Awareness"
SC Config NLA Type= own

rem 10. "Remote Access Connection Manager"
SC Config RasMan Type= own

rem 11. "Secondary Logon"
SC Config seclogon Type= own

rem 12. "Server"
SC Config lanmanserver Type= own

rem 13. "Shell Hardware Detection"
SC Config ShellHWDetection Type= own

rem 14. "System Event Notification"
SC Config SENS Type= own

rem 15. "System Restore Service"
SC Config srservice Type= own

rem 16. "Task Scheduler"
SC Config Schedule Type= own

rem 17. "Telephony"
SC Config TapiSrv Type= own

rem 18. "Terminal Services"
SC Config TermService Type= own

rem 19. "Themes"
SC Config Themes Type= own

rem 20. "Windows Audio"
SC Config AudioSrv Type= own

rem 21. "Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)"
SC Config SharedAccess Type= own

rem 22. "Windows Management Instrumentation"
SC Config winmgmt Type= own

rem 23. "Wireless Configuration"
SC Config WZCSVC Type= own

rem 24. "Workstation"
SC Config lanmanworkstation Type= own

rem End.