A new bandwidth monitoring tool from Thinkbroadband will give consumers a more complete picture of their internet usage than most online speed testers.

The ttbMeter developed by the independent broadband information site, enables the user to see how much data their computer is sending to and receiving from the internet in real time. This information can be broken down in various ways to offer a number of benefits.

Andrew Ferguson, an analyst for the site, said: “It is about filling in the picture for people. Rather than running constant speed tests they can just sit down and use their connection.”

Users can see how their usage can vary at different times of the day, and tell if their internet service provider (ISP) is throttling (slowing down) traffic.

ISPs have different policies about this but a typical example is when it is applied to someone who has a service with a fair usage policy (FUP). If they go over the limit, the tbbMeter makes any throttling very obvious, whereas from just using a web browser it may not be so.

A nice touch for people who do have FUP or a monthly download allowance is the inclusion of an alarm. Because the amount of data downloaded and uploaded is recorded, an alert can be created to warn the user when they reach their limit. Other features include a stopwatch to record how fast downloads are and a ping tool that will graph how the user's latency varies.

The tbbMeter works with most connections, including dial-up, mobile broadband, ADSL or 100MB fibre link. The Isposure testing module will profile the performance of the user's broadband connection by looking at how well various protocols work.

There are no privacy concerns because the tool does not monitor the web pages people have visited. The meter will run on Windows XP and Vista.