Bandwidth Graphs in Connect

How to use Bandwidth Graphs to get information on client internet usage in Connect

colin jones avatar
Written by colin jones
Updated over a week ago

Introduction

In the Connect Bandwidth Graphs, you can view bandwidth usage across your sites, as well as usage by individual clients, allowing you to effectively manage services, troubleshoot problems, and get the information you need to up-sell clients onto more sophisticated services.

We have improved Bandwidth graphs to include:

  • Enhanced graphing tools

  • Reporting on shared pipes, including client usage breakdown at your site

  • Visibility of applications accessed on a client by client basis

  • Visibility of bandwidth usage on a site wide level

You can also view a client's individual graph to get a more detailed picture of their bandwidth usage.

Site Level Bandwidth View

The site level Bandwidth Graphs give you visibility of your site's total consumption of bandwidth. This provides you with a useful indication of the utilisation of your circuit to aid you with: 

  • Troubleshooting - quickly see which pipes are being utilized heavily

  • Capacity planning - find out if your site has the necessary resources to handle your bandwidth usage 

  • Recognizing upselling opportunities - find out if you have capacity to utilize more bandwidth, and take advantage by pursuing upsell opportunities with your members (you can use the Pipe and Client graphs to find out which clients are your heaviest users).

Breaking bandwidth usage down by IP Address 

Bandwidth Manager lets you see a breakdown of a client’s bandwidth by IP address with the new IP Breakdown graphs. Choose a client in the dropdown menu then click the ‘IP Breakdown’ button. 

You will see a bar graph that will breakdown the bandwidth usage by IP. You can now identify which IP address is using most of a client’s bandwidth.

If you would like to discover how much an application is being used by IP then you are in luck. Our application pie chart now lets you dig deeper and view a breakdown of an application by IP address. Click the desired application on the pie chart and you will be taken to a second IP breakdown pie chart

Viewing your Site Bandwidth Usage

Your first view of the Site Graph will display the total download of each of your pipes at your selected site. Unlike the other bandwidth graphs on which data is overlaid on top of each other, this graph is stacked to allow you to see the total download amount.

The threshold displayed is your circuit size - the total amount of bandwidth which can be used at your site. To see a more detailed view of your data, select Hide Threshold, and the graph will rescale to the highest data point.

Each pipe is displayed on the graph. If your site has multiple pipes, you can add and remove these pipes from the graph by clicking the graph name within the key.

By default, you will see the data by download only. You can choose to just view uploaded data, or both download and upload.

Navigating the graph

By default, you will see today's graph.

The draggable bar at the bottom of the graph allows you to select a specific time period.

The graph will scale automatically to show more detail when you zoom into a shorter time period.

You can also jump to a preselected time period using the 'Time' options to the right of the graph. 

You can download the graph, and switch between download and upload views.

Shared Pipes

You can see an overview of each of the shared bandwidth pipes at your site to see how heavily they are being used, and to find out which customers are using the most bandwidth.

Select a shared pipe from the 'View' drop down. 

You can see the combined download and upload across the pipe. The pipe threshold is displayed at the top of the graph and you can see where peaks have occurred in the usage.

Client Breakdown

To find out which customers are using the most bandwidth on the shared pipe within a selected time period, select ‘Client Breakdown’.

You will see clients with the highest downloads within the selected time period.

Select a client from the list to view more detail about their use over the past month.

Individual Client Bandwidth Usage

Select a Client from the drop down to view their individual bandwidth usage.

The pipe which the client is associated with is displayed at the top of the graph.

If the client is on a dedicated pipe, their threshold is shown, and you can see at a glance whether they have neared that threshold.

Applications

When viewing a client, you can select Applications to see how the data has been used by that client within the selected time period.

Learn more about what is displayed in Applications below.

FAQs

Why is no data appearing for one of my Clients?

There may be no information to show for a Client for a few reasons. They may have no internet services associated with them, or they may not have consumed any bandwidth within the selected time period. If you believe data should be appearing, contact the essensys team.


Why does my data look different from the automated report I receive from essensys?

If you receive a report from essensys showing the bandwidth used on pipes within your site, you will find that the data displayed does not match the Weekly and Monthly view on Connect. This is because different calculations are applied to the graphs within Connect to provide a more accurate indication of pipe usage.

The enhanced graphs on Connect are designed to replace the need for manual reports, as you can now rely on Connect to view pipe customer bandwidth usage in detail. We suggest that you rely on the improved graphs within Connect as the source of truth when analysing data usage at your sites, and ignore, or cancel, any reports that you currently receive.

Why does the Y axis on my graph change? 

The Y axis on each graph will change depending on the threshold of the pipe.

When viewing a Shared or Dedicated pipe, the Y axis will be set to the threshold of the pipe.

When viewing a Client's graph, only those on a Dedicated pipe will display a threshold.

If the Client is on a Shared pipe, the threshold will not be visible, and the Y axis will be limited to sit just above the highest data point within the selected time range.

What is displayed in Applications?

The Applications view shows the Protocols, i.e. which applications or servers have been in use on your network. The graph displays the combined upload and download from these applications.

Different protocols are used when data in transferred between endpoints. For example, HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the protocol used for normal web browsing. Some protocols are only used for specific things, which is why commonly used sites such as Youtube, or Facebook, or Office 365, can be identified and displayed.

The below video review's Bandwidth Graphs as below,

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