Datafox - Bandwidth Usage Monitoring Extension For MTNL Triband Broadband

Hi Guys,

I've seen a good amount of interest generated among MTNL users for DataFox - my usage monitoring tool for BSNL's DatOne broadband.
You can read more about DataFox at the DataFox Thread or at the DataFox Website.

Users like arnav and netfreak have already helped me get pretty far down the road to extending it to work with MTNL's triband as well, but since I'm not so familiar with MTNL's service, I need a few more details and usage samples.
So if you'd to help out, here's what I need.

1) Arnav mentioned the address to check your usage is different for Delhi and Bombay. The address for Bombay is http://register.mtnl.net.in - what's the address for Delhi?
I hope they both run the same portal and billing software...

2) I have 3 phone numbers of Tirband users in Bombay, from which I was able to check the usage details (you apparently don't need the password - yet).
At the bottom of the usage details, the Total Billed data transfer was equal to the total data downloaded. Uploaded data did not seem to be charged at all - even though the amount of data transferred was in fact recorded for each session.
What is the deal with this? One of the accounts actually had uploaded more data than downloaded (not sure if these stats are correct), but still only downloaded data was billed.

3) The interface only allowed me to check for usage data in January, and when I asked for the data, finally it said "File not found", even though the account was used in that period. Is past usage data just not available or is this an aberration? Usually, how many months of past usage data are stored?

4) Has anyone managed to cross his usage limits for the month already? Here's a note at the bottom of the usage page:
Pl. Note :-
* In case of Volume-based plans, a session will be split into free MB and chargable MB if it is crossing the free MB limit for said month.
* In case of Time-based plans, a session will be split into free Hrs and chargeable Hrs if it is crossing the free Hrs limit for said month.
The Start/End Date/Time will be same for such sessions.[/b]
I have no idea how these records look or if they are displayed differently - I would need to factor this into DataFox so that it does not fail if it comes across a record format it isn't built to understand.

If you're willing, could you send me your phone numbers? Do mention if you're from Bombay or Delhi and what account you use. Anybody with a time limited account? I noticed MTNL offered only 1 such account, the usage details for that could be quite different.
If you don't wish to share your numbers, can you check your usage for this month, save the entire site (Web Page - Complete) and send me the login.html file? You can erase your number from that html file.

Finally, I don't need your passwords to check the current month usage, but it does make it easier to navigate the rest of the site and look at stuff like past month usage (unnecessary if past data is not stored). So if you can send those along as well, great. They will be kept confidential of course and erased when I'm through - I'd encourage you to change them before sending them to me and after we "finish up".

A big shout out to Arnav who sent me his login details without question, because of which I've made significant strides in the port.

Best,
Brian.

Uploads are not charged with MTNL. URL for checking past month is different from URL for getting sessions for current month. (you might already know this, just mentioning it to be sure)

Thanks for clearing up the upload issue.As regards the past month usage, I wasn't pasting URLs into the address bar, I had actually logged into the portal. It only allowed me to choose details for Jan 2007, even though the account has been active through December and November. After I asked for Jan details, it responded with "file missing..." and no details were shown. Are you able to check your usage for the past month(s) or do you see this as well...Or is this a temporary mtnl error?Best,Brian.

I get "File Missing" error as well. Maybe some prob with MTNL site.

Delhi registration site is http://register.bol.net.in ! Well i am sending you rest info for account usage check.

Well all this for delhi

) Has anyone managed to cross his usage limits for the month already? Here's a note at the bottom of the usage page:
QUOTE
Pl. Note :-
* In case of Volume-based plans, a session will be split into free MB and chargable MB if it is crossing the free MB limit for said month.
* In case of Time-based plans, a session will be split into free Hrs and chargeable Hrs if it is crossing the free Hrs limit for said month.
The Start/End Date/Time will be same for such sessions.
I have no idea how these records look or if they are displayed differently - I would need to factor this into DataFox so that it does not fail if it comes across a record format it isn't built to understand.

they dont look diferently.


Free ADSL MB balance for current month will become 0 after u finish ur monthly quota and, in the session history,Total Billed wil cross 1024MB.

but if in datafox, it ould be displayed in a different colour, it will be great.


What is the deal with this? One of the accounts actually had uploaded more data than downloaded (not sure if these stats are correct), but still only downloaded data was billed.

if u are talking about my upload data(i think u are), i release movies on torrents and since uploading is free for all 24 hr, u may find my upload is higher than download.i think the stats are correct for my account.
if talking about someone else, the, dont know.

about the File Missing it started on 01.01.2007. hence, i thing its a problem with MTNL.(maybe, not setup properly)


address for delhi is http://register.bol.net.in
hope this slovesmost of ur query.
also, if the password doesnt work , tell me.

Arnav,Thanks for all the info & clarifications. What this means is I can get this to work really easily for the Bombay site. I guess for now I'll just disable the ability to check the usage for multiple months for MTNL users.GSV, thanks for your account details, but the Delhi website is horribly slow for me. It takes about 2-3 minutes for the site to show up and after that, the login process simply times out. So I have been unable to investigate further, very irritating. Is this what everyone else is experiencing as well?The Delhi site does seem to be slightly different from the Bombay site (yay!) so I can't blindly extend the same technique used for the Bombay site to it.Brian.

Yeah I am unable to access the Delhi site most of the times

I was able to finally access the Delhi site, and though it looks more or less similar, the internals are complete different - and more complex. Should not be harder to manage than the BSNL website though, so I'll get through eventually.For Night Unlimited accounts - is the use within those hours not recorded / not shown in the Session History at all?Finally, are you guys interested in stuff like the amount of hours online (not going to be accurate if the hours between 12-8am are not shown in the records), & amount of data uploaded? Or do you just want the amount of data downloaded for the current month? I might get a total on uploaded data anyway, but just curious.

everything comes under session history...even the night unlimited data as well...it'll just show u time connected/disconnected and total data downloaded/uploaded...for session history, there's no difference between normal and NU times...

for mumbai, night history is not recorded.night times are 12-8

Just wanted to give you an update. Thanks to account details sent to me by Arnav and GSV, I've managed to programmatically obtain the bandwidth used for both MTNL Bombay and Delhi. While Bombay was really straightforward, Delhi was trickier - there have been many delays because whenever I had time to work on DataFox, one or both of the MTNL sites would be down, quite infuriating and frustrating.

Here are the details I can manage:
1) Total uploaded
2) Total downloaded
3) Total transfer
4) Total hours online

Specifics:
MTNL Bombay
Only records of the current month will be availble.

Bombay does not record usage between 12-8, so all the above stats exclude usage between 12am - 8am. Total transfer is equal to the total transfer excluding night unlimted transfer. The real total (uploaded, downloaded, hours) is not available.

MTNL Delhi
Records of the current month and the previous month will be available.

According to coolbuddy_79, everything is recorded, which is good, so the above details are going to be the real values.
As for the night unlimited transfer, I can calculate this figure based on use which begins after 12 am and ends before 8 am. However, what happens if you start at 11pm and end at 1am - or if you start at 7am and end at 9am? Are the records split? I cannot say because the Delhi account I'm looking at does not have a single session either intersecting or within the N.U period 🙂 If the records are split then there is no problem, but if they aren't, I have the following alternatives:

1) Don't calculate night unlimited at all - assume it is equal to total transfer
2) Calculate night unlimited transfer only for those sessions that begin AND end between 12am and 8am (lets call these perfect sessions), forget the intersecting cases
3) Calculate night unlimited transfer for perfect sessions and for intersecting cases, use a formula (i.e if 3MB was transferred between 11pm-2am, assume 1MB transferred every hour, so only 1MB was transferred before 12, outside N.U).

Finally, since you guys don't really care about the upload figures (since it isn't charged) the N.U figures would be based on downloaded data only, (so you can compare it with total downloaded data, not total transferred data ).

Thoughts or alternative suggestions?
Brian.

QUOTE(infernalproteus @ Feb 19 2007, 02:52 PM) [snapback]80495[/snapback]
1) Don't calculate night unlimited at all - assume it is equal to total transfer[/b]
Well then most of night user might not like it.

QUOTE(infernalproteus @ Feb 19 2007, 02:52 PM) [snapback]80495[/snapback]
2) Calculate night unlimited transfer only for those sessions that begin AND end between 12am and 8am (lets call these perfect sessions), forget the intersecting cases[/b]

Yes this the perfect thing to do becoz intersecting cases are counted in day usage only applicable for both mtnl delhi & mumbai

QUOTE(infernalproteus @ Feb 19 2007, 02:52 PM) [snapback]80495[/snapback]
3) Calculate night unlimited transfer for perfect sessions and for intersecting cases, use a formula (i.e if 3MB was transferred between 11pm-2am, assume 1MB transferred every hour, so only 1MB was transferred before 12, outside N.U).[/b]

As said above that won't work becoz intersecting cases are counted in day usage only.
🙂

So de we have an Opera Widget and Firefox extension for MTNL bandwidth monitoring ready?

This week I side stepped into getting DataFox to play nice when multiple Firefox windows are open. That work is nearly done, but I still need to do some work on the MTNL Delhi front. It's quite frustrating working on the MTNL sites because the portals are either dog slow, or down entirely - like right now.

I don't have enough time to think about the Opera side of things right now, but will do so after the next DataFox release, which should hopefully be sometime this weekend. I have completed some preliminary research though and will keep you guys posted.

Thanks for asking!