Datafox: BSNL Broadband Bandwidth Monitoring Extension For Firefox

[infernalproteus]

Hi Guys,

DataFox is an easy to use, cross platform & customizable extension to Firefox, which you can use monitor your DataOne Broadband bandwidth usage. It is not a standalone program and will only work when installed as an extension to Firefox.
DataFox is non-intrusive and does not monitor your network activity, it just obtains the information from the BSNL website. The collected info is displayed in your Firefox status bar area and additional info is displayed in a tooltip.

Here are a couple of screenshots:




I have been really irritated by the fact that I could not easily check my usage in Firefox, and I really would like to do so frequently, so I didn't want to use a separate program. Since Firefox is always open on my machine, writing a Firefox extension to do this seemed logical.
DataFox does not collect statistics, past records or draw graphics - not yet anyway. The goal here is simplicity, all that matters to me is how much bandwidth I've used and how much I have left until the month ends. I've also added the ability to allow Firefox to browse the usage site directly, so if you need the details, you can get them - without switching to IE. DataFox obtains the info it displays from the summary provided in the BSNL site for a given month, it does not read all your records and make it's own totals.

More info and the download is available here: DataFox Website

Privacy Concerns
I know most of you are paranoid about such programs stealing your password, so I encourage some of you to download the extension, open it up and report back. The source is the extension and has been released under GPL. It's all JS and XML.
I am also the author of SuperSify, hosted right here at India Broadband Forum: SuperSify Website/SuperSify Thread. I hope that counts for something 🙂

This is the first release and I have a few ideas for the next release already lined up. If you have any feature requests or bug reports, either mail me or post back here. I'll be watching.

I hope you enjoy using DataFox as much as I enjoyed writing it (most of the time, anyway 😉 )
Brian.

 

[Spawn Freak]

How Can I be So sure that u are not stealing my password????? lol

 

[netfreak]

Good work..

 

[boygr8]

We need one for MTNL as well

 

[Sushubh]

i told him that! but for that some mtnl need would have to help him get the necessary URLs and other data i think.

 

[coolbuddy_79]

really nice piece of work there...kudos!!! 🙂

 

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[Sushubh]

no one tested and confirmed whether it works for them?

 

[infernalproteus]

Glad to see MTNL users commenting. Thanks for the compliments! Guys, if you want me to extend this to MTNL, I'll be glad to, but I need someone to "lend" me their username and password. netfreak has been helping out, but for proper analysis of everything, I'd really need login details. If you're willing you can email or IM them over, I can't use your account as I'm a BSNL user based in Poona.

And what happened to all the BSNL users? Would any of you care to post back with your experience with this extension? As regards password stealing, as I mentioned above, unzip the downloaded files and examine the code within to allay your fears.
If you install the extension, you can go to a location similar to c:\Documents and Settings\brian\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.nwa\extensions\datafox@thegoan.com and examine the code there.

If you have any doubts, ask.

Best,
Brian.

 

[arnav_ch]

check ur pm, i will be glad to lend my username and pass for mtnl.i have sent my username and password for mtnl in pm.check it.

 

[dataoneuser]

QUOTE(infernalproteus @ Feb 12 2007, 04:42 PM) [snapback]79575[/snapback]
Hi Guys,

DataFox is an easy to use, cross platform & customizable extension to Firefox, which you can use monitor your DataOne Broadband bandwidth usage. It is not a standalone program and will only work when installed as an extension to Firefox.
DataFox is non-intrusive and does not monitor your network activity, it just obtains the information from the BSNL website. The collected info is displayed in your Firefox status bar area and additional info is displayed in a tooltip.
...[/b]


Hi infernalproteus,

Your DataFox is simply amazing - Congratulations on your fantastic work!

 

[mammu]

Hey I am also trying this.Lets ee how it works.But Brian don't hack my pc or try use my usage. 😛

 

[Sushubh]

he is a trustworthy guy. and the code is open for scrutiny anyways. 🙂

 

[Sushubh]

dude. please this guy. make a widget for the Opera users. 😉 should not be very tough. u already make widgets for yahoo widgets!

 

[infernalproteus]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Sushubh! Don't worry guys, I'm too old to steal passwords or hack or anything like that. For me, the amount of money I lose in terms of time spent hacking, or resorting to devious means of obtaining passwords, is just not worth it 🙂

The very first thing I did when I got the idea was check how easy it would be in Opera, sadly - you cannot create extensions for Opera and the only option is to make a widget... in which case I would rather write a Yahoo widget... or maybe a Vista Sidebar widget...the purpose however was to have an easy to read and unobtrusive display, something widgets usually aren't. But lets see...
My first upgrade is going to be adding MTNL support, which should be done by the weekend, and then I'll continue with the proposed features on my page.

I forgot to mention (and I'll make this more clear on the site) - DataFox will only check your bandwidth when you ask it to, not otherwise. So even if you keep it on 24x7, no bandwidth will be consumed at all. DataFox will check your usage automatically only when you open a new Firefox window - if you have saved your password - I'll add more control over this in the next version.

Stay tuned and send in some feature requests!

Brian.

 

[Sushubh]

🙁 no opera widget 🙁