3 Smart Ways to Track and Adjust Your Internet Usage

The expenses of living in an off-campus apartment are many, and some bills can fluctuate, like the one for your internet. Here are some tips for tracking your internet usage and keeping your bill as low as possible.

Remember a time when you weren’t arguing with your roommates over who paid their fair share of the bills for the month? On-campus dorm living certainly has its downsides (like having to share one bathroom with a floor of students), but at least the bills are covered. If you’re sharing an off-campus apartment with one or more roommates, the debate over who is paying for what can rival the best Supreme Court arguments.

Of all the bills, the internet is probably the most hotly debated, especially if you’re dealing with a monthly data cap. How do you get around the war over which roommate's gaming used up the most data? Here are a couple of ideas to track your internet usage that don’t involve spending more money on equipment or service plans.

1. Make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for

If you suspect that excessive data usage is cutting into the speed of your internet connection, do a quick broadband test to make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for. Try a free test site like speedof.me. Test at different times of the day, specifically once when everyone’s online and once when everyone is not. If you aren’t clocking close to optimal speeds, get in touch with your provider to find out why and have it adjusted as soon as possible.

Related: 5 Smart Tech Security Options for Off-Campus Housing

2. Do a “data vampire” purge

If your connection speed is where it should be, ask everyone in the house to do three things (honestly, they should be doing them anyway):

  1. Run a virus and malware scan on all devices to clear out any unwanted programs that are eating up data without their knowledge.
  2. Check to make sure that no applications are running in the background on their computers, as programs that run 24/7 can use a lot of data.
  3. Do the same thing with smartphones. Background data usage and updates can dig into your home Wi-Fi data. Shut down any activity trackers that are running around the clock.

3. Check your router

Internet usage monitoring apps are available for free (or for a small fee) that let you track your overall data usage. But the most accurate way to monitor Wi-Fi data usage is through your router. Log in to your router’s settings to see the amount of Wi-Fi data each connected device uses. You can also kick out any devices you and your roommates don’t recognize.

Additional solution: Buy separate Wi-Fi time

The problem may not be you or the general household; perhaps one of your roommates has been on a gaming spree lately. If there’s a data hog, it might make more sense for them to buy the internet time they need separately. Pay-as-you-go internet lets you buy passes by the hour, week, or month, making it easier to avoid arguments over household data spikes.

Related: 5 Tips for New Roommates

It’s never a perfect paradise with roommates, especially in the digital age with so many additional things to pay for. If you can potentially avoid money conflicts before they happen, it’s best to arm yourself now and save everyone some first-of-the-month headaches.

Learn more about on- and off-campus living in our Student Life section.

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:
data usage internet paying bills roommates technology

About Kristin Hackler

Kristin Hackler is a ghostwriter and serial freelancer. When she's not writing, you can find her playing (or running after) her two free-range boys and baking up a storm.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress
Melanie Kajy

Melanie Kajy

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress has helped me tremendously during my senior year of high school. I started off using the college search to find more information about the universities I was interested in. Just this tool alone gave me so much information about a particular school. It was my one-stop shop to learn about college. I was able to find information about college tuition, school rank, majors, and so much more that I can't list it all. The college search tool has helped me narrow down which college I want to attend, and it made a stressful process surprisingly not so stressful. I then moved to the scholarship search tool to find scholarships to apply for because I can't afford to pay for tuition myself. The search tool helped me find scholarships that I was eligible for. The tool gave me all the information I could ever need about a particular scholarship that was being offered. The CollegeXpress scholarship search tool is so much better than other tools offered, like the Chegg scholarship search. Thanks to CollegeXpress, I was able to apply to tons of scholarships in a relatively easy way!

Lorena Bacallao

Lorena Bacallao

High School Class of 2022

CollegeXpress was the foundation of my college search process. Because of CollegeXpress, I was able to make a more informed and confident decision as to where it was best to pursue my higher education. I have recommended this website to fellow peers and for first-generation students like me. It’s a website I will continue to promote because of how simple it was to use and how many opportunities were offered to me at my fingertips!

Heaven Johnson

Heaven Johnson

Back to School Scholarship Winner, High School Class of 2023

I’d like to thank everyone on the CollegeXpress team for their generosity. Not only have I been awarded this scholarship, but CollegeXpress makes it easier to apply and gives amazing tips for schools and scholarships. I am extremely grateful as this will help with my schooling and allow me to be able to enter into the field I’ve been dreaming of all my life. 

Ana Sophia Garcia-Cubas Assemat

Ana Sophia Garcia-Cubas Assemat

$10,000 Scholarship Winner, 2020

CollegeXpress has been an instrumental resource for my scholarship search and has given me the opportunity to try my best so I can graduate from college debt-free.

Tinuola Dada

Tinuola Dada

$2,000 Community Service Scholarship Winner, 2015

I am very excited to be this year's recipient of the Multicultural Student Community Service Scholarship. This scholarship will bring me ever closer to my academic and professional goals. CollegeXpress has been an exceptional resource to me, and I recommend it to all rising seniors as they begin to navigate the college application process.

College Matches
X

Colleges You May Be Interested In

Geneva College

Beaver Falls, PA

Simpson College

Indianola, IA

Schreiner University

Kerrville, TX