Posted on Wed 12 December 2018
We've had a nominal gigabit fiber connection for more than a year now. Let's take a look at how much of it we've been using.
Luckily, my firewall keeps track for me.
$ vnstat -m -i eth3
| month | rx | tx | total | avg. rate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan '18 | 476.82 GiB | 26.09 GiB | 502.91 GiB | 1.58 Mbit/s |
| Feb '18 | 430.73 GiB | 30.39 GiB | 461.12 GiB | 1.60 Mbit/s |
| Mar '18 | 382.38 GiB | 17.60 GiB | 399.99 GiB | 1.25 Mbit/s |
| Apr '18 | 452.32 GiB | 17.65 GiB | 469.97 GiB | 1.52 Mbit/s |
| May '18 | 455.75 GiB | 34.72 GiB | 490.47 GiB | 1.54 Mbit/s |
| Jun '18 | 522.26 GiB | 17.81 GiB | 540.07 GiB | 1.75 Mbit/s |
| Jul '18 | 748.34 GiB | 144.52 GiB | 892.86 GiB | 2.80 Mbit/s |
| Aug '18 | 814.23 GiB | 165.32 GiB | 979.55 GiB | 3.07 Mbit/s |
| Sep '18 | 631.82 GiB | 131.18 GiB | 762.99 GiB | 2.47 Mbit/s |
| Oct '18 | 526.85 GiB | 79.50 GiB | 606.35 GiB | 1.90 Mbit/s |
| Nov '18 | 483.52 GiB | 44.77 GiB | 528.29 GiB | 1.71 Mbit/s |
| Dec '18 | 258.28 GiB | 34.11 GiB | 292.39 GiB | 2.39 Mbit/s |
| estimated | 674.82 GiB | 89.12 GiB | 763.94 GiB | --- | ||||
Yes, out of a nominal 1000Mbit/s and a measurable peak 970Mbit/s, we use a sustained... 2. Sometimes 3.
That is, if you smeared our usage out across all 24 hours of each day, that's what we use. I assure you that we would not be happy if we got a 5Mbit/s line. Instantaneous demand is a real thing.