Bandwidth Monitoring

The Bandwidth Monitoring menu contains settings for Bandwidth Monitoring features. This menu contains sections including Bandwidth Monitoring, Backup (of monitoring statistics in rstats format) and Restore.

Enable: Checking this turns on the Bandwidth Monitoring feature. (Default: Enabled).

Save History Location: From this menu, you choose where Bandwidth Monitoring history files are saved.

The options include:

• RAM (Temporary) - This will save Bandwidth Monitoring history files to the router's RAM.
  • Since this is temporary storage, contents will disappear after a reboot or crash.

• NVRAM - This will save Bandwidth Monitoring history to NVRAM.
  • NVRAM is permanent storage, but is often tiny on routers.

• JFFS2 - This will save monitoring files to a portion of flash RAM formatted with JFS.
  • JFFS is a journalling, log-structured file system.
  • JFFS partitions are managed in the Administration/JFFS menu.
  • Storage space available depends on your router hardware and the build installed.
  • FreshTomato and any JFFS2 partitions share storage space on the same chip.
  • The larger the build, the less space left for JFFS2 partitions.
  • The upgrade process rewrites the whole flash chip, so data on JFFS is destroyed.
  • To avoid this, FreshTomato stops you from upgrading firmware until JFFS is disabled.
  • You must back up the data on JFFS storage before a firmware upgrade.

• CIFS1 - This makes FreshTomato write bandwidth logs to the first external CIFS network share.
  • CIFS Client connections to CIFS shares are configured in the CIFS Client menu.
• CIFS2 - This will let FreshTomato write bandwidth statistics to the second external CIFS share.
  • CIFS network shares are configured in the Administration/CIFS Client menu.

• Custom Path - This allows you to create a custom directory within the JFFS2 storage space.
  • This is useful when using JFFS2 for other storage tasks, so you can organize the storage into folders.

(Default: RAM).

Save Frequency: This specifies how often Bandwidth Monitoring saves logs. (Default: TBD). The more often data is saved, the less likely it will be lost due to adverse events like power outages or crashes.

Save on Shutdown: Checking this makes FreshTomato save bandwidth logs immediately if it receives a shutdown signal. This prevents data loss.

Create New File: Checking this erases your current log file and creates a new one. This is useful when you switch storage media/locations (such as moving from RAM to CIFS). FreshTomato must create a new file in order for logs to be saved properly.

Create Backups: Enabling this makes FreshTomato create backup logs. The backups are put in the same folder as the original files, and given a .bak file ending. (Default: Disabled).

First Day of the Month: This value sets the first day of the month for bandwidth logs. For example, if you enter 3, FreshTomato makes the third day of each month the first day it records bandwidth monitoring. (Default: 1). This is useful with certain ISPs which log/bill for bandwidth starting on a day other than the first of the month.

Excluded Interfaces: Here, you specify the device name of any interfaces whose bandwidth you don't want to be monitored/logged. If you list more than one, the names must be separated by commas.

Here you can back up the bandwidth monitoring log file, naming it whatever you choose. FreshTomato creates a default filename, but clicking the cursor in the field lets you edit the log's filename. After you click Save, the new file name will take effect.

Backup files are are saved in the GNU .gz (gzip) format. This is an archive format, similar to .zip. It can be easily opened by programs in Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Backup: Clicking on the Backup button will download the log file to your browser. The browser will open a window prompting you to Open or Save the file. Generally, you click Save, and the browser prompts you to browse to the location to save the backup log.

Hovering your mouse over the blue “link” will make your browser display the full path of the backup file location in the browser's status area. It will also prompt you for where to store the existing Bandwidth Monitor backup file.

The Browse… button lets you find existing Bandwidth Monitoring logs to restore to the location selected in the Save History Location menu. FreshTomato will expect to find a GNU .gz (gzip) archive file.

If you Restore an existing Bandwidth Monitoring log to the same location it was originally stored, FreshTomato will continue to log bandwidth statistics to the same file, continuing where it left off.