Yes it does mean something but as you have a wired setup with one computer only it is not applicable to your case. All they are saying is that Netmeter only counts the traffic on the ethernet port of the PC it is running on and other machines may be using some too. As there are no other machines it doesn't apply to your case.

The ISP will be counting IP traffic I image as will Netmeter and some routers count the full ATM data which is considerably more. That could make the discrepancy even higher.

The answer, as always, is simple - if you aren't happy with the ISP move on assuming you can do so without incurring penalties because you are still in the minimum contract.

Possible closure on this - the ISP are now saying that some other customers have had similar issues, and that 'our supplier has carried out numerous tests and that we should have complete confidence in the figures for broadband usage that they supply from January onwards.'

I'll see whether I share that confidence in a month's time. Their November figure was still more than twice the amount that the router logged.

Moral of the story as far as I'm concerned is that I might have been better off having broadband from the retail arm of a wholesaler (eg from BT) than from a reseller (the Phone Coop reselling Telecomplete).

As it was, I never did get any direct contact from Telecomplete, and the Phone Coop consistently ignored my requests for even a sample set of daily usage figures. All they were prepared to supply was a paper copy of a monthly usage graph.

In reply to:

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might have been better off having broadband from the retail arm of a wholesaler (eg from BT)

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Wrong!

A good LLU supplier such as Be or Sky (but not Sky Connect). Or a good IPStream seller such as one of the Enta resellers, (vivaciti, ukfsn, ADSL24, aquiss, falconnet), Newnet, IDNet, Zen.

Certainly NOT BT Broadband, Tiscali, Orange, Nildram.

You shouldn't get direct contact from Telecomplete as your contract is not with them it is with the Phone co-op. The phone co-op you say have offered to show you the usage chart, this will show you the month and break down the weeks, it doesn't break down to daily use.

Hope things improve for you. I have found the graphs very accurate, but I am aware that the PC are not too hot on sorting problems.