VPN access

Can anyone tell me how much data usage is taken up by teleworking with VPN to my work?

All depends on what you are doing across it, a VPN uses very little data, unless you are copying files to/from remote server, or using a remote desktop.

Hi thanks for responding

I don't download files just access the server at work to work on files, read emails etc I am migrating to BT and have 10GB monthly usage ordered as I don't download music/films etc but just thought about accessing work as I do that most evenings and weekends.

Forgot to add I do use remote desktop

Edited by deleted (Sun 08-Apr-12 15:50:20)

You need to measure your usage which the VPN link should record anyway, and keep a note to get an estimate.

VPN is not like as easy to estimate as video streaming

In reply to a post by fergus50:

Can anyone tell me how much data usage is taken up by teleworking with VPN to my work?

The VPN itself generates very little traffic. Maybe none at all. What matters is what you do with it. Downloading files locally will eat into your allowance obviously but Remote Desktop doesn't have to use much.

It will depend on how the remoting is performed. Some remote desktop software (VNC is one I think) actually send the desktop as a bitmap and that could involve sending a lot of data although presumably it tries to only send what's changed. Remote Desktop that comes with Windows doesn't do that - it sends drawing instructions when it can and relies on your local machine to render the graphics. Thus it can say 'draw a button here' rather than having to send several hundred pixels worth of bitmap. That means it's quite efficient and won't use up much of your allowance. But if you're working with anything graphic such as a video presentation on the remote machine then it would probably eat up a lot of your allowance no matter what remote software you use. You can probably tell how your software works by whether it seamlessly adapts to your local monitor or if it needs to scale the remote machine's screen.

But if you're just controlling a remote machine and editing text documents or spreadsheets on it I doubt it will use much bandwidth if it's the efficient type of software (ie;Windows Remote Desktop). Our office connection has 4Mb/s down and 2Mb/s up yet three of us can work from home during bad weather. We control machines to either modify Word documents, develop software using Visual Studio or configure SharePoint or Exchange servers. For three of us to share the office connection suggests very little bandwidth for remote controlling those machines.

Edit: An interesting document here - http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=bandwidth+r...

Also:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2009/03/03/top-1...

Edited by Andrue (Sun 08-Apr-12 17:58:47)

Many thanks - this is extremely helpful.

you can also use the TB Bandwidth meter as well as it gives you daily log on the pc its running on (if you reg it as well you can see the stats on TB site as well), not sure if you can install it thought as your laptop mite prevent program install unless its your laptop

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter/stats.html for the stats if you register it (need an account on the home page)

if you work all day from home i would of thought 10gb an month mite be bit low as thats less then 500mb an day [based on 20 working days or 330mb an day over an month], depends what your doing on the laptop ignoring the VPN as thats just an secure link does not change the amount of data used much (can be less if its compression is enabled)

if the 10gb caped connection is your only connection you should look at how much they charge you per 1gb when you go over 10gb usage, best thing to do is just monitor your connection this site has the tools

Edited by leexgx (Mon 09-Apr-12 01:06:32)

if I work from home then its about 3G for the month in addition to the other stuff I do.

Hi

Many thanks - I wouldn't be working from home every day so think I may be ok but as you say I will have to monitor this - cost for going over is £5 up to 5GB.

Hi

That sounds as though I will be fine with 10GB.

thankyou