Wouldn’t disabling the AI detections and changing your cooldown back to 5 mins for those cams effectively do it (I believe you can configure the cooldown period with Cam Plus but not positive).
Cooldown setting applies only to battery-powered cams. Disabling AI detections will definitely cut down data uploads, but then you’re left with only simple motion detection, extraneous motion detection notifications and have wasted $$$ purchasing a Cam Plus Unlimited subscription. The only things I can think of to help reduce uploads are finely tune detection settings and detection zone, set preferred AI types, turn off IR, install auxiliary IR for night use if necessary to eliminate events created by bugs, rain, etc.
Yeah obviously it would be a waste of the subscription but sounds like the OP is willing to sacrifice that on at least some cams to cut down the data usage. I thought you could still set the minimum time between events with a subscription but maybe not.
If it truly does only upload during motion detection, then I agree, try to eliminate as much “garbage” motion as possible from the detection zone, and definitely don’t use the IR lights if you can help it. Given the amount of data OP is sending, it sounds like right now all 4 cams are basically uploading constantly, so that’s going to be a pretty big feat to cut that down to where it will be less than 50 gigs per month. Once fiber comes along, then they’re golden, upload all you want…
I’m testing 13 cams right now and stats show 70GB down / 9.79GB up. 
That’s the past 24 hours. 
Is that backwards or are the cams at a remote site from those stats?
10 are outside of my local network. All are continuously live streaming. 
They use a pretty small amount of bandwidth but when you have many and they stream all the time, it adds up quick.
Heck I set my mom up with streaming TV (which obviously uses much more b/w than these cams) and she uses close to 100G a month. I think she has me beat.
I’m running very inefficient for my Wyze cams, they’re on an isolated wifi network, so all my viewing, even from the SD card, goes via Wyze servers. I’m sure I could find all the necessary ports and allow those between them and my phone on the main SSID, but it just hasn’t been an issue, so no reason to open even a small security hole.
Yeah mom refuses to let me replace her 32" 720P TV (doesn’t like change) so her streaming uses a lot less B/W. Her only choice up there is Xfinity, they did try a 100G data cap for a while but got rid of it. I switched to FIOS over 10 years ago and would never go back. 300/300 for $30 a month is plenty for me, and I’m in the networking industry. Sure maybe that occasional Linux distro would take a few minutes less with gig, but not worth the extra cost.
I love how ISPs try to convince you that 100/200/300 megs is enough for “one or two people doing basic internet browsing” and that you need 1 or 2 gigs for a normal household of a few people or “streaming”. My mom qualifies for their essentials plan that is $10 a month for 50/10, she probably hits like 20% of that max, and she streams a lot more than I do. Only time it hits 50M is when I upgrade her antivirus or whatever remotely via teamviewer.
What model? See if it can run the free Merlin router firmware. I think I read that Merlin has traffic statistics.
Edit - I just checked, there is “Traffic Analyser” that comes with the standard Asus router firmware.
A lot of the traffic stats feature you see in current Asus router stock firmware came from Merlin. They often incorporate his stuff into stock firmware once it is stable and tested for a while by his users. It is very handy, you can see usage per device and even per application/port for various time periods that you can adjust. Running merlin does give you the extra option of saving it to USB so that you can store a long history of data, and a couple other tweaks, but the stock 30 days is plenty for most.
I run Merlin for the scripting features, I run VLANs and with the exception of the new “Pro” routers, that requires you to go in and configure them manually via the CLI, and the script runs on every reboot since those configs don’t survive a restart.
I used to run a whole rack of professional Cisco gear and Dell servers out of my house, but when I outsourced my hosting and simplified (significantly) my network, I had to go with something that gave me at least some flexibility, and the Asus/Merlin combo fit the bill. Each wifi SSID is on its own VLAN and subnet and very granular firewall rules as to what can or can’t talk between them (actually just about everything is blocked except letting my work PC on the “semi trusted” VLAN print to the printer on my trusted LAN).
I’d say they’re probably the best home oriented routers, but they’re pretty pricey (sometimes good sales or clearance/refurb can be found). TP link is probably the best value for performance, but significantly less features. My next router will likely be the RT-AX88U Pro (native VLAN support and 4x4 2.4ghz which the Wyze cams will like), we’ll see if there are good deals around black friday/xmas. AX is technically old technology at this point and the prices have already come down quite a bit.
My current RT-AC1900 (same as RT-AC68U) is about 7 years old, still going strong. Probably one of the best routers they ever made as far as stability and longevity but it is end of support now, and no more security patches after the end of this year.
Traffic analyser only works on some models, presumably ones with slightly higher computing power and memory. Mine doesn’t have that tab in the menu.
Yeah the N19 is very old, way before the advanced traffic stats. Though in router mode it should be able to tell you basic upload and download usage I believe. AP mode from what I recall will not show that tab.
You are bang on. Do you reckon RT-AX58U V2 would be a reasonable alternative for me? I would like to get a bit more control but at the same time I don’t really have a complex network here at the moment (though I will likely be getting more devices connected over time for basic automation - heating, watering the garden etc).
Although that router is still being supported, the general consensus over at SNBForums is to get an ASUS router with Broadcom BCM4912 CPU for possible longer support because of the 3.0.0.6 firmware (Guest Network Pro feature). However, the current list might be already too overkill for your needs so I won’t even bother with the mesh routers IMO and I don’t recommend to invest in Wi-Fi 6E either at this point in time either.
- RT-AX86U Pro
- RT-AX88U Pro
- GT-AX6000
- GT-AX11000 Pro (overkill)
- GT-AXE16000 (super overkill - no 3.0.0.6 firmware support yet)
- ZenWifi Pro XT12 (super expensive & overkill)
- ZenWifi Pro ET12 (super expensive & overkill - no 3.0.0.6 firmware support yet or Merlin support)
RT-AX58 V2 is technically supported by Merlin if you flash GNUton’s fork. ASUS’ 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) routers are currently still way too expensive. I believe they have lower end models releasing in other regions, but they skimped out on the specs too much for the price. I’ll probably wait for the 2nd wave of cheaper routers to be rolled out.
Alternatively, you can look at GL.iNet’s Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) router. Excellent bang for buck. It uses Mediatek MT7986 CPU and Openwrt supported (if that’s your thing). ASUS’ comparative offering will be TUF-AX6000 (same Mediatek CPU so Openwrt supported, but no Merlin support because of it). ASUS’ TUF-AX4200 uses the same CPU as well, but other specs are nerfed (one 2.5GbE, 2.4GHz 2x2 + 5GHz 2x2 radio stream). I have no idea how long ASUS will support TUF-AX4200 and TUF-AX6000 because they are using Mediatek CPU and you can’t rely on Merlin either because of it.
TP-Link is definitely an option due to it’s great value. However, they pump out so many hardware versions it’s difficult to know if you’ll firmware support longer than 1 year.
Synology routers are on the pricier side, but at least they have generally long term support based on what they are doing with RT2600ac and RT6600ax. If they release Wi-Fi 7 routers, then I’ll definitely check them out too.
If you don’t need extensive 3rd party firmware support, it is a fine router, not top of the line performance but it supports 2x2 160mhz which is what most clients max out at anyway. In reality, maintaining a 160mhz channel in many areas is difficult to impossible, so that isn’t even a big feature. 80mhz will give more than enough bandwidth for most people (around 800 meg actual throughput) and you can avoid the DFS bands and the associated headaches. The rt-ax3000 is the same thing under a different name too. If you want to save a bit, you could look at the rt-ax1800s (less powerful CPU/less memory version of the ollder rt-ax55). A bit less powerful than the 58, but less expensive and it’s a super computer compared to your current one :). Doesn’t support 160mhz, but as I mentioned, that isn’t really a concern. Both models are Mediatek based instead of Broadcom which is why the limited 3rd party support.
Of course, all the ones @grapefruityoda mentions are excellent, but a lot more money too. If you don’t have a need for the guest network pro features (vlans, separate subnets, etc) they may be overkill for you too. At some point I’d like to get the ax88 pro if the price comes down, but I do use the pro features, currently I script them myself so would be nice to have the official support and also the 4th 2.4 ghz stream and antenna. Until then I’m fine on AC, at least until it stops getting security patches end of this year.
Asus really needs to simplify their models, they often have the identical router in 3 different model numbers, two being identical just sold via different stores (to prevent price matching between online and brick and mortar stores) and a 3rd that has more LEDs, colorful antennas, and the gaming version of the GUI.
If you don’t need the fastest possible WiFi speed, don’t need to cover a huge area, don’t care about 3rd party firmware, and want to stay under $100, I think the 1800s and 58U/3000 are both fine choices, especially considering the deals they’ve been having on both.
The AX68U pops up on a good sale from time to time but it is a really old model, one of the original AX, and may actually go end of support sooner than the others.
I will say of you have a lot of IOT devices spread over a large area, you may want to consider a router that supports 3x3 or 4x4 on the 2.4 band. Though for less than the price of most of those, you could get two of the models above and run aimesh (or just put one in AP mode and run standalone).
If you can afford them, either the 86u pro or 88u pro are probably the best ones right now. GT-AX6000 is equivalent, if you like the extra lights and gaming option in the web GUI, but Asus seems to have sort of forgotten about this model somewhat, focusing more on the other two
Thanks both of you, the question started with traffic monitoring but if I am to upgrade the router/AP, might as well improve coverage and stability and also think about future IOT use. I won’t ever need complex guest networking or other stuff you mentioned so might go with the 58U for the time being.
I also found another post about reverting some cameras from Cam Unlimited to Cam Plus Lite and it is still not possible, which is a shame. I might have to split the 2 locations between two Wyze accounts which is definitely not ideal. We shall see.
Thanks again for all the helpful tips
I may be wrong but I don’t think you can create a new cam lite account. Old accounts are grandfathered in, and once that account moves to subscription, I don’t think it can go back either.
I’m running a public facing web server from my house so for me uplink speed is more important than downlink speed. When I had Spectrum cable based Internet, I started with (official number) 100 Mb/s down and 10 Mb/s up. Over time they jacked up the downlink speed to 200 and later 300, but the uplink speed remained at 10 (actually got about 12 Mb/s). So when Frontier fiber became available, I jumped on it. I don’t really need Gig, but I have it and it works great.
Now they are at 20 Mb/s; one of the reasons I switched to another ISP.