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Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

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Zero-Point reviewed v5.1.1 on Aug 14, 2009

At first when I had seen the firewall policy, I was unhappy with another application trying to do everything to keep people to upgrade. After taking a look at it, it was a bit different as Cookie28 has noted. Basically provide access or not...but I don't want to see it try to turn into a full fledged firewall.

Yes, some may not realize, but some vendors' policy is to pay for upgrades for major revisions and DeskSoft is one. If I recall, i think I upgraded to their lifetime free upgrade promotion when it was available.

And why should you *not* have to reboot after installing this? Did you write the application, or do you not have to reboot after installing drivers on your system (which this does)?

scious reviewed v5.1.0 on Jul 23, 2009

Trouble installing. I should not have to reboot my computer to install the program. Will probably want a reboot once its installed also.
Disgraceful upgrade police - 30 days only.

Cookie28 reviewed v5.0.2 on Jul 16, 2009

v5 now even works as a firewall! And it seems smarter than the other solutions, because it just asks once per program if you want to let it access the internet or not - that's exactly how I want it.

emanresU deriseD reviewed v5.0.2 on Jul 15, 2009

- Fix: Further screwed existing customers.

davana reviewed v4.3.5 on May 7, 2009

After I installed this I go blue screen crashes. Then my internet stopped working.

emanresU deriseD reviewed v4.3.3 on Apr 16, 2009

It irritates me significantly that I paid full price for BWMeter (not to mention a couple other DeskSoft applications), then paid for an upgrade, yet I am STILL not eligible for free lifetime upgrades.

I'll remember that, DeskSoft. Oh, yes I will.

Zero-Point reviewed v4.3.2 on Mar 31, 2009

For what it's worth, DeskSoft is currently offering lifetime free upgrades on BWMeter.

Love this app even with the price. I never had a need before, but recently I wanted to gather some metrics of network usage a particular application generated, so I created a new filter and used the stopwatch to record total transfer and min/max/avg transfer rate. Worked great.

gadean reviewed v4.3.0 on Feb 27, 2009

This new version is absolutely perfect! Locked windows can now be closed by clicking the x, windows now respond to screen resolution changes, and it keeps getting better with each new build. Great work, Desksoft!

gadean reviewed v4.1.8 on Dec 15, 2008

I generally agree that spending a little more for an awesome app is worthwhile but $30 is a little much. I have to agree with you, PaulieFresh.

There are two bugs which drive me insane. The first bug exists when the screen resolution changes - if you're not careful the windows will disappear. Most apps will detect screen resolution changes and automatically re-adjust themselves so they remain on-screen. I use this program in an enterprise-level network where we use remote desktop exclusively. Depending on which computer we're using remote desktop from we may go from 800x600 to 1280x1024. If the meters are set to show near the edge of the screen(which I often find myself doing so they are out of the way) they can disappear when you enter a low resolution environment. Very annoying. Most other applications will snap themselves back into view so this would not be an issue.

The other and most definately smaller bug (if one can even call it that) exists when the windows are locked to a particular position on the screen. The X (close) button no longer works! The way I interpret the window lock mode is that the position is locked - not that it should disable the entire window and be unresponsive to mouse clicks!

Besides both bugs this application is just about perfect. It's the best in its class which is why I continue to use it. I highly recommend it to anyone connected to a network!

PaulieFresh reviewed v4.1.7 on Sep 30, 2008

I had to give this a 4 because of the price. They have every right to charge what they want, but $30 is way too much for this. Don't get me wrong though, I love this program to death. I'd just like to point out that if it weren't so over-priced, they would have more customers. :-)

Undesired Username reviewed v4.1.5 on Sep 12, 2008

Blaming any third party for a problem related to a Kaspersky product is like blaming earthworms for global warming. Point the finger where it belongs: At Kaspersky. I've used Kaspersky products extensively, and it's like hanging from your toes... Except not as much fun.

BWMeter is great for taking statistics, if you can't or don't want to do this at the router level. BWMeter can handle remote stats, too. I've checked BWMeter against Tomato firmware's stats, and they're in exact agreement.

Get used to the idea of collecting stats, with broadband bandwidth caps on the horizon... :(

Good stuff. (BWMeter, not bandwidth caps.)

SuperMel3447 reviewed v4.1.3 on Aug 27, 2008

BWMeter provides excellent LAN and Internet usage facilities. I especially like the graphics and the ability to specify the location folder where the data will be stored. Also, the ability to 'collect' usage data from other individual BWMeter equipped pc's on the network is very cool.

However, shortly after I paid for the discounted v4.x.x upgrade, available to previously registered users, BWMeter began to freeze my Vista pc on every startup, so I had to uninstall!

The problem is incompatibility with Kaspersky IS 2009, for which Desksoft take the easy way out and blame Kaspersky: In my communication with Desksoft, and their Russian programmers, it seemed that they couldn't differentiate between KIS 2007 & KIS 2009 - so sadly, don't hold your breath waiting for a fix from Desksoft!

Undesired Username reviewed v4.1.3 on Aug 25, 2008

BitMeter!!!!! D:

*cough*BitMeter doesn't handle LAN traffic*cough*

http://www.desksoft.com

gadean reviewed v4.1.1 on Jul 15, 2008

Version 4.1.1(15.07.08)

* New: prepared versioning of filters and graphs so that future versions can import old configuration data easily
* Fix: reduced size of exe file
* Fix: various small internal improvements and bug fixes

Undesired Username reviewed v4.1.0 on Jul 15, 2008

Thanks for the advice, ajua, but I was deleting the LAN graph. The problem is that the associated file on disk (LAN.gph) does not get deleted, as it should. So, when I'd delete the LAN graph, the interface would make it seem as if it was gone, but when BWMeter was restarted, it read the LAN.gph file anew, and the LAN graph would still appear. BWMeter 4.1.1 is out now, and the issue is still there. The solution is to close BWMeter and manually delete x.gph (and only x.gph), where "x" is the name of the graph you want to permanently remove.

You didn't have the graph size issue because your BWMeter configuration differs from mine. Once I figured out the workaround noted above (i.e. manually deleting LAN.gph), the problem went away.

Users of versions prior to 4.1.0 who wish to update may not be happy to find that they need to uninstall BWMeter and delete all their existing settings, and reconfigure everything from scratch. This seems to have been improved going forward (starting with 4.1.1), since the author has made it so this won't have to be done again.

ajua reviewed v4.1.0 on Jul 14, 2008

@Undesired Username
If you don't want the LAN the graphic to show up when you start BWMeter, delete it from the Graphs list.

About the program not remembering graph sizes, i didn't have that problem. It remembered them.

I'm without it now because i can't use it with Kaspersky Internet Security because my Vista freezes when starting up.

I already send info to Desksoft and Kaspersky about this, but i haven't seen any solution so far.

Undesired Username reviewed v4.0.1 on Jul 10, 2008

I have money and don't mind spending it on good software. So, I was considering registering BWMeter. That is, until I found an annoying bug: I carefully configured the graphs, but found that their size and position was not remembered between runs. I also had a "LAN" filter added after each restart, which was annoying.

I don't have time for bug reporting on software I haven't even purchased yet. (80% of the time you get blown off with a "can't reproduce it" line of crap.)

NetMeter does NOT "do it all", don't be ridiculous. I haven't found any other meter that can differentiate between LAN and WAN traffic. And that's just one point. BWMeter also lets you monitor traffic, start/stop it, report on it, meter it, etc. NetMeter can't do any of that. Try it before you cry it.

ajua reviewed v3.3.0 on Oct 16, 2007

The best traffic monitor. The graphs are the best of all traffic monitors. Net Meter is free but the graphs are really ugly. The price of this one is a little bit high but it is the best out there.

Note: i can get this to work in vista. Windows freezes when booting up. Maybe it is a conflict Kaspersky Internet Security and BWMeter.

aruprc reviewed v3.2.2 on Sep 18, 2007

Nice program but Net Meter does it all and for free. $30 is a bit too high for a program like this.

ISR reviewed v2.4.2 on Apr 7, 2006

Nice features and interface, but the main reason it's ahead of most of the other meters is the fact that it allows you to track local and internet traffic seperately (as mentioned prev). However the price is simply too high given that many of the free meters are similar and adding the ability to track traffic seperately should not be that hard. I don't know why I havent seen any that do... BWmeter simply does it by adding a filter to seperate between local ip range 192.168.xxx.xxx and everything else. Can't be that hard to do... If you don't mind a clunkier interface and installing .NET you can track internet only traffic with NET Traffic Meter by adding your local ips to the exclude list.

kashin reviewed v2.3.1 on May 17, 2005

If you're connected to a router like me, this program can be extremely useful to you. Like httpd.confused pointed out, it can separately measure LAN (local) and Internet traffic on the same network interface. Something most other utilities of this nature cannot do. I have been using DU Meter for nearly 4 years and recently switched to BWMeter, simply because DU Meter cannot distinguish between local and internet traffic. However, I do agree this utility is on the pricey side. Lately I have noticed a trend in shareware getting more and more expensive.

httpd.confused reviewed v2.2.1 on Dec 6, 2004

I love it when people see a shareware product that merely looks similar to an existing (but cheaper) product, on the surface, and then automatically--and mindlessly--assign a low rating to it. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

In fact, NetMeter doesn't hold a candle to BWMeter. The latter utility can show actual traffic on LAN and/or internet connections, show LAN and/or internet graphs, and more--things that the other utiltiies mentioned can't do.

I do think that, despite the respectable feature set, the price of BWMEter is a bit over the top. DeskSoft has always had that habit, with all of their utilities. Personally, I tried it, and decided that it wasn't for me, since I already have DU Meter and CommView.

Zero-Point reviewed v1.0 on Dec 9, 2003

Maybe it's not free. Oh well. This is very configurable. Have people even tried it? Yes NetMeter and samurize are free, but even when I tried NetMeter, I went back to DU Meter and purchased it. I have tried samurize, but it is quite confusing/difficult/scripting intense and mostly, everything is on the desktop. I never see my desktop (except after login).

The one thing I look for when trying new programs is the support. I have rarely come across support shown by DeskSoft in the past week. I sent an email suggesting transparency and another option. The next day I received a reply saying they added it to their to-do list. Two days later, they sent me a "beta" with the my suggestions implemented. I replied with some bugs and more suggestions today, and received a detailed response in less than two hours with another "beta" with bug fixes.

yyota reviewed v1.0 on Dec 6, 2003

www.samurize.com and it's free

SlowNeasy reviewed v1.0 on Dec 6, 2003

$25 when Netmeter http://readerror.gmxhome.de/ is better in every way AND free.