Sometimes you need to know how much data you’re using on your home network, or how much a single device is using out of the total. With Google’s OnHub routers, it’s easy.
Like most everything else about the OnHub “ecosystem” (yeah, I’m tired of that word, too) you do this right from the Google On app. So grab your phone, fire up the Google On app and let’s see how it’s done.
Make sure you’re looking at the Overview screen. That’s the one that (hopefully) tells you everything looks good and has a simple network diagram. Go ahead and tap on that network diagram and you’ll get a list of devices. In the upper right, there’s a drop down list box labeled Data usage. You can already see where this one’s heading, so tap on it.
You have a few different time scales there — real-time (as of five seconds ago), one hour, seven days and 30 days. These do exactly what you think they would do. If you choose real-time, you can see the network traffic in Mbps (both upload and download) for each device in the list. If you choose any of the others, you see the total data used for that time period. You also see a grand total next to the Devices list item above your list of devices.
You can also tap on any device in the list and dive down for a closer look. You have the same time periods to choose from, in a drop down dialog in the same place. Choosing a seven or 30 day time period gives you a fancy graph that plots your data use over the selected period.
You also have network details like the IP Address and MAC Address for the selected device.
This all is a perfect example of what the OnHub routers are good at — simple network management for a simple network. Getting the information you’re looking for with just a few taps inside a clean interface is perfect for many consumers who just want something that works great and is easy to use. We all hope Google has bigger plans for OnHub and the Internet of Things, but as it stands there is plenty to like about OnHub.