Skip to main content

No burning through the data allowance

An unexpected result!

My internet service went down yesterday, so I ended up facing the prospect of going internet cold turkey for a night, getting close to the desperate level of giving up and reading a book.

At the last minute, it occurred to me to test whether the Linux Mint machine ("Gandalf") would connect seamlessly to a new wifi device (an Android hot spot).  And, because the device is metered, it gave me the chance to have a feel for Gandalf's data consumption.

Findings

Gandalf connected seamlessly to the new wifi device.

Upon checking the wifi useage meter the following day, I saw that in the month to end 29 June 2018, the total data transmitted was 0.31Gb (of an allowance of 2Gb).

Obviously, there's no useful comparable.  The Android normally connects to a wifi connection, so is  seldom on the mobile data network.  This means that the bulk of the 0.31Gb was consumed by Gandalf.

The use of Gandalf was to grive data twice, with ten internet sessions looking for useful references for my other blog.  The data being grived was one LibreOffice Writer file - another test in progress - meaning that, for the most part, most use required no data transfer at all.

In turn, this suggests that Gandalf - Linux Mint 18.3 Xcfe - is relatively quiet on a network.  It seems to chat only when it needs to, or the user requests/sends data.

Quite a different experience from running Windows.  Switch Windows on and you, the user, are pushed to the back of the queue while every service known to mankind wants to work as a mega-top priority, "just checking for updates" and all that.  No wonder a Windows user needs to wait 10 minutes after logging on before starting to do some productive work.  I'd need data to be sure, but with just 0.31Gb, it's a good half of a story to tell.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Scanning & OCRring to PDF: Simple Scan, gimagereader and gscan2pdf v NAPS2 for Windows

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to scanning paper documents to PDF and digitising the scanned text via optical character recognition. Environment & required functionality The scan-and-OCR function needs to run on the following machines: The Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 laptop " Gandalf "; A Linux Mint Xfce 18.3 virtual machine " Gimli "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas ". In any modern office - whether at home or at work - some transactional documents and documents from public authorities still arrive by snail-mail. This requires the ability to scan all documents, optionally with the digitisation of scanned text (typically via optical character recognition). The hardware is an old HP OfficeJet Pro 276dw, connected to the LAN instead of directly to a workstation. Alternatives There are two strategies: To use the software pr...

Adjusting screen brightness

The machine on which Linux Mint is installed an old Acer Aspire 5732Z (" Gandalf ") It has buttons to adjust the brightness of the screen's backlight.  When the user uses these buttons, Linux Mint correctly presented a fading-popup box (a slider bar) to denote relative brightness.  But Linux Mint did not actually adjust the brightness of the screen. It seems to be a known issue in the Linux Mint forums  and solved in multiple  stages by the Easy Tips Project . I followed the instructions on Easy Tips section 5.2  in Gandalf's admin account, then re-booted, then logged in using the user account, and the brightness adjustment function worked correctly. Easy Tips asks the user to discover the relevant property of the machine, then creates a file that contains a script of parameters that other programs in Linux Mint understand. This method worked for Gandalf, because Gandalf has an integrated Intel chipset. Useful commands at the Terminal ALT+T (or th...

Keepass and KeepassX

The project is to build a Linux Mint machine to have the identical functionality and ergonomics as the existing Windows 10 machine. This stage relates to password manager, Keepass. Environment & required functionality A number of encrypted password vaults synchronise between three machines: The Linux Mint Xfce laptop " Gandalf "; The Windows 10 laptop " Legolas "; Another Windows 10 machine, name withheld to protect the guilty. The synchronisation agent is Google Drive in Windows 10, and grive2 in Linux Mint. Alternatives My original decision to use Keepass was in 2016 and was based on: Keepass is open-source; Keepass is locally stored, not stored in the cloud; Keepass does not automatically plug into the browser (a plugin permits this if ever necessary); higher security standards at the office, worth deploying at home; portability of the password vault via Google Drive, encrypted such that Google would not be able to slurp data from an o...