Norton Mobile Utilities Public Beta

[DaveSyd]

Hi there I'm trying out NMU since last version. I do like the update where you have moved SD properties to the device tab, and the Usage screen know has both Mobile Data and Wifi Data usage.

However the problem is now in the settings screen for usage you can only set mobile data limit for the month but not Wifi Data limit. Somehow it seems to set it's own to render the graph. at first it was 150MB then 250MB, 500MB or something. So it's a moving target and worse still mine know appears to have overflowed the field showing a negative number - see the picture. The real limit I have for wifi is high, but I'd like to understand more...will the graph show over 100% or change color or how does it indicate over the limit?

Thanks

[DistEd2 Super Bot Obliterator Mobile Master (Norton Mobile Users Discussion Forum)]

Team NMU just addressed this in a recent thread: the overflow issue is a bug they've been able to reproduce; it'll be fixed in the next update to the Beta. As for the "moving target," tthey've evidently done that to allow for situations where there IS NO limit (ordinarily, Wi-Fi would be one of them), but the user might still be interested in tracking their usage. So as it gets toward the top of the scale, it adjusts.. Without that capability--since the end of the bar has to be set SOMEWHERE--you'd either be unable to see the bar at the beginning of the period (because you'd used so little), or the bar would fill up MIDWAY THROUGH the period (because you'd shot past the high mark) and wouldn't provide any value to you again until it reset. Pretty clever solution.

Now, as to your feedback on setting a limit...am I understanding you that you have a limit on your WI-FI usage? I've never seen that before. How does that work? If that's a common situation, I imagine they'll want to include that ability in a future release, but they'll want to understand the need.

[DaveSyd]

Thanks for the reply. Agree on the scaling of wifi - but many people in Aus have a wifi limit per month. In fact 'unlimited' plans are the minority in many countries. Although the amount is shared amount your network, mine is 25GB per month. So I may want to put 3 or 5gb as a limit on the phone to make sure I get a notification.

The last comment I was trying to understand if the Mobile data usage goes over 100% will the graph rescale? In my case I can still use the data but I pay for excess because it's not inside the cap value.

The other aspect is a lot of mobile plans here have certain social network sites (fb, Li, Tw etc) which do not accrue against the usage but you have to go through their portal ie they are free if you use the right url. It would be great to be able to specify a list of free URLs that do not accrue against data usage.

Thanks

[DistEd2 Super Bot Obliterator Mobile Master (Norton Mobile Users Discussion Forum)]

Ahh, OK; thanks for the clarification! I imagine the Norton folks already knew that, but it's news to me. That could certainly make a difference, and makes the idea of the ability to set a Wi-Fi limit like the 3G/Mobile limit much more attractive. Since they already measure Wi-Fi usage and could likely re-use much of the same code they wrote for 3G, this could be fairly easy to do, and extremely useful for Symantec's international customers.

My understanding from other posts I've seen from Team NMU on the subject is that the scaling just applies for users who haven't set a limit; that would imply that if you have set a limit and gone over it, the bar would not scale, but would stay full, while the actual figures on your usage would continue to rise. But obviously, I've never experienced it myself since I'm unlimited for Wi-Fi and 3G.

Thanks for the suggestion at the end--sounds like another feature that would be extremely useful for international customers, but could be a fair bit more effort on the coding. Are you just saying that the user would have a setup option where they could type in these URLs? And would they need to be able to enter every site that was free, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. (i.e., multiple URLs), or just their provider's portal (i.e., just one URL)?

[erik_carlstrom]

Interesting. Normally when we think of wifi we think of a wireless router as a part of a broadband connection. Do you have a connection that is more akin to a widespread wireless connection? Something like a mobile data plan, but using a wifi connection? You mention having the ability to add URL's, but do they redirect or change after you get to the site after their portal? If the URL changes too much it may be difficult to do what you suggest.

[DistEd2 Super Bot Obliterator Mobile Master (Norton Mobile Users Discussion Forum)]

Erik,

I just thought of something: I wonder if he's got something like Hughes.net -- i.e., a satellite broadband connection (common in rural areas in the U.S. too) that plugs into a wireless router. Those systems tend to have metered usage plans--which would make "Wi-Fi" usage (from the perspective of the mobile device) significant to the user because they'll get billed for it by their satellite provider.

This may be something worth putting in for the domestic market as well....

[Andmike]

Earlier this year I changed away from a metered broadband to "unlimited".  I think there are still a lot of people in the UK who have a download limit on their home broadband, through which I assume most WiFi is provided.

However this then gets more complicated as I can log on to a Free WiFi service at some local cafes, etc.. so should I be able to specify when connecting whether Norton should count this WiFi router or not?  Could be a bit complicated, but if Norton could just allow users to set a limit as they do for all the others, possibly setting the default limit to 0 so it acts more or less as now, then it should satisfy most needs.

[DistEd2 Super Bot Obliterator Mobile Master (Norton Mobile Users Discussion Forum)]

Oh, that's a good point. If this is pursued at all, it would probably make more sense to allow the user to specify a single router that IS metered.

[Andmike]

On the other hand - I just want to monitor the total WiFi that I use, in case I decide to go over to using mobile which I hardly use at all at present.  :-[

[erik_carlstrom]

Mike/Jim,

Definitely good points. 

I know that the team is plugging away on a new feature for NMU so I'm not sure this would be something we could fit into the next release or not.  I'll pass it along though.  At a minimum setting a Wifi limit is doable, but the idea of adding URL's that are "free" will require more research as well as more information.