3G Data Monitoring App--Help?

[wizardb]

I posted this question under 'Smartphones' but I think tht was the wrong place. I am using an LG Optimus phone. I installed the 3G Watchdog app so I could monitor my data useage. There appears to be useage all the time. Even with the phone on sleep, the data useage increased each time I looked at the phone. It looked like I would be using 30 to 40 mb of data a month just letting the monitoring app run. What am I missing? I am very new to all of this.

[Adama D. Brown]

On Android, there's always a certain amount of data usage. The phone is synching your contacts to your Google account, it's checking for app updates in the marketplace, updating any widgets you might use like weather forecasts, etcetera. You have a couple options here. One is to turn on WiFi--then, all your data use will go over WiFi instead of the mobile network. The other is to disable mobile data. Some phones come equipped to do this easily--try pressing and holding the power button to see if there's a "Disable mobile data" option--or you might need a widget from the Android market to make it easier. Once mobile data is turned off, none of your apps will contact the internet again until either you connect to WiFi or you turn mobile data back on. That way you won't have any wasted data.

[Mi An]

A 3rd option that's a little more complicated is to install a firewall with per program access. I did this when I had a prepaid plan on my smartphone, and used Droidwall. It wasn't airtight, a very small amount of data slipped through, but especially if you turn off logging, it worked pretty well. From there you can specify which programs will be allowed to use 3g at all, without having to turn the 3g radio itself off, and that would leave it available for those apps you want to use data.

There's bound to be a data tracking app that will localize which apps are using how much data, but I don't recall, so that's just a matter of searching the android market. If you find one, you can either blacklist those apps that are using too much specifically, or use a whitelist and only allow preapproved apps to use 3g.

[wizardb]

Thanks so much for your quick responses.

[Hook]

First, do you have wifi at home? If so, turn on wifi. Let wifi handle all data needs, which it should by default whenever you are connected. To be safe, get a widget that will toggle data on and off on your home screen. The pay version of 3G watchdog has a grea one that I use, but there are many free ones. Turn on data only when you explictly need it. It is very effective and quite simple.

If you want complete control, get a free app called quick settings which gives you a customizable control panl for all your radios and other things too.

It really doesn't need to be complicated. Android gives you complete control.

[Varjak]

I thought someone said there was a way to have it NOT sync with Google all the time, right?

[Adama D. Brown]

I thought someone said there was a way to have it NOT sync with Google all the time, right?

Most new devices also have an option to turn off sync, however--and someone correct me if I'm wrong--I believe this only turns off things like GMail syncing, contacts, and other built in apps, but doesn't prevent third party apps like weather widgets or the like.

[Varjak]

Yeah, I meant just the Google services. I assume most other widgets and apps can be 'turned off;' but maybe not. Also, a quick and dirty method might be to put the phone in airplane mode overnight if you want to cut off all data leakage. Otherwise, the suggestions and apps above sound pretty good.