Vitals

Versions

Where Vitals came from, what each version changed, and what is being considered next.

Before Vitals

BitMeter OS, until September 2026

Years of usage were counted by BitMeter OS, one database per PC. Replacing a PC meant starting again, which is the problem Vitals was made to solve. Its history is brought across when Vitals is installed.

TrafficMonitor set up by hand, 29 September 2026

TrafficMonitor replaced BitMeter's meter on the desktop, with English skin names, a clean skin and a line of weekly to all time totals, and BitMeter's history added to its own.

Vitals, from 29 September 2026

The same meter, installed properly on every PC, with the history kept outside the PCs and a report over all of them.

What each version changed

1.4.1

30 September 2026

  • Vitals now updates itself. Each PC checks for a new version every hour, downloads it, checks its fingerprint and installs it the next time the PC is left alone for 10 minutes. Update now in the report does it at once. A PC several versions behind goes straight to the newest.
  • The Live page's download, upload and power dials scale to the connection, so a faster line never pins the needle.
  • Opening or refreshing the report checks for a new version if the last check is more than 10 minutes old.

1.4.0: now called Vitals

30 September 2026

  • Bandwidth Meter is now Vitals. It started as a meter for how much internet each PC uses. It now also shows each PC's health (temperatures, drives, crashes, a weekly speed test), its electricity use and cost, the quality of the internet connection with a built in speed test, and every device on the home network. "Bandwidth Meter" no longer described it, so Ross chose a new name: "Let's call it Vitals, nothing else." The vital signs of your PCs and your home network.
  • The website moves to vitals.draxcoders.com, the Start menu entries become Vitals and Vitals live meter, and the history folder in OneDrive is renamed Vitals on every PC. All history carries over, and nothing needs doing: updating installs the new name.
  • Clicking Update now always checks the website for the newest version first, so it never tries to fetch a version that has been replaced, and it says why in plain words if an update cannot run.
  • A report page left open now learns of a new version within ten minutes, without a refresh.

1.3.4

30 September 2026

  • A new Home devices page: every device on your home network from the Orbi, what it is, how it connects, which Orbi it uses, and how reliably it stays online, with a notification when a new device joins.
  • The Live page shows the whole house's internet use right now, from the airCube: this PC, and everything else.

1.3.3

30 September 2026

  • A speed test on the Live page: Cloudflare's, run by Bandwidth Meter, with download, upload and response time compared with your line, and every result kept and charted on the Internet page. Buttons open fast.com and Google's test for comparison.
  • A report page left open during an update now reloads itself instead of saying the report has closed.

1.3.2

30 September 2026

  • Every PC gets the same meter by the clock: the table layout, processor and memory shown, 60% see through, always on top. Set once when installing or updating; a later change you make on a PC is kept.

1.3.1

30 September 2026

  • The report now has a fixed address, http://localhost:2606, so you can bookmark it in Chrome or any browser on the PC, as with BitMeter. It is available whenever the PC is on. A button in the report opens it in your browser, and back in its own window.
  • Fixed: the report window could stop working a moment after opening ("refused to connect").
  • Fixed: a "report has closed" message appeared even though the report was running.
  • The NETGEAR Orbi's list of connected devices is now read, through its own web page, signing out after each reading.

1.3.0

30 September 2026

  • Totals now show internet use: copies between machines in the house are counted apart, on the meter by the clock and in the report. The report also shows how much went over the cable, over WiFi and through a VPN.
  • A new look for the report, with a menu down the side and the findings of each page in plain words at the top.
  • New pages: Live (dials, every second), Health (heat, drive life, crashes and updates, a weekly speed test), Power (electricity and its cost at your price), Internet (outages, response, call quality, fastest speed, networks used, public address), This PC (what it is made of, every drive by serial number, what changed), Alerts and Settings.
  • Alerts as Windows notifications: a hot PC, a program sending far more than usual, a PC that has stopped reporting, a monthly allowance.
  • Optional whole house figures from your routers (Ubiquiti airCube and NETGEAR Orbi).
  • The report says so plainly if its program has closed, instead of showing a browser error.

1.2.1

29 September 2026

  • The report's Detail page now opens with the day's headline readings: CPU, drive and graphics card temperatures, processor load, memory in use, internet response time and time at the PC, followed by a temperatures chart.
  • The upload speed on the meter lines up with the third column.
  • The report window no longer shows an "InPrivate" label.
  • Uninstalling now also removes the meter's own small working files.

1.2.0

29 September 2026

  • The meter by the clock is now a tidy table: both speeds with megabits per second, today, week, month, year and all time, processor and memory, CPU and drive temperatures, and internet response time. It uses an add on of our own for TrafficMonitor, and is fully opaque so it reads cleanly.
  • The report now shows how the PC is used: time at the PC, the programs you used, the busiest programs, when it was on, asleep or off, drive space, and battery on laptops.
  • Quick buttons on the usage chart: last week, month, year or all data.
  • The report window no longer shows Microsoft Edge's welcome, sign in or extension pages.

1.1.0

29 September 2026

  • Now its own program, Bandwidth Meter, with TrafficMonitor included as the meter by the clock.
  • A report for one PC, a group of PCs or all of them, over any period, with groups, friendly names and each internet line's speed, shared by every PC.
  • A recorder that keeps every reading it can, minute by minute: speed for each connection, processor, memory, disk, and hardware readings such as temperatures, loads, clocks and power, with processor temperatures through the signed PawnIO driver.
  • Which apps used the data, hour by hour, kept for good (starting with the 30 days Windows holds).
  • An internet check each minute: how quickly it answered, and every minute it did not. The WiFi signal on laptops.
  • Speeds shown with megabits per second alongside, to compare with your internet line.
  • Each PC's history kept in a shared cloud folder, so it survives a change of PC.
  • BitMeter OS history brought across automatically, hour by hour.
  • The meter is TrafficMonitor's Lite edition: it needs no administrator rights, and updates never ask for Windows permission.
  • One click updates from this website.

1.0.0

29 September 2026

  • First installer: TrafficMonitor 1.86 with English skin names, the Clean Intelligentae skin, and the line showing this week, month, year and all time.

Being considered

Battery health

How the laptop battery's capacity changes over the months.