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ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

A package of skins with a "theme" or by a single author
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sling-shot
Posts: 4
Joined: August 18th, 2013, 1:21 pm
Location: Wanderlust

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by sling-shot »

lodctr /R itself does not work on XP. It needs a filename.ini as an argument. But I am still not sure what to enter there.
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ForceX
Posts: 100
Joined: January 16th, 2010, 10:32 pm

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by ForceX »

@sling-shot : The skin uses rainmeters plugin to access Windows perfmon. If for what ever reason your perfmon is broken you can try and follow the steps here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300956

I do not know if there are any differences between XP & Vista/W7/W8 perfmon access names but I know I wrote the code in Vista and it has worked in W7 / W8 as well.


@warjar : Are you using network interface 0. Because 0 monitors all interfaces sometimes it seams to give the wrong info. Try to find your exact interface number if you haven't already and see what happens.
warjar
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Joined: August 24th, 2013, 10:09 pm

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by warjar »

ForceX wrote: @warjar : Are you using network interface 0. Because 0 monitors all interfaces sometimes it seams to give the wrong info. Try to find your exact interface number if you haven't already and see what happens.
Yes, I am using network interface 0, and I did cycle through all of them. Only "0" shows any form of activity. The speeds are doubling my ISP limits, so Im failry sertain it's an read issue. I can say that this is an issue I find on all the other skins I've tested. All except one; think it was called BlueVision V0.2. Once I find time I will be comparing codes.

While we're on the subject: Is it possible for me to change the time intervall the DL/UL speeds are based upon? As I find the numbers beeing quite spiky. Beeing able to increase the time divied on will give me a more average and sensable number. For all I know this could, in theory, also be a possible solution to my initial issue.

Here's also an image of my setup. Perfere it abit more descreet.

Image


-warjar
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jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by jsmorley »

warjar wrote: Yes, I am using network interface 0, and I did cycle through all of them. Only "0" shows any form of activity. The speeds are doubling my ISP limits, so Im failry sertain it's an read issue. I can say that this is an issue I find on all the other skins I've tested. All except one; think it was called BlueVision V0.2. Once I find time I will be comparing codes.

While we're on the subject: Is it possible for me to change the time intervall the DL/UL speeds are based upon? As I find the numbers beeing quite spiky. Beeing able to increase the time divied on will give me a more average and sensable number. For all I know this could, in theory, also be a possible solution to my initial issue.
First, if you have Interface=0 or just leave off the Interface option, the the measurement of NetIn/NetOut/NetTotal is done on all available physical and virtual network interfaces. This is almost always going to be inaccurate on most modern computers, generally double or even triple the real numbers, due to some virtual interfaces that Windows uses. It pays to find out what interface number your actual physical NIC card is.

1) Open Manage from the Rainmeter tray icon
2) Go to the Settings tab
3) Turn on "Debug mode" and "Log to file"
4) Exit Rainmeter
5) Start Rainmeter
6) Open Manage from the Rainmeter tray icon
7) Go to the Settings tab
8) Select "Show log file"

That debug version of the log file will include a list of all network interfaces with the number Rainmeter will use. In my case, my physical (Hardware=Yes) NIC interface is at:

Code: Select all

DBUG (00:00:00.031) : 8: Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
DBUG (00:00:00.031) :   Alias: Ethernet
DBUG (00:00:00.031) :   Type=Ethernet(6), Hardware=Yes, Filter=No
So I use "8" in Interface.

When done:

1) Open Manage from the Rainmeter tray icon
2) Go to the Settings tab
3) Turn off "Debug mode" and "Log to file"
4) Select "Delete log file"

Don't leave the log running both writing to file and in debug mode when you don't need it. It will cause Rainmeter to work a lot harder than it has to.

Second, the NetIn/NetOut/NetTotal measures are already an average of traffic in bytes over the course of one second. That should smooth out some of the spikiness you get in network traffic, but I find it works better for me if I average it a bit more. You can't just set an UpdateDivider on the measure(s) to do this, as that won't in any way be an average or any more smooth. What you can use is AverageSize on the measure(s) which will average the result over the number of skin updates you specify in AverageSize.

You could use a skin like this:

Get the latest Rainmeter 3.0 beta at http://rainmeter.net.

Code: Select all

[Rainmeter]
Update=1000
DynamicWindowSize=1
AccurateText=1

[MeasureNetIn]
Measure=NetIn
Interface=8
AverageSize=5
UpdateDivider=1

[MeasureNetOut]
Measure=NetOut
Interface=8
AverageSize=5
UpdateDivider=1

[MeasureConvertIn]
Measure=Calc
Formula=([MeasureNetIn] * 8)
DynamicVariables=1

[MeasureConvertOut]
Measure=Calc
Formula=([MeasureNetOut] * 8)
DynamicVariables=1

[MeterBackIn]
Meter=Image
W=170
H=34
SolidColor=60,60,60,255

[MeterNetInLabel]
Meter=String
X=5
Y=5
FontSize=14
FontColor=60,60,60,255
SolidColor=200,200,200,255
Padding=2,2,3,2
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
Text=Dn:

[MeterNetIn]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureConvertIn
X=165
Y=7
FontSize=14
FontColor=200,200,200,255
StringAlign=Right
AutoScale=1
NumOfDecimals=2
Text=%1bps
AntiAlias=1

[MeterBackOut]
Meter=Image
Y=([MeterBackIn:Y] + [MeterBackIn:H] + 3)
W=170
H=34
SolidColor=60,60,60,255

[MeterNetOutLabel]
Meter=String
X=5
Y=5r
FontSize=14
FontColor=60,60,60,255
SolidColor=200,200,200,255
Padding=2,2,4,2
StringAlign=Left
AntiAlias=1
Text=Up:

[MeterNetOut]
Meter=String
MeasureName=MeasureConvertOut
X=165
Y=2r
FontSize=14
FontColor=200,200,200,255
StringAlign=Right
AutoScale=1
NumOfDecimals=2
Text=%1bps
AntiAlias=1
I turn the "bytes" returned by NetIn/NetOut back into "bits", as that is more consistent with how network measurements are generally expressed, and I prefer it. "megabits per second / Mbps". That is entirely a matter of personal preference, as you see fit.

If I load the skin and then run the tests at:

http://speedtest.net

I get pretty reliable results, with some minor differences due to the "averaging" I am doing vs what they no doubt do on speedtest.net:
8-26-2013 5-52-36 PM.png
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sling-shot
Posts: 4
Joined: August 18th, 2013, 1:21 pm
Location: Wanderlust

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by sling-shot »

ForceX wrote:@sling-shot : The skin uses rainmeters plugin to access Windows perfmon. If for what ever reason your perfmon is broken you can try and follow the steps here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300956

I do not know if there are any differences between XP & Vista/W7/W8 perfmon access names but I know I wrote the code in Vista and it has worked in W7 / W8 as well.
Thanks for your attention. This is a newly built installation of Windows XP. So was wondering why is it broken? Ah... never mind, it is Windows after all :)

I have tried the first part of that KB article. The second part seems daunting. Will give it a go.
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ForceX
Posts: 100
Joined: January 16th, 2010, 10:32 pm

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by ForceX »

@jsmorley : Thanks for your feedback on the network interface, it is very informative!

@sling-shot : Sorry I can't be of more help. I haven't used XP in a very long time and just don't have a good answer for you at this time. Perhaps someone else can chime in?

@warjar : When I get home I can tell you how to increase the update rate. If I'm not mistaken its currently set to once every second.
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jsmorley
Developer
Posts: 22628
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:02 pm
Location: Fort Hunt, Virginia, USA

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by jsmorley »

ForceX wrote:@jsmorley : Thanks for your feedback on the network interface, it is very informative!

@sling-shot : Sorry I can't be of more help. I haven't used XP in a very long time and just don't have a good answer for you at this time. Perhaps someone else can chime in?

@warjar : When I get home I can tell you how to increase the update rate. If I'm not mistaken its currently set to once every second.
Sure thing. The Interface number is certainly not "always" important, and many folks will find it works just fine leaving it off or setting it to "0". If you get unexpected results though, it is generally that Interface index that is the culprit, and finding the right one can often be the difference.
warjar
Posts: 4
Joined: August 24th, 2013, 10:09 pm

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by warjar »

@jsmorley : Thanks for your input. The AverageSize option was just what I was looking for. And took the time to find a better suited NIC; speeds are much more accurate now.

warjar
User avatar
ForceX
Posts: 100
Joined: January 16th, 2010, 10:32 pm

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by ForceX »

@winjar : To increase the update interval for any of the components in the skin you can simply do this.

1. Right click on the component you want to edit and click on Edit Skin.
2. At the very top find [Rainmeter]
3. Right below [Rainmeter] you will see Update=1000. This is currently one second. You can reduce this to 500 for 1/2 second, or lower for faster update intervals ect.
4. Save and refresh the skin.
warjar
Posts: 4
Joined: August 24th, 2013, 10:09 pm

Re: ForceX System Monitor v3.0.6(Feb-20-2013)

Post by warjar »

ForceX wrote:@winjar : To increase the update interval for any of the components in the skin you can simply do this.

1. Right click on the component you want to edit and click on Edit Skin.
2. At the very top find [Rainmeter]
3. Right below [Rainmeter] you will see Update=1000. This is currently one second. You can reduce this to 500 for 1/2 second, or lower for faster update intervals ect.
4. Save and refresh the skin.
Tnx for your reply, but this will not help in my case. This was also the first ting i tried, and it seems the update intervall has no influence on how the speed is calculated, only when it is presented/printed. I wanted to average out the speed value, as it was too spiky to give any sensable information. jsmorley was so kind as to give me the solution I was looking for; "AverageSize"

Thanks
Warjar
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