GlassWire Graph is Meaningless

I too find the lack of time period information confusing. However by clicking in small increments along the graph it seems that:

  • 5 minutes: Data per second.
  • 3 Hours: Data totalled in five minute buckets. Divide by 300 to get average data per second for each five-minute period.
  • 24 Hours: Data totalled in hour buckets. Divide by 3600 to get average data per second for each hour.
  • Week: Data totalled in six hour buckets. Divide by 21,600 to get average data per second for each six hour period.
  • Month: Data totalled in day-long buckets. Divide by 86,400 to get average data per second for each day.

The issue isn’t helped by the bucket totals (which should be solid rectangular bars) have been smoothed to make a curvy area graph. Only the centres of the buckets have the correct Y-axis height, the curved parts don’t provide any additional data.

I would suggest the graphs could be significantly improved by:

  1. Displaying the average data rate per second in the top left corner, whatever the time scale. That is, divide the current number by the number of seconds per bucket.
  2. Either display the bucket size (e.g. “12KB/s averaged over hours”) or display the data as a proper bar graph instead of the smoothed bar graph. Or perhaps display the smoothed line on top of the actual bars?
  3. Display the bucket time period in the status information under the graph when the graph is clicked. (e.g. “22GB this day”, “128KB this five minutes”, etc.).

Update: it’s more complicated. The bucket size depends on the graph size. Making my graph full screen changes to:

  • 5 Minutes: Data per second (with minimum lower graph window, as by default).
  • 3 Hours: Data totalled in one minute buckets.
  • 24 Hours: Data totalled in half-hour buckets.
  • Week: Data totalled in six hour buckets.
  • Month: Data totalled in six hour buckets.

You can also work out the bucket size, at least for the shorter views, by watching the “current” data point. This slowly grows in height until the bucket time period has expired, when it drops back down to fill up the next bucket.

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And full-screen but with the lower graph window made as narrow as possible:

  • 5 Minutes: Data per second.
  • 3 Hours: Data totalled in five second buckets.
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Perhaps we could add a different mode with a less smooth graph for people who would prefer that type of graphical representation. Thanks for your feedback and other ideas also.

Can i please explain the entire problem form a clear mind.
I see the complaintants point but it is all due to one factor missing from teh graphs.
A vertical scale.
When we select anything other than a zoomed in 5 minute graph we are given a MB figure with no indication over what time. We dont know what each plot on the smooth line graph represents.
I have manually worked it out.
If i click on the 3 hour graph, completely zoomed out for the entire 3 hours on the screen, and the scale reads, for example 60MB, the highest point is at about 55 MB, that doesnt tell me over what time the 55 MB was transferred. So that is meaningless. sorry.
I worked it out, when zoomed out with this example of the 3 hour graph, a unit of time is 5 minutes, so the graph scale should say “60 MB/5 Minutes”.
For ever graph scale legend, you need to concatenate onto the end of the figure, how long a plot unit is.
Zoom in halfway to 1.5 hours, and the plot gradually changes to one minute intervals. this is a sliding scale and so are the time units. This is obviously done so the graph always looks smooth and doesn’t change drastically as the user zooms in.
You cannot work this out with my technique on the more detailed 5 minute graph because the timescale (when you click on a datapoint and read the information) is only in 1 minute increments, but the graph can be in increments of seconds.
Developers, if u dont understand this reply, You need to make contact with me, as i am 100% adamant i understand the problem and have the solution.