What is the best one out there that is preferably free?

Well I think a quick search on Google will find you some good ones.

One I know that's reasonable good is: http://www.rokario.com/products/bandmon/2-0/

The lite edition not the commercial.

I've never used one of these 'Bandwidth Monitors' you speak of, but I know you can test your internet speeds at http://speedtest.net

Except that "speedtest.net" tells you the speed of your internet download and upload but a bandwidth monitor monitors how much you download. Useful if you have a monthly download limit like me. Stupid BT...although they did raise mine from 5GB/month to 10GB/month in July

Wow.. 10GB a month? That's harsh.. I used to download around 5gbs every day before my downloads mysteriously slowed down

For basically everything but P2P, 10GB is ample.

Not for Ware... I mean, Wars, Yes, playing war games

Thanks for your help, I have installed the rokario software and I like it so far as it does what I should. Thanks for the help