Download limit question

BG2

Hi,

I recently changed to a new Broadband provider. I went for a 30 gigabyte limit as it was on special offer.

Yesterday, I was checking my bill and I could see that the data usage from the 19th of August to now had been 26 gigabytes! Surely this can't be right? I am not a big downloader at all - certainly not 26 gigs within two to three weeks anyway. I can see from my downloads folder how much I physically downloaded in terms of files and its nowhere near a gig. I browse celebrity gossip sites and access databases for college. Not much else really.

Any ideas what this could be? To top it all off I was away for 12 days this month so never used it! (Although I did have a friend staying who I have emailed to ask. The friend is not the tech savviest and wouldn't dl tv shows or movies). Also, I have a smartphone which I just use on my phone data plan so sometimes I would never even use the laptop - particularly with it being summer.

At first I thought maybe someone was accessing my wireless but I have had a security key on since I bought it and also the screen of the modem shows how many devices are connected to it and it only ever says one.

Very confused.

(Edit: the person staying probably would have streamed football matches if that makes any difference)

bhickey

BG2 wrote: »

(Edit: the person staying probably would have streamed football matches if that makes any difference)

I think you'll just have to keep a close eye on it for few weeks to see if there's anything strange going on. Streaming of any video though would certainly eat up a lot of bandwidth.

PogMoThoin

Streaming football matches and Youtube would do it, easily

Bob_Harris

Log into your router and see if there are any bandwidth monitoring / reporting facilities.

If not install something like this on your comuter:
http://www.rokario.com/products/bandmon/2-0/

BG2

Ok, I took the advice in this thread. So far this month I have used roughly what I was suspect is right in terms of bandwidth usage.

However, last night I was streaming some megavideo, I was about 10 minutes in, and it said that I had already watched 75 minutes which I hadn't. I have no housemates connecting to the wi fi, it has a wep key. I've been so busy lately I haven't watched megavideo in ages.

I rang Three and they said its impossible for someone to be using my wi fi.

I'm really annoyed as I don't have a clue whats going on.

ED E

BG2 wrote: »

Ok, I took the advice in this thread. So far this month I have used roughly what I was suspect is right in terms of bandwidth usage.

However, last night I was streaming some megavideo, I was about 10 minutes in, and it said that I had already watched 75 minutes which I hadn't. I have no housemates connecting to the wi fi, it has a wep key. I've been so busy lately I haven't watched megavideo in ages.

I rang Three and they said its impossible for someone to be using my wi fi.

I'm really annoyed as I don't have a clue whats going on.

I wonder if three recycle IPs rapidly like BT Ireland do. If they do that could trick megavideo.

Also, you have a WEP key, whoop dee dee. Not exactly secure. You watching one 5min youtube video is enough to packet sniff a 40b key, a ten minuter would give you a slightly less insecure 128b key.

First thing you need to do is switch to WPA2.

conor.hogan.2

30gb is not a huge limit nowdays.

few youtube vids, apps, podcasts, general browsing and you could easily burn that up in 30 days.

especially with a smartphone and google instant and streaming of hd content that is nearly standard now.

oh and if you're using wep then half the people around you are probably on it....

zodac

Bob_Harris wrote: »

http://www.rokario.com/products/bandmon/2-0/

Awesome program. I'd definitely recommend installing it, and checking the usage when your friend streams football matches, and see how much it's using up.

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

and if you're using wep then half the people around you are probably on it....

Slight exaggeration, don't you think? :rolleyes:

BrokenArrows

Streaming a youtube video at the lowest resolution is about 4MB for about 2-3minutes, so if you watch alot of youtube then that would easily add up.

I just watched a 3 minute video at 1080p on youtube and the amount streamed was 45mb.

ED E

zodac wrote: »

Slight exaggeration, don't you think? :rolleyes:

Very slight, wep is a joke.

BG2

I changed my router and have been using a bandwidth monitor. On the 19/11 my download limit was renewed. A of 2pm today the monitor said I had downloaded 64mb but now at 7.30pm it's claiming to be 472mb...

All I've done is basic browsing and watched the Dragons Den Come Dine With Me special on youtube which is about 13 minutes long

:-(

I've just gone into settings and set it so I don't show up in any list when people are searching for networks. And i've changed the password.

This is actually really upsetting now. I can't ring the provider. They keep saying its impossible that someone is using my data.

PogMoThoin

You sure limewire, frostwire, bearshare, utorrent or any other similar peer to peer program aren't running on Your pc? Your download limit is total traffic, both download and upload.

BG2

Upload is showing as 32mb. I don't use any of those. If i did it would be a bit torrent program I have that I haven't used at all today or yesterday. And is completely exited.

riseagains

hey there, well if you feel like someone else is getting into your internet, you can change your encryption key, and change your firewall level of security...

also change the ssid on it. that will solve the issue of anyone else using the router, well people you dont want anyways!!!

BG2

riseagains wrote: »

hey there, well if you feel like someone else is getting into your internet, you can change your encryption key, and change your firewall level of security...

also change the ssid on it. that will solve the issue of anyone else using the router, well people you dont want anyways!!!

Cool, thanks. Well I've changed the SSID name, set it to not broadcast and changed the key. So fingers crossed!

GarRo247

What antivirus are you using? I thought I was being smart and set my antivirus to update every 15 mins, what I didn't know was that it re downloaded 120mb of definitions every time it updated even if it didn't need them. So it was using 480mb of my download limit every hour.

riseagains

just a hint also...

Save the ip address somewhere, just if you want someone to connect to your network it's gonna be pretty hard without it...

take care!

GarRo247

BG2 wrote: »

the person staying probably would have streamed football matches if that makes any difference

If he was streaming a HD video it would use about 10mb a min so about 1gig an hour, and he could have been watching 2 or 3 matches at the same time which could mean you could use all all your usage limit in just over 10 hours

BG2

According to the bandwidth monitor the download and upload was 8 gigs as of last night. :-( I immediately unplugged the broadband. The bandwidth monitor showed that my router had downloaded 420 megabytes and uploaded 32 megabytes but something called Athoros ethernet cable had uploaded 4 gigs and downloaded 4 gigs. Apparently, this is coming from my motherboard?? Have done complete restore and am now using comodo and malware bytes. One person suggested it could have been malware or someone who had copied my mac address while someone else suggested that the sim in my router has been cloned because I was having the same problem when I was using the other router.

Depressing and upsetting. Data just being eaten up. And apparently last month it went over the data usage so I'll have to pay for it.

riseagains

hey again,

Do you update your computer often? any software updates??

BG2

I wouldn't say often, no. I haven't done any of the windows updates yet since I restored. Why? Should I update more frequently?

riseagains

well what a software update does, is it downloads software from the internet and installs it in your computer...

So your downloading off of the internet, so that is being counted on your download limit...

do you understand what i'm saying??

If you don't, i can try to explain it better..

BG2

Ah I get you. Well I didn't download any updates yesterday, no. I set suff like that to ask me first. Thanks though. Any other ideas?

Snowbat

Is your router still using WEP as the encryption type? If so, you really need to switch your router and devices to WPA2 (or at least WPA) encryption. Hiding the SSID and changing the WEP key was a good move but it won't stop a leech with sniffing software.
Today a WEP connection can be cracked with readily available software within minutes.

BG2

Yeah I've set that to WPA -2 or something. Also, there was another option for something else which someone suggested I change to AES.

riseagains

cool, is that just for windows or for all of your software???

BG2

I'd say nearly everything. If the option is there I'd almost always choose to custom update.

riseagains

cool, well go to your control panel, and go to java, open that up, go to update, and turn off the automatic updates for that also.....

that could be updating itself often enough...

riseagains

also while in java, click on advanced, the expand jre auto download and turn that off too...

riseagains

Oh yeah, also... just do one thing a day and monitor that change, if you change too much at any one time you will never figure out what caused the problem in the first place and you'll have to go through it all over again.. which no body wants to do...