Using loads of Broadband

[Dawg]

I've used 60Gb of my usage this month.

I don't download movies, I watch maybe 1 YouTube a day, no internet radio, no music downloads. About 150 emails a day, very few sent or received with attachments of over 1 mg, (maybe 100mg a week).
I am connected for about 16 hours a day.

I've run an AVG scan, a Malwarebytes scan, a SuperAntispyware scan, and a Microsoft whatever, (not Defender) scan. All totally clear.

I have had the wireless connection turned OFF, but also used a WPA-PSK, and I changed the admin password at the start of the month to a 12 digit random code.

Where is it leaking?

[cjd]

I've heard of a couple of people now saying this - 60Gb is lot to not notice. Is your ISP BT?

Do you have any other ethernet connections to your router apart from the one to your PC (ie are there any other PCs connected?)

[KidsBeeHappy]

Do you have Children????? :D

[Chris H]

Since your isp is monitoring your bandwidth I'd ask them for an hourly breakdown. Should help to track down what's using it.

[cjd]

This app will help if there is only one PC on your network

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/tbbmeter.html

[Dawg]

Two other machines on network, very low usage on t'net.
ISP, Zen; have been surprisingly unhelpful.
No kids with access, (no-one but me and Mrs D.)
1 Snom connected to router with a Voipfone service.

I'll have a go at Zen again.

[TotallySport]

do you have a wireless router? and is it secure?

[Dawg]

do you have a wireless router? and is it secure?

As I said:

I have had the wireless connection turned OFF, but also used a WPA-PSK, and I changed the admin password at the start of the month to a 12 digit random code.

[Bri]

There was a thread about this couple of weeks ago and I got caught by BT and charged 0ver £100. Found that theyd put me on option 1 when I know I'd asked to be on option 3. Apparently I have no recourse over it.

[TotallySport]

As I said:sorry missed that:|

[KM-Tiger]

You could try posting on the Zen forum at ThinkBroadband.

Apart from other knowledgeable users, Zen staff monitor that forum and answer questions.

[aoteg]

you can also check your windows settings, as windows is set to download automatic updates
there were alot of updates recently released..

[PrismTechWales]

Just my two pennies worth but just because you have wpa enabled doesn't mean no-one can connect to your router. WPA can be cracked quite easily. If your router supports WPA2 with AES then that is a more secure encryption standard.

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[Dawg]

Just my two pennies worth but just because you have wpa enabled doesn't mean no-one can connect to your router. WPA can be cracked quite easily. If your router supports WPA2 with AES then that is a more secure encryption standard.



But does this make any difference as wireless is OFF?

[PrismTechWales]

apologies, missed that key point. If wireless on your router is turned off then you are correct and noone can connect to it.

[Dawg]

apologies, missed that key point. If wireless on your router is turned off then you are correct and noone can connect to it.

No probs: I'm actually really dim about this end of things so if you had said it worked I'd have believed you. :)
Thanks for your time.

[MikeJ]

you can also check your windows settings, as windows is set to download automatic updates
there were alot of updates recently released..

60GB? In a month?

[Dawg]

60GB? In a month?

Nope. 66GB in 17 days.
Pah.

[PrismTechWales]

I assume when you say the wireless is off you mean its turned off in the router config not just the wireless card on your laptop/ desktop machine?

[cjd]

What worries me about these things is that that kind of usage is phenomenal.




An average web page (including graphics) is about 50 kilobytes in size - so you could download around 20,000 web pages for 1 gigabyte. Or to put it another way an hour of surfing the web would be around 10 megabytes (200 pages) - so you could surf non-stop for about 100 hours for 1 gigabyte.



An hour of streamed radio would use about 15-20 megabytes.



An hour of streamed video uses around 100-150 megabytes.



Playing an online game typically uses about 10-15 megabytes per hour.



Emails (excluding any files attachments) are very small - so 100 emails would be just 1 megabyte - or 100,000 emails for 1 gigabyte!



A super-high resolution (5-6 megapixel) digital camera JPEG picture or typical MP3 / WMA music file (legally sourced of course!) is about 2-3 megabytes so you could download 350-500 of these images / music files for 1 gigabyte.

I'm beginning to think that something is wrong at the ISP end.

[Dawg]

I assume when you say the wireless is off you mean its turned off in the router config not just the wireless card on your laptop/ desktop machine?

Yeah, turned off in the router config itself. As posted I also changed the WPA-PSK password and the Router admin passwords to 12 digit random codes. They could be brute forced cracked, but in a small UK town? Anyway Off is Off.

Looking for a usage monitor. The PRTG Network one and the ttbmeter from ThinkBroadband.com forum have got me stumped. Death by Acronym and whatever. What is a PCIe GBE Family controller, and a WMI Network card?
Do you know of a user friendly one for a subgeek user?

[*Lexxy*]

i've been using Netmeter (http://download.cnet.com/Net-Meter/3000-2155_4-10435551.html) to monitor usage for ages, very easy to monitor & set limits :)

[*Lexxy*]

i've been using Netmeter (http://download.cnet.com/Net-Meter/3000-2155_4-10435551.html) to monitor usage for ages, very easy to monitor & set limits :)

sorry :redface:, that's not the right link - this is NetMeter (http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/index.php), all free

[Dawg]

Thanks all.
Might have cracked it.
Speed Dial addon in Firefox:
ON: 3.5MB/minute download
OFF: 150KB/minute download

Not perfect but hey, what an improvement!

FF3.5 W7

[benjamin_c]

go with virgin media, i download all the time and never get contacted :)

[Bri]

go with virgin media, i download all the time and never get contacted :)

...going to send out the three strikes and out forever letters for serial downloaders, and by the way on the Brits this week Lady Ga ga was announced as the top artist that people have illegally downloaded, which makes sense as who would buy any of her music? But what a claim to fame, wow.:rolleyes:

[papverpoppies]

...going to send out the three strikes and out forever letters for serial downloaders, and by the way on the Brits this week Lady Ga ga was announced as the top artist that people have illegally downloaded, which makes sense as who would buy any of her music? But what a claim to fame, wow.:rolleyes:


Christ..how long would it take to download her - legally, or illegally?

Imagine her popping out of the desktop!:eek:

Poppy

[Atilla]

...going to send out the three strikes and out forever letters for serial downloaders, and by the way on the Brits this week Lady Ga ga was announced as the top artist that people have illegally downloaded, which makes sense as who would buy any of her music? But what a claim to fame, wow.:rolleyes:
The way they're f*nnying around with their services customers are jumping ship. Management couldn't run a bath.