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Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

daveg6hni
Grafter
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Registered: ‎07-01-2009

Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

My usage for the last 8 days, according to Plus net, has been about 4GB a day compared to my normal 500MB Huh
Today it says I have already used over 3GB even though I have only just turned on my computer Huh
I will be over my 40 GB limit in about 24hrs if this is not resolved quickly.
I am not downloading anything and I can't see any network activity that might be causing this.
What on earth is going on Huh
While I have been writing this post, today's usage has jumped up nearly another 1/2GB Huh
Can the PN site be wrong Huh
22 REPLIES 22
Townman
Superuser
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Hi,
What devices have you got connected to your internet?  TVs, phones, tablets, video boxes and games machines can all consume vast quantities of bandwidth without you realising it.
Is your wifi locked down?  What devices does your router report as being or have been connected to your network?

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daveg6hni
Grafter
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Registered: ‎07-01-2009

Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Nothing new recently
I have a couple of web cams with strong passwords, sky box and, my NAS.
I have not downloaded anything "on demand" though.
My wi-fi is WPA-2 with a 26 character password.
Looking at Think Broadband, you can see when I turned on my PC, but PN had said I had already used 3GB by then Huh
PN now says I have used 4.51GB today ! ?
Townman
Superuser
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Hi Dave,
Strange!  There was a history of issues with the usage logger, but I believe that was mainly under recording.
Have you by chance given away a router configured with your PlusNET account info?  It has been known for two routers to be registered to the same account driving usage quotas.
I would recommend getting a ticket raised on this matter asking PN to investigate and to get some arrangement in place to limit your liability for additional charges if possible.  Ask PN to obtain an hour by hour break down of usage and ask that it be compared with your BQM.  Talking of which what are you doing so as to hit the BQM so hard?
Remember that UPLOADS also count towards your bandwidth usage - do you have file share or P2P running?  Does your webcam upload?  Any possibility that a smart phone has been left connected to the webcams?
Kevin

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

daveg6hni
Grafter
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Registered: ‎07-01-2009

Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Really strange I agree ?
Ticket already raised, I did try phoning, but they said it would be at least a 30 min wait Sad
Never used my PN router, still boxed as a spare, I've been using an Apple Airport Extreme for several years.
I did get a usage warning 3 days before the end of my last month and there was a elevated usage in that too ?

However, if I was using the amount PN say, wouldn't the TB Quality meter be showing end-stop activity Huh
And if it was illegal access to my network surely TBQM would show usage when my computer is switched off, which it doesn't Huh
PN Usage now reports 4.52GB so far today ! so it appears to have suddenly slowed down ?
Also I rebuilt my PC about a month ago from scratch and I use Norton IS
Townman
Superuser
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Dave,
Have you switched your computer off?  It has clearly stopped doing something.  Is it possible that it has been doing system updates?
Kevin

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

daveg6hni
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

No my computer is still on and no updates pending although it did do some earlier in the week.
However, I have spotted something from the TBQM history, up until Sunday 10th Aug there is not block of activity like can be seen every day since Monday ?
Last Sunday and every day before...

Monday 11th and every day since then for the fist few hours after computer switched n !

Thursday 14th

Sat 16th - Computer was on all day but there are two blocks of high activity Huh
Townman
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Dave,
Have you got Norton on-line back up configured?
This has all the hall marks of of something doing updates or back ups to the web.  I'd go and look in the windows event logs to see what the machine was doing at those times - look at system and application event logs.
Kevin

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

daveg6hni
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

I have Norton Internet Security, but I don't use it for backups, I backup to my NAS on a Sunday Morning
I have checked both event logs but can't see anything that looks like a backup or download other than my MS backup to NAS.
I am tempted to do a quick restore to before last Sunday just in case something has changed or infected me without being detected.
daveg6hni
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Oh dear - that was a mistake !
I have just done a quick restore and that seems to have initiated another bought of activity Huh

Townman
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Hi Dave,
Look at Microsoft update.
Kevin

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

daveg6hni
Grafter
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Registered: ‎07-01-2009

Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Damn, yes it has just downloaded all the latest updates again.
I will need to wait a few mins to see if that is all the latest bought of activity is.
jelv
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

I suggest you install NetWorX to monitor the activity from your PC.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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daveg6hni
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Registered: ‎07-01-2009

Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

OK, downloading it as I type.
I have switched to my backup PC as the restore only initiated the activity again Sad
If Plus Net read this post - is it possible for you to interrogate the previous bouts of activity to see what the culprit might be ?
Routefinder
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Re: Broadband usage nearing limit after only 1 week ?

Surely MS updates are always in the MB sizes I have never heard of any block of updates being in the GB range.
You mentioned using a secondary PC and the sort of activity levels are no there (did I read that right?).  On the surmise that Norton (which for the record I dumped using a good while ago because it started to give me so much grief ~ is a real resource hog) is not up to date, can I suggest you physically disconnect the PC from the network (if wired) or disable the wireless 'card' if wireless.  Then run a full system scan and see what Norton reports........................if it has been wanting to access the internet it will likely either 'tell you' during the scan or report and error in the log.
Oh, also may be worth downloading MalWare Bytes and SuperAnti Spyware and run their scans........................because something is shifting data and as you did a restore that has reasserted the activity!!!  Shocked  Been a while since I used Networx but if you can ID the source/target IPs of the downloads/uploads respectively I would think that would aid the investigation???