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Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Rincewind
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎29-10-2007

Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Hi all
Can someone shed any light on this, but according to Plusnet View My Useage figures, I've used 4.33gb between 8am and 11.45am today?

I had my PC  on around 10am today until 11.25am, turn turned it off and switched it off at the mains before going out. (I always do this when leaving home or at night)
The router was still active as it's in the hall.
The wifi function is secured.
I connect via a Comtrend Home Plug when the pc is on.
On returning home around 1.30pm, I switched on the pc to check emails and found one from PN (sent 11.45am) saying I was approaching my useage allowance.
After the shock of seeing a 4.3gb (paid for) figure for Saturday, I immediately checked my router security settings, including the log of wireless clients. Security is still in place and the client list is empty.
There are no other pcs in the house, except my laptop which was not in use.
Can someone suggest how this could have happened?
Thanks.
Den.
33 REPLIES 33
julesandsand
Grafter
Posts: 176
Registered: ‎18-02-2009

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Is your connection speed capable of downloading so much in that period of time?
What security are you using WEP (hope not), WPA etc?
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
Fixes: 315
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Hi Den, can you raise us a support ticket as something is definitely amiss!
Hour	Upload (MB)	Downloaded (MB)
0 2.8119 13.1299
1 0.2429 8.3648
10 3.6324 10.3331
11 4295.4674 1.0540
13 4.1876 41.4808
14 5.3257 22.6561

With a 448kbps upstream rate there's no way you uploaded 4.3GB in the space of an hour or two! Shocked

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

Rincewind
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎29-10-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Hi julesandsand
My connection is good, but not the fastest. I seriously doubt it could have downloaded that figure in the time involved.
Certainly not over wifi.
I am using wpa
On top of that he area in which I live is fairly isolated distance wise from the roadways and my neighbours on either side are pensioners.
You couldn't get a signal from where I park and even if you could (and got through the wpa) the transfer rate would be very low.
On top of that, there is no log of a wifi client on my router.
I am monitoring both it and the plusnet figures since I came home and will continue to the rest of the day.
Thanks for your help.
Den
Rincewind
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎29-10-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Hi Bob
I already have, just came here to see if anyone could help me figure it out, in case I'm missing something, while I wait.
So you say it's a massive upload figure?
My best upload speed is about 330-370kps, so completely impossible.
Thanks for telling me this.
I have been concerned about my useage in recent months and had previously raised tickets, to be told the metering is correct.
However, nothing like this 4.3gb in a few hours has ever happened in the 8 years I've been with PlusNet! lol
Quote from: Bob
Hi Den, can you raise us a support ticket as something is definitely amiss!
Hour	Upload (MB)	Downloaded (MB)
0 2.8119 13.1299
1 0.2429 8.3648
10 3.6324 10.3331
11 4295.4674 1.0540
13 4.1876 41.4808
14 5.3257 22.6561

With a 448kbps upstream rate there's no way you uploaded 4.3GB in the space of an hour or two! Shocked
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

I wonder if somebody has messed up signed/unsigned long integer declarations, or doing a subtraction on an unsigned long integer without checking for crossing zero, in the VMBU logger.
As unsigned long integers of 32 bits = 2^32 = 4294967296
Subtracting the reported usage of 4295467400 bytes
Gives a much more plausible upload of -500104 bytes (other than being NEGATIVE !) for the corresponding download of 1054000 bytes
Rincewind
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎29-10-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Thanks for that purleigh, makes a lot of sense  Grin
I've just had a reply through support, letting me know it is possible to hack a wifi network, which is true, though unlikely in my area.
They want me to turn off my router for 3 hours, so they can check the logs.
A tad inconvenient, but I've shown them the figures Bob gave me, so perhaps it will be unnecessary now.
btw did you know you sound just like Mr Spock  Wink
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

[quote=Rincewind]I've just had a reply through support, letting me know it is possible to hack a wifi network, which is true, though unlikely in my area.
They want me to turn off my router for 3 hours, so they can check the logs.
Tell support that they are talking cobblers !
Note what Bob said -
[quote=Bob Pullen]With a 448kbps upstream rate there's no way you uploaded 4.3GB in the space of an hour or two!
Taking Bob's figures -
4295467400 bytes uploaded,  divided by your maximum theoretical upload rate = (7150/8128 overhead) * (488000bits_per sec / 8bits_per_byte)  i.e. 53660.187 bytes per second.
Therefore assuming your broadband was perfect and at maximum speed it would take 80049 seconds to upload 4.3GB,  that's 22.23 hours.
Which means you are either compressing data with a Vulcan mind meld or you must me using one hell of a lot of dilithium crystals on the warp drive upload phase capacitors captain !  Wink
Did I hear "Beam me up" ?  Cheesy
"Spock out"  Grin
Rincewind
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎29-10-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Ye canna change the laws of physics captun!
Thanks Mr Spock, there's no arguing with that is there.
unless 22.23 hours is because of a time warp?
However, it's been a while since I tried to sling shot my Mazda around the sun...maybe later  Crazy
Rincewind
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎29-10-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

I've just had a reply via the help desk.
Although it's an internal email, can anyone tell me what it means?
Thanks.
Den.
"If there is no objection we should unconfigure the secondary IP component
(212.159.119.141) then destroy it; then start a new radius session."
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

How about
The reporting database for this user is all screwed up so junk it and start afresh  - I hope nobody objects  Grin
Not applicable

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
Fixes: 315
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Quote from: Rincewind
I've just had a reply via the help desk.
Although it's an internal email, can anyone tell me what it means?
Thanks.
Den.
"If there is no objection we should unconfigure the secondary IP component
(212.159.119.141) then destroy it; then start a new radius session."

It means that there are two static IPs assigned to your account which isn't normal and may well be contributing to the problem. I've now removed one of these so can you keep an eye on things and let me know if you notice any more oddities? I've also credited your account by £5 in case you go over your included allowance this month.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

Rincewind
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎29-10-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Hi Bob
Thank you for that.
I'm showing 9.5gb of paid usage, my refresh date is the 26th, so it will go into the red by tomorrow or Wednesday tops.
So there was a second static ip?
I have been suspicious of my usage figures for many months now and had reported it a few months ago, to be told the metering was correct.
Perhaps this has been the cause all along.
I hope so, because when on Premier (about 7 years) I rarely used more than around 6 gig.
Since moving to the basic package, I have been charged a number of times for going over 10. Often frustratingly the day before my usage reset! lol
Regards.
Den.
PS Thanks for your comment Oldjim Smiley
Rincewind
Dabbler
Posts: 23
Registered: ‎29-10-2007

Re: Seemingly excessive useage of 4.3gb inside 4 hours!

Now waiting for my usage to be reset  Roll_eyes
This was suppose to have been done around 5pm yesterday, but didn't happen.
PN to try it again today.
Hope it works as I'm now at 9.71gb
For future monitoring, does anyone know of a net monitor that will work with Win 7?
One that would show usage detailed by time would be great, so I could check for any sudden impossible shifts.
Obviously massive jumps of 4+ gig are easy to spot, but I'd like to check, as my regular weekly usage is erratic, despite my activities being largely consistent.
It's all fun  Huh