Usage Monitor Gone Mad

[#1]

Not surprising, Asbo - the accounting packets that PN are sent which tell them how much usage you have used are discarded around midnight.
Basically, they receive data about your connection every 15 minutes (for example) which says "in the last 15 minutes, you have used xxx MB"
If that information is received at 00:14, then PN have no *definitive* way of saying exactly how much of that usage was before midnight, and how much was after midnight.  Therefore, they simply discard any information in any packet that crosses over a peak/offpeak divide.
So, in your case, there will be a 15 minute "section" of time, spanning midnight, where you were hammering your connection but no usage will be recorded.
B.

[#2]

yep i know about that. but still i used alot of bandwitdh during the day and most the map pack was done b4 midnight. so 55mb for paid usage is way to low. thoe the free usage isnt that far out for 3 hours XBL and abit of the map pack download

[#3]

Well according to the P1 the problem has been fixed, however I am still affected. My usage shows as zero since the start of my billing period (28 October). I raised a ticket and was told that I haven't been online since then, which is most certainly not the case.
Interestingly if I hit the 'view internet activities' button then I get a breakdown of the sorts of traffic I have been using which looks about correct, so one bit is working and another one isn't!

[#4]

same as me acorns no usage from billing date the 2nd of novmber. day or two later after i had raised ticket and posted here. they started to see i was online and my usage from there on started logging but i belive its not seeing all my usage.
and me to could see internet acctivites working.
from barry zubel's post(The VMBU usage is in two parts - the actual metered amount of information is provided by BT.  The traffic-type breakdown is provided from the Ellacoyas/Junipers.  The figures will often not match down to the byte, but are very very close in practice.)
hum bt again getting it all wrong

[#5]

Reading the Service Status it appears they have taken one of the CBC servers offline.
From memory, I believe thats a "Capacity Based Charging" server?.  I would guess there is a cluster of machines dedicated to processing the data received from BT.
From the symptoms, it sounds like one of the datasets is corrupted.  My guess would be that a particular process is trying to reconcile the data sent by BT, is crashing and then restarting on the same dataset.  Meanwhile, any new data that BT have sent, which has been picked up by this errant server, is merely queued up behind.
By removing the server from the cluster, it means that it's no longer backlogging so any data now being received will be processed in a timely manner.  However, the "historical" data is corrupted by the repeated attempts to process, and there are still likely some datasets waiting to be processed.
Identifying which dataset is causing a problem, and fixing that problem means that PN can feasibly remove the old corrupted data from the VMBU "daily totals" and replace it with the fixed dataset.
Meanwhile, I would assume that the delayed ones will be running alongside the realtime data to back-populate what's currently missing.
Upshot is, that the VMBU totals are probably incorrect.  If you're currently missing data, or currently showing large amounts of unusual activity on individual days then it's probably worthwhile raising a ticket, or adding your name to the P1.  That will make it easier if you subsequently have to refute some usage charges (which I'm sure PN will be lenient on - it's very difficult to "budget" your usage if you don't have the VMBU to assist you)
B.

[#6]

Thank you for the information Barry, it's no surprise that BT are involved somewhere in the chain, and it's more of an explanation than we've had elsewhere.

[#7]

I'm showing no usage for yesterday and today.

[#8]

I'm going to get an updated service status out soon, sorry about the delay

[#9]

@ ianwarrilow

Can you reboot your modem/router and let me know if you've been able to do this. I've got a feeling you connected before we moved the corrupt data across and want to test my theory.

[#10]

Chris,
Wont be able to do that until this evening I'm afraid. I'm currently in the office...

[#11]

nps, just a thought I had anyway.

[#12]

Chris,
If its any use I CAN tell you when it was last connected. Normally its on 24/7 but its a 2700HGV and in light of the new BT firmware upgrade in the air, I happened to change to my backup 2700 on Wednesday evening. So it would have been reconnected at about 7:00pm on the 5th if thats any help. AFAIK its been connected since then...
I will disconnect/reconnect anyway this evening and check the VMBU before and after.

[#13]

Yep, that would have been before we moved the data so my theory stands up so far Just got to see if it carries on.

[#14]

Couldn't you theoretically use an intrusive one-shot to kick him from the network and reconnect him yourself? /innocent hum
That is, of course, as long as he doesn't have a line with characteristics similar to mine.  I remember you having trouble booting mine off
B.

[#15]

That was indeed my first thought, but they don't seem as successful now as they used to.