Broadband Usage

[#1]

Hi
Can anyone suggest why my monthly data transfer rate should suddenly have peaked today? 
Up until today my weekly useage over the past month has been respectively 223.97MB, 139.43MB, 63.02MB.
Suddenly todays useage has been 2.55GB up to now.
As a result I've gone over my allowance but have done nothing to warrant such a surge.
I've emailed Customer Support but I'd welcome any suggestions.
Many thanks.

[#2]

Thanks for your reply.
Haven't done anything much today - a small amount of browsing and checked emails.  I haven't downloaded anything but I did send a couple of pics.
I have a wireless router and it's WEP protected.
I have Norton anti-virus and I'm firewalled.  Also have the Windows security including Defender.
The Norton has an automatic system called File System Real Protection so that it's constantly monitoring.
The only other thing I did was to access my laptop this afternoon for a short period.
None of this is out of the ordinary.
The router is on during the day but I switch everything off at night.

[#3]

No to both of those.
I do have Skype installed but haven't used it for some months.
I see where you're coming from but I can't think of anything that might have caused this to happen.  I was hoping PlusNet Support might be able to shed some light but haven't yet had a reply.

[#4]

Thanks again for your response - I've now had a reply from PlusNet.  He asked me how I connected to the internet, as you did.
I've already run a full scan on both the desktop and my laptop and am also considering upgrading to WPA encryption (if I can work out how to do it!)
I thought it wasn't possible, but if someone has somehow accessed my connection, does it follow that they can therefore have had access to my hard drive?
Just to give you an idea, this is my useage for the past three weeks;
223.97MB
139.43MB
63.02MB (2 days only)
2.59GB (2.57GB on Friday)

[#5]

WEP has been broken WPA-PSK is what you need.
Any files shared on you computer may have been accessed if it was a wifi hacker.
Did you say what kind of traffic it was?
When people get an unexpected bill it's often because they left a file sharing app on and users from the internet have been downloading from their PC. Kazar was a realy bad one, I saw it run up traffic even if the user was disconnected bouncing requests of their router

[#6]

I have no idea what traffic it was or indeed where to look to find out.
I'll be looking at changing to WPA in the coming week but I'll begin in some trepidation!
Thanks PJ and Ed for your support

[#7]

Hi there,
Looking at the ticket that you raised, it would appear that there was a component error associated with your account that has subsequently been fixed.
As far as you are aware, has this problem now been resolved?

[#8]

I've just seen the reply myself so I am feeling more confident but I've asked them to confirm both the record of usage, since it's still showing as over the limit, and that I won't be charged.
Still looking to upgrade the security on my router though 
Many thanks for the support everyone.

[#9]

I've had a similar issue that I've just opened a ticket for.
I'm on a 2GB peak time allowance (PAYG). Last night I checked my usage and it was well within the limit, so I started a p2p download at around 9pm. My download speed is never much above 100kBps (36MB/hour).
At midnight, my usage becomes free of charge.
However, this morning, the Usage Page showed Friday's usage at 3.19GB! and the overnight usage (Sat morning) as 300MB.
I'm sure the fault will be found, but it's worth keeping en eye on.
Also interesting that my Data Transfer Watch didn't cut in (it's set to my base price of £14.99, so it should not have allowed me to exceed a total of 2GB anyway!

[#10]

Hi there,
How large was this download that you started on Friday evening?
We you doing any other bandwidth intensive activities during peak time on Friday?

[#11]

I wonder if you could explain the term 'component error' James?
I'm told my useage is still over (as per my original post) but that the 'error' simply showed my limit to be displayed incorrectly.
Many thanks if you can shed more light on this for me.

[#12]

Certainly.
Basically, every aspect of your service that you have with us (Mailbox, Portal login, etc) is a separate component.  The component responsible for showing you the amount of usage that you had used was apparently not working correctly, has now been fixed and is now displaying the correct amount of usage.
Does that make sense?

[#13]

Your answer makes perfect sense.
However, I'm still showing the same amount of usage even though I'm at a loss to understand why it should be so high.

Presumably this is to remain forever one of life's mysteries.