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New Customer

Laroc
Grafter
Posts: 74
Registered: ‎24-03-2008

New Customer

Three weeks ago I changed over from dial-up to the 1Gb adsl package, purchasing a Voyager 2091 router for my laptop.
Now my time on-line has hardly changed, usual email check and checking my own web sites.
I decided to check my Plus Net usage and I was horrified to find in these 3 weeks I had clocked up over 600Mb+ of data.
Averaging over 200 Mb per week.
I cannot believe this to be true as my online use between dial-up and ADSL has hardly changed.
Time wise, I am obviously on there less
Has one of my near neighbours inadvertainly logged onto my wireless signal ?
Is the security key I entered on my laptop (the BSSID) number and the wireless key number (pink label) sufficient protection or is their another password facility I can type in, to protect my router ?
I can see another Voyager router when I "View all networks" on my laptop.
Any help would be appreciated
21 REPLIES 21
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: New Customer

At least you should have wap installed, instructions should have come with the router
nadger
Rising Star
Posts: 4,498
Thanks: 46
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: New Customer

Assuming you are connecting using a single machine try installing NetMeter which is a free programme.
It's most unlikely that someone else is using you connection.
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: New Customer

Since When is it unlikely, its depends what area of the country you live in, Naughty me, when I got my latest laptop before this one, I was on dial up,  the laptop suddenly said network in sight, I logged on for two weeks before I decided that ADSL was good for me.  That particular customer now has his network protected. Crazy
nadger
Rising Star
Posts: 4,498
Thanks: 46
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: New Customer

I don't think that the OPs usage indicates that someone else is using his connection.
I obviously agree about network security - unfortunately I seem to be limited to WEP.
Was using laptop in car ( OBD2) and the amount of networks I detected in a quiet residential area surprised me.
Two were listed with no security which, indirectly, improves my security  Smiley
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: New Customer

The wireless key number is probably WEP, that should stop others logging on, not used to your router, perhaps when other users wake up you might get a better answer
nadger
Rising Star
Posts: 4,498
Thanks: 46
Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: New Customer

WPA-PSK is more secure but I found my router locked me out and I had to use ethernet cable to reset back to WEP
Edit - are we in the wrong forum?
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: New Customer

If we are a Mod will move us Smiley
Not applicable

Re: New Customer

Laroc - I use the Option 1 too and have the same browsing habits. Usually I keep just within the limits so your usage is not so high IMO.
I now use AdBlock Plus (Firefox) which blocks ads and thereby reduces usage. Occasionally I watch a YouTube video or listen to a radio programme and that hikes the usage up enormously.
If your router is secure than I wouldn't think that anyone is hacking in to it but this would be evident if you had a few hours of no use and then check the portal. Another thing that I do is to switch the computer on early, particularly on patch Tuesday and download the updates before 8 a.m. The last one was Vista SP1 at 66MB so I made sure that I didn't download it in my paid-for hours.
Also, leave the pages that you view regularly open in tabs and that will save loading them again.  It is possible that you are loading more pages than you think because of the ease of broadband.
Laser
Grafter
Posts: 206
Registered: ‎23-09-2007

Re: New Customer

When I was on dial-up (a few years ago now) I calculated my monthly download traffic to be in the region of 40MB. When I wanted to decide whether to go for a 1GB, 2GB, etc, broadband package I figured that my usage couldn't possibly exceed ten times that, which would be 400MB - under 0.5GB...
A couple of months later I was regularly using in excess of 1GB. Roll_eyes
On PAYG dial-up, the art in keeping the cost down is to be online as short an amount of time as possible, while downloading as close to 100% of that time as possible. Whereas with broadband your time is unlimited, but your data transfer is limited. Since web pages and downloads happen so much quicker, you can eat up 100MB just casually surfing around for half an hour. New broadband users in particular revel in the way you can freely click any old link "just to see what is there", where you would have been much more selective with dial-up because of the speed. - How many times have you avoided a 5MB download on dial-up because you didn't want to tie your phone up for half an hour? An average MaxADSL Broadband connection can get 5MB in under 15 seconds...
Anyway, I'm rambling. 200MB a week is nothing. Many people use several GB a week or more. I'm a low user and frequently average 500MB a week...  Don't worry, enjoy the new freedom!  Wink  Cool
shutter
Community Veteran
Posts: 22,206
Thanks: 3,769
Fixes: 65
Registered: ‎06-11-2007

Re: New Customer

Just checked out my usage for this month..... background first..... I spend a lot of time on the forums.... browsing and joining in...  I surf the net about 1 or 2 hours, checking out photography sites, and downloading some pics that I like..... My wife spends about 4 hours a day on the same connection on EBAY, and other sites, checking out our holiday destination this year.... I don`t have much email activity, and that`s about it.... so I suppose if you halve the following result  it would give you some idea of a months usage for me....
So far this month  2.5 gb..... split this in half cos my wife is online as well, makes it about 1 to 1.25 gb usage....
bearing in mind I am on here most of the day, thats not bad....
I can recommend you to download, and install NETMETER.... as it is a nice little prog, and provides an "onscreen" "live" box, with your upload, and download usage.... you can therefore keep an eye on your own usage, and compare it to the Plusnet version, next day..... (I think Plusnet update during the night about 3 am).... If you find a BIG difference between your NETMETER figures and Plusnet figures, then it would appear that someone is "hooking up" to your router....
Good Luck..... and enjoy the freedom....
notheruser
Grafter
Posts: 139
Registered: ‎08-01-2008

Re: New Customer

Quote from: poppy

Also, leave the pages that you view regularly open in tabs and that will save loading them again.  It is possible that you are loading more pages than you think because of the ease of broadband.
Beware! If the pages you view regularly are automatically updated (generally by advertisements), then doing this will increase your usage. We use SurfControl in work to monitor usage, and staff are limited to a certain amount of "leisure" browsing per day in their own time. A small number of staff go over their limit on a daily basis, and when we look at what they've been browsing, it's only one or two pages. They open their favourite pages, minimise the browser, and presume they are not using any bandwidth - sadly they are!
Reloading the regularly used pages should not use much bandwidth - the graphics etc. should be in the local cache.
Tabbed browsing is however, a great time saver, though I doubt if it's the answer to the OP's problem.
Laroc
Grafter
Posts: 74
Registered: ‎24-03-2008

Re: New Customer

Thanks to all for the info, very much appreciated.
Just another thought.
I see on the Voyager set-up,  the ADSL  can be “on all the time” or “manually connected”
It`s configured to be “on all the time” at the moment, any ideas how I can get an icon on the desktop to manually connect just like my previous dial-up.
I would feel happier to activate the connection when required
I have used the connection Wizard for a broadband connection but this doesn’t work !
shutter
Community Veteran
Posts: 22,206
Thanks: 3,769
Fixes: 65
Registered: ‎06-11-2007

Re: New Customer

However, there is a split decision amongst forum members as to whether this (switching off the router) is a good practice, or not...... seems there is a speed/sync issue that has been widely discussed in other threads, as against the "green" issue re-  switching off non use electrical equipment, rather than leave on standby.....
Not to be discussed on this thread..... search and ye shall find ! ! !
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: New Customer

also on the contention issue, this afternoon stood by my front door and checked WiFi around me, I was on Channel 6, never switch mine off, there were 4 trying to use chan 11 and another 5 flicking around 1, 3 7  that was without me moving, all had WEP enabled, dont know what would happen if I walked down the street  Embarrassed