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Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

amihunt
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎14-08-2017

Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

Hello,

 

Over the last 6 months our broadband usage has gone skyhigh. When I've looked at the usage log it's internet use typically during the day. The amounts are anything from 4-8 GB in one go and there are perhaps 2 or 3 a week. Consequently, my monthly broadband bill is getting silly (we're on the 10GB/month allowance).

We rather stupidly (or rather, unknowlingly) installed Windows 10 about 6 or 7 months ago. Could it be downloads from this? Is there any way to find out for definite what it is that's causing these massive spikes and also anyway to manage/stop the downloads?

 

Many thanks for any help

Amelia 

10 REPLIES 10
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,920
Thanks: 9,536
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

Hi,

A warm welcome to the forums.  I would not suggest that you "stupidly" installed Windows 10 - one might argue that it was a sensible decision.  In a number of ways it is much better for non-techie users ... automatic updates are just that and largely transparent ... downloading and applying the updates, reboots and leaving you exactly as you were when you left the machine previously.

However these updates are quite big and if you have left the update settings as default, you might be serving others with the updates as well...

Check out Win10 update settings...

  • Start
  • Settings cog
  • Update & security
  • Windows update
  • Advanced options
  • Choose how updates are delivered
  • Updates from more than one place - ON
  • PCs on my local network

The last but one is useful if you have more than one Win10 PC at home - if you have not, turn the option off.  It is on by default.

For the last option, the default setting is "...and PCs on the Internet" - which means you are effectively acting as a fileserver!!!

 

If you insist on calling yourself "stupid" then you ought to apply that to still being on a metered service!! Shocked

You might want to consider contacting COTS (aka retentions / I want to leave) and ask them what they can offer you to re-contract?  When I switched from 10G/mth to unlimited, the unlimited deal was £1 a month LESS that I was paying on 10Gb ... before I considered the cost of "over usage".

HTH?

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.

amihunt
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎14-08-2017

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

Thanks Townman,

 

We've checked the Win10 settings and the final option you detail below is turned off already. It would be good to know what's causing the spikes if it's not Windows 10 updates. Any thoughts on how to get to the bottom of this?

 

I'll definitely take your advice and look to switch to unlimited tariff pronto.

 

Best wishes

 

Amelia 

Townman
Superuser
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Posts: 22,920
Thanks: 9,536
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

Amelia,

I did not suggest that it was not Win10 updates - there is every chance that it was.  The guidance above was to ensure that it is no worse than it needs to be!

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.

amihunt
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎14-08-2017

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

Ah OK - gotcha. So can you advise what's the sort of usage (GB) we can expect with Windows 10 updates? So far the spikes I'm seeing don't seem to match to dates when we've had Windows 10 updates (that we know of), but we thought that Windows 10 was the likely culprit.

 

Many thanks

 

Amelia

bmc
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Registered: ‎28-02-2017

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

I believe you can specify Win10 to update overnight - if I remember downloads done then don't count towards usage. However, you do need to leave your PC on with power saving turned off.

 

Brian

Townman
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

See https://www.google.co.uk/search?site=&source=hp&q=how+big+are+windows+10+updates&oq=how+big+are+Win&...

There are varying guesses at the size - the consensus is that they are big but probably less than 4GB.

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.

Townman
Superuser
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures


@bmc wrote:

I believe you can specify Win10 to update overnight - if I remember downloads done then don't count towards usage. However, you do need to leave your PC on with power saving turned off.

 

Brian


You can tell window when to apply updates, but not when to down-load them.

However you've prompted me to go look at some not all too obvious / well known settings...

  • Start
  • Settings cog
  • Network & Internet
  • Change connections properties
  • Metered connection - ON

Back under Windows Updates...

Capture Update metered.JPG

 

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.

amihunt
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎14-08-2017

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

Thanks bmc - that's useful to know if we have any other downloads which we can specify to run overnight.

amihunt
Hooked
Posts: 5
Registered: ‎14-08-2017

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

Thanks Townman - will try switching this on while I sort out my contract with plusnet.

Townman
Superuser
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Posts: 22,920
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Unexpectedly high broadband usage figures

You can tell Windows when to APPLY the updates, but not when to DOWNLOAD them.

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.