What does the router do when establishing a new broadband connection?

[#1]

Hullo all
I have recently switched to PN and received my brand spanking new TG585 v8 I was scheduled to be connected by PN on the 26th "any time up to midnight" and that is apparently what happened, connected at midnight I mean.
So next day the 27th at around 6am I turned the TG585v8 on and it did its thing. Bear in mind that the family have not been given any passwords for the Wifi yet so it is just me at the desktop next to the router.
my question is that when I check my usage i have been hit by 1.8GB of download for that first day. Does the TG do any heavy downloading during setup? i dont think anything else was happening until I gave the family the passwords the next day.
my normal daily usage is 900MB max with many days around 300MB.
Any other alternative suggestions as to what may have been happening during a new customers activities?
I think the extra 1GB may just push me over the threshold for my tarrif and I may be stuck with a £5 fine! Nice welcom to PN!

[#2]

If you haven't secured your wireless then someone else nearby could piggyback your network and download stuff from the internet using your connection.

[#3]

When the router is turned on for the first time, it connects to our auto configuration servers and sets itself up using your phone number. This should not have taken anywhere near 1.8GB! I would say at maximum it would need 100Mb transfer to setup, and that is rounding up to the nearest 00's!. Its defiantly worth checking your wireless settings are set to encrypted to make sure noone can access the network; however this should be turned on by default  
You can find this out easily by looking at the wireless light on your router. It should be flashing either green or yellow; if it is flashing red then your network is not password protected.

[#4]

It doesn't actually take even near 100Mb if my memory is correct, as the data to set it up is so small it will only take a very small amount of data.
@PeterLoftus
Has your computer been disconnected from the internet for a while prior to this? It may be that you had a significant amount of updates for Windows and other programs to download?

[#5]

Thanks Strat
Dont think so, it was the first day and this is a rural residential area. nobody would be aware of a new WiFi link. Besides isn't the Thompson product suppose to have the best security? Would it really happen when ther was not much happening other than me playing with the network I mean off - on - off - on  

[#6]

thanks Whelpton Chris
Chris I have a thought. My wife doesn't like automatic updates, so when I go on the desktop I tend to do all the Windows updates at once. A possibility!  

[#7]

Keith
The router installation went OK although I was trying to connect for several hours on the 26th before success early morning on the 27th. then it seemed to take an age to set itself up.
But finally all the lights are the correct colour and I sure my security is as intended by PN 

[#8]

Quote from: PeterLoftus

Chris I have a thought. My wife doesn't like automatic updates, so when I go on the desktop I tend to do all the Windows updates at once. A possibility!

Depedning on when this was last run, I suspect it's more than a possibility

[#9]

cant remember if I did it though, its a reaction and doesn't  pass through brain! 

[#10]

If you go to control panel -> add/remove programs. You should be able to select the 'show updates' option. That will tell you when new updates were installed.

[#11]

No the last big download of windows updates was 12/5/11 

[#12]

HI PeterLoftus,
I've been investigating this thoroughly and can't see any discrepancies with the usage reporting. I can't really comment on what might have been going on on your machine as it would only be guess-work but can guarantee the usage is correct for that day.
Jojo

[#13]

Thanks for that Jojo
but i hope you can see where I am coming from. 
This is my first month with PN, having told my wife that I had done the research and i had a good package for phone and broadband at a fraction of the price of our previous arrangements. It looks on the usage page as if something different happened on the first day and at the end of the month we may go over our max usage and have to pay the extra £5. 
What I need to get straight is.. After using your tool on your website and my experience I made my estimate of the correct tariff to use. 
Is this 1.8MB daily usage a one off?  Its only happened once in two weeks and on the first day. If it happens again I'm on the wrong tariff and we joined PN on a wrong premise. 
This month I look like paying a £5 penalty and I will need to explain that to my wife, after convincing her about the good deal I had got. It doesn't look good.! And I cant see why it happened. If I don't know how can I plan so similar effects don't happen again. 
Regards
Peter

[#14]

HI Peter,
You don''t have to go over, you can set it not to via the data transfer watch. I'm not sure what to say about what may have happened but it would only be guess-work as I said before.
Jojo