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Author Topic: BB usage  (Read 5027 times)

Achilles Last Stand

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BB usage
« on: June 30, 2015, 02:22:02 PM »

Hey Guys,

You will have to forgive me for (a) not reading through previous posts, (b) if I have not given enough info and c) possibly posting in the wrong place...  ::)

I have a BT Infinity set up with 20GB usage allowance per month, running a Windows 7 laptop and occasionally a Windows XP notebook.

Average usage is 8.88GB per month.  This month I have exceeded it by 20GB up to midnight last night and no idea how/where/why. 

BT are as much help as  :-X  (that's two wasted lunch hours now) all they can say is that the peak points are 15th 27th and 28th June.  I know I have not done anything different this month in the way of downloads and have definitely not uploaded anything like the 4GB showing on the BT graph.



What I want to know is whether there is any way I can monitor where/when the data is escaping to?  And what it is that's coming and going?



[Long time no speak some of you - hope all is well with everyone  :)]
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burakkucat

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2015, 03:32:44 PM »

Do you have a wireless network enabled? If yes, could it be that someone has discovered an insecurity in its set-up and have been making use of your connection?  :-\

That's all I can currently think of, at the moment.
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roseway

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2015, 03:47:36 PM »

Nice to see you again Steph :)

The other uncomfortable possibility which occurs is a virus. It would be worth doing a full virus scan on both machines, using more than one virus scanner. Unfortunately neither the gentleman above nor I know anything about Windows, but hopefully someone else could advise.
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  Eric

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2015, 03:56:26 PM »

Had something similar - turned out to be a machine failing a 50MB Windows update (on a Win7 box acting as a media player) then it'd download the same update next day, fail to update, rinse & repeat.

I'd never have noticed other than the fact I got a warning that the primary HD (30GB SSD IIRC) was full.

Tried working out why but as often the case with Windows its quicker/cheaper to reinstall as the issue has normally been sorted.
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Achilles Last Stand

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2015, 04:12:05 PM »

Do you have a wireless network enabled? If yes, could it be that someone has discovered an insecurity in its set-up and have been making use of your connection?  :-\

That's all I can currently think of, at the moment.

Yes I have and it's password protected (p/w supplied with the router) and I have not given it to anyone.  I did ask BT if they could give me another one but that seemed to be beyond the 'helper's' English comprehension  ???

Perhaps I can change it myself though, I'll have a look when I get home.
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Achilles Last Stand

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2015, 04:17:24 PM »

Nice to see you again Steph :)
Thanks Eric  :D

Quote
The other uncomfortable possibility which occurs is a virus. It would be worth doing a full virus scan on both machines, using more than one virus scanner. Unfortunately neither the gentleman above nor I know anything about Windows, but hopefully someone else could advise.

I had thought of that and did a full AVG on the main one last night, then turned it off fairly quickly.  I'll get a second opinion and check the notebook too - hubby tends to use the notebook occasionally to look at cars for sale, he could easily have clicked on something unintentionally and as he doesn't have a clue....  ::)
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Achilles Last Stand

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2015, 04:22:47 PM »

Had something similar - turned out to be a machine failing a 50MB Windows update (on a Win7 box acting as a media player) then it'd download the same update next day, fail to update, rinse & repeat.

I'd never have noticed other than the fact I got a warning that the primary HD (30GB SSD IIRC) was full.

Tried working out why but as often the case with Windows its quicker/cheaper to reinstall as the issue has normally been sorted.

Hmmm.  I'd better check for updates too then.


Thanks for the suggestions everyone I'll let you know if anything transpires.
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kitz

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2015, 07:01:17 PM »

Hi Steph hope you are well  :)

Youve not been doing any streaming video have you?   The vast majority of my bandwidth goes on streaming such as BBC i-player.   Its surprising how it very quickly adds up.    My parents got caught out last year and exceeded their cap in just one day from my nieces streaming Netflix.   Ive also recently had to transfer someone else's account to Unlimited because they'd started watching catch-up TV. 

Quote
I have not done anything different this month in the way of downloads and have definitely not uploaded anything like the 4GB showing on the BT graph.


You dont necessarily need to have uploaded something.   When you are downloading or streaming it will also cause a good chunk of upload too
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Achilles Last Stand

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2015, 09:51:00 AM »

Hi Steph hope you are well  :)

I am thank you, hope all is well with you and yours  ;D


Quote
Youve not been doing any streaming video have you?   The vast majority of my bandwidth goes on streaming such as BBC i-player.   Its surprising how it very quickly adds up.    My parents got caught out last year and exceeded their cap in just one day from my nieces streaming Netflix.   Ive also recently had to transfer someone else's account to Unlimited because they'd started watching catch-up TV. 

Quote
I have not done anything different this month in the way of downloads and have definitely not uploaded anything like the 4GB showing on the BT graph.


You dont necessarily need to have uploaded something.   When you are downloading or streaming it will also cause a good chunk of upload too

I did download 6 eps of Penny Dreadful via catchup but otherwise no, have never investigated Netflix, Sky seems to have more than enough by way of box sets and pay-per-view should we need it but have not used it yet.  Don't seem to have film-length time to sit in front of the TV these days (dunno what I'm doing instead though  ???).

Anyway.... downloaded Superantispyware and it found 2 x Trojan.Agent/Gen-Banker.  Having relied upon free versions of virus/malware programmes for all these years, when I got the current laptop in February I decided to pay for the all-singing all-dancing AVG Internet Security kit which promised antivirus, link protection, e-mail protection, online shield, data sate, 2 hourly auto-updates, anti-spam and shopping protection  :-X  Back to the free stuff I think...
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Codescribe

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #9 on: July 02, 2015, 11:05:50 AM »

If I remember rightly, in the information on a sky programme that you have downloaded it says the size of the download.  An hour episode in HD could easily be 1-2 GB or more.  That could be the cause of your blown download limit.
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Codescribe

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2015, 09:51:54 PM »

I have just checked and a 50 minute programme I downloaded in HD on sky was 2.96GB. I would think that the 6 episodes of Penny Dreadful are the cause of you blowing your limit if you downloaded them in HD.
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Achilles Last Stand

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2015, 01:25:55 PM »

I have just checked and a 50 minute programme I downloaded in HD on sky was 2.96GB. I would think that the 6 episodes of Penny Dreadful are the cause of you blowing your limit if you downloaded them in HD.

Thanks Codescribe.

I rarely record from the HD channels, they take up waayy too much room on the Sky box  ::)

The last couple of days have been back to normal so I'm hoping that the Trojan removal has fixed it  :fingers:
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kitz

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #12 on: July 05, 2015, 12:09:57 PM »

Hi Steph

I strongly suspect that it will be the episodes of Penny Dreadful that did it.   

Any of the catch-up TV stuff such as i-player, itv player, C4OD & Sky Go  etc consume quite a lot of bandwidth - typically around 1GB per episode/program.   It depends on the quality and if you opt for HD then it will be even more. 

I'm just reading down the thread & I note codescribe just checked and said its 3GB per episode so thats nearly 18GB in one fell swoop for HD.   Normal quality will be about half that.

Quote
I did download 6 eps of Penny Dreadful via catchup but otherwise no, have never investigated Netflix, Sky seems to have more than enough by way of box sets

Its all the same whether you stream it live or download to watch later in that it will soon eat into any allowance.  I used Netflix as an example, but same applies to Sky Go as the technology behind it is similar.    Theres a bit more info on the main site - Internet TV
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Achilles Last Stand

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #13 on: July 08, 2015, 11:01:58 AM »

Thanks Kitz, I'll have a read of that.  It's definitely been back to normal this last week and I have no plans to catch up with anything else for a while.

Thanks all of you for your suggestions  :)
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mrpops2ko

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Re: BB usage
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2015, 12:26:16 AM »

Kind of late to the party but your router might have something inbuilt to check all network connection data or alternatively you could use a program like NetWorx to monitor your bandwidth.

It will allow you to see your breakdown by each day / week / month. (but only on the computer(s) that you have it installed on)

It looks something like this http://i.imgur.com/WLsowmQ.png or this http://i.imgur.com/UqMM5rl.png even does per hour breakdowns http://i.imgur.com/Lrj4xUY.png

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