Broadband Usage

Annieuk75

I have broadband with BT and have had for the last 3 years. We have 10 gb a month and on average used to use 5.8 gb per month. The last 3 months I have been using 10 gb in the first 20 days and then have to pay an extra £5. I have not changed my usage at all, yet BT claim that the usage is correct. My worry is that someone is hacking in and using my wireless connection. Thanks

Figment

Logical first step is to change your network key.

bod1467

If your router is always on (and hasn't lost sync) then the router stats should show usage data for your connection. Your usage as counted by BT will be the sum of the download and upload data.

Add them together then divide by the uptime ... this will give you your average usage per day/hour (depending on how the uptime is reported). Does this infer that you could exceed your limit?

(There have been other reports from people saying the BT usage data seems excessive).

Annieuk75

Thanks, the first thing I did was change the key last month, but it didn't change anything. I switch my router off every evening.

LadyMorticia

Windows updates can be quite hefty and can eat into your data allowance.

Do you have kids? Is it possible that they are downloading more or streaming more?

closed

You'd probably be able to get a much better deal elsewhere, and not have to worry about extra charges. 10Gb is very limiting in these days of youtube, iplayer etc.

If your router is using wpa encryption, it's highly unlikely anyone without permission will be using your connection.

LadyMorticia

Also wanted to add, do you have any other devices that can access the internet, such as a PS3 or Xbox?

Annieuk75

Thanks. The only things we have connected are the printer and the BT Vision box. I don't download movies or songs (my kids are too young to use the computer). I check my emails, use Facebook and Twitter...and MSE. I can't figure out how this is using so much?

warehouse

Someone at our office had this exact same issue. It turned out to be MacAfee anti virus on her office PC, (when she worked from home). A simple update casued it to go bonkers and cost her a lot of money in bandwidth charges.

barak

Annieuk75 wrote: »

I have broadband with BT and have had for the last 3 years. We have 10 gb a month and on average used to use 5.8 gb per month. The last 3 months I have been using 10 gb in the first 20 days and then have to pay an extra £5. I have not changed my usage at all, yet BT claim that the usage is correct. My worry is that someone is hacking in and using my wireless connection. Thanks

Annieuk75 - I'm not with BT but I can access details of my daily usage and I would have thought that you could too. It might help explain what's going on - i.e. whether your daily usage has really increased or whether there are one or two very high daily figures. :undecided

smos585

bod1467 wrote: »

If your router is always on (and hasn't lost sync) then the router stats should show usage data for your connection. Your usage as counted by BT will be the sum of the download and upload data.

Add them together then divide by the uptime ... this will give you your average usage per day/hour (depending on how the uptime is reported). Does this infer that you could exceed your limit?

(There have been other reports from people saying the BT usage data seems excessive).

In my case it only counts packets which are not readily converted to bytes.

It is possible that the OP has some malware that is using her PC without her knowledge? I once noticed that the internet connection icon on my taskbar was flashing while I was sure I had no internet activity - it was a virus!

Maybe worth downloading malwarebytes and running it to see?

http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/