Unexplained Usage

I hadn't used my computer today until 3:30pm when I logged in to check my mail. I had an email from Plusnet saying that I had exceeded my allowance and had been given and charged for an additional 2 GB. I received the email twice, both are identical with the same email ref and both received at the same time.

Logging in to my account it says I have been given and charged for an additional 4 GB, the exact amount it says that I had used today when I wasn't at home !?!
I rarely reach 500MB in a day and only then when I have uploaded photos and watched iPlayer both of which I find difficult to do when I'm not even in the house.

I rang Plusnet, was put through to technical who weren't much help, and am now waiting for someone to get back to me to explain what has gone wrong.

I am trying to keep an eye on my current usage but it appears that Plusnet's servers are down.

Has anyone else ever experienced anything similar to this?

Errors in usage are fortunately very rare.
View my usage is working for me
My first guess (may well be completely wrong) is that your wireless router has been hacked into.

That doesn't explain why Plusnet would send the exact same email twice and bill me for the sum of both emails.

I don't actually use the wireless connection, which is protected anyway, so how would I switch it off?

Which router do you have

A D-Link G624T, and I'm on an iMac.

In which case I can't help but I have flagged this up in the Plusnet forums so hopefully a members of Comms will be able to assist but probably not until tomorrow

Most routers I have seen have the wireless settings available in the GUI - maybe yours doesn't though.

If you can get to the wireless security settings I would expect to find the disable setting there. If it isn't but you did get to the page, then make sure it is WPA or higher, not WEP, and change the password to something complex with upper and lower case and numbers. Write it down first and keep the paper! No harm in that - you just want to prevent leeching.

You say you haven't used your computer until 3:30pm - okay. But what about your computer itself - was it left switched on or off?

If on, maybe there was some background happening while you was not in front of your computer? (i.e. BBC iPlayer's P2P)

I think the usage monitor normally lags real usage? So, it could be that the usage was the previous day rather than the time/day you received the emails. One of the connections I look after was stopped at 2GB (old BBYW Option 1) and yet when it was re-enabled had used 2.5GB so the extra .5GB must have been late appearing or the usage block had a very delayed effect (that is normally about 1 week of usage).

In reply to a post by hypertony:

You say you haven't used your computer until 3:30pm - okay. But what about your computer itself - was it left switched on or off?

I put it to sleep when I'm not using it; it was still asleep when I came to use it at 3:30pm

If on, maybe there was some background happening while you was not in front of your computer? (i.e. BBC iPlayer's P2P)

If that were the case I would have had to have left it on from the previous evening (I hadn't) and there would be a massive amount of usage showing in the free period from midnight to 8am, but that is only showing 19.13KB.

The more I think about this the odder it is. Everyday the first thing I do when I get up is wake my iMac check my mail and go on the net. Yesterday I made a conscious decision not to do so as I wanted to get to town early and know from experience that this is impossible once I sit down at my screen.

I do find it a very odd coincidence that a hacker would choose to access my wifi on the only day I am not using it, particularly when one of my neighbours has a fast unprotected connection. Why would someone go to the trouble of hacking into my password protected wifi when there is another instantly accessible?

That was my first thought, too. I doubt the e-mails go out immediately, in real time.

I don't think an e-mail received at 3.30p.m. necessarily implies that was the precise time you exceeded your limit. More likely to have been some time in the preceding few days.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I think the usage monitor normally lags real usage? So, it could be that the usage was the previous day rather than the time/day you received the emails. One of the connections I look after was stopped at 2GB (old BBYW Option 1) and yet when it was re-enabled had used 2.5GB so the extra .5GB must have been late appearing or the usage block had a very delayed effect (that is normally about 1 week of usage).

It does mention that it may not include usage from the past 2 hours but as there is a free usage period from midnight to 8am it would show up in this.

My previous day's usage was 481.81MB, and my weekly usage is usually between 2 and 2.5 GB including free usage. I have never reached even 1 GB in a day, when I have been online for 16 hours and watched a couple of hours on iPlayer, so I don't know how it is possible to use 4 GB in 7 hours.

Have you been able to look at the usage checker itself and see the daily usage? Does that show where the usage was?

In reply to a post by TLM:

That was my first thought, too. I doubt the e-mails go out immediately, in real time.

I don't think an e-mail received at 3.30p.m. necessarily implies that was the precise time you exceeded your limit. More likely to have been some time in the preceding few days.

The usage monitor shows what has been used each day and the excess, 4 GB, is showing as a single block all used after 8am yesterday, the day the duplicate emails were sent.

There is a proviso on the usage page saying:

"The data on this page may not include usage from the last 2 hours. Please bear this in mind if you are close to exceeding your account's allowance."

This would be meaningless if previous days' usage was added together and displayed as a 4 GB block several days later.

Sounds like a glitch based on that. Unless someone used your connection to download a linux distro/windows 7/online game. I have download 10GB in a similar time span but only when downloading a very large game.

I don't have recent experience of this (my present package has not resulted in my exceeding my usage limit, for years), but isn't it the case that "add-on" blocks are sold in units of 2 GB? So the "duplicate" e-mails might simply be a reflection of the fact the overuse was two lots of 2, or 4.

I'm afraid I can't help you as to how the overuse may have come about, or even if it did come about. Barring a metering error by Plusnet, it does appear that the most likely explanation is someone else using your wireless connection.

I do take it there are not other people in the house, who might have used the connection without your knowledge? A friend once caught her cleaning-lady doing this, when she was supposed to be working at cleaning the house!

You don't have Skype loaded on your PC do you?

There are no other people in the house and as I previously mentioned there is a neighbour's unprotected wifi connection available to anyone in the area who wishes to access it.

Yes, I do have Skype on my Mac, but it isn't switched on and AirPort wireless networking is also switched off.

In reply to a post by hypertony:

(i.e. BBC iPlayer's P2P)

iPlayer doesn't use P2P now (the very early versions did).

Thanks, didnt know about that.

So what do they use now?

Straight flashplayer distribution from their own servers.

In reply to a post by Stephenbw:

Yes, I do have Skype on my Mac....

Check this

It can't be acting as a supernode if it is turned off as the OP has mentioned a few times in the thread...

EDIT: That is assuming it is the laptop that is switched off - but then earlier the OP did say that they hadn't woken the laptop from sleep so assuming skype can't work on a sleeping computer then essentially the laptop would have been off and not using bandwidth.

Edited by ian72 (Fri 05-Mar-10 15:48:55)

In reply to a post by Stevenage_Neil:

In reply to a post by Stephenbw:

Yes, I do have Skype on my Mac....

Check this

That's very interesting, however it does say The best way in my opinion to find out if Skype is acting as a Super-Node is to start it and let it run for a few hours without using it actively.

I do not have Skype running when I am not using it, which I do very rarely.

Some thoughts

Depending on your software update settings, OSX will download a software update and then tell you that it is available ready for you to install it. I have Software Update set that it does not automatically download the update until I give the OK.

In the past there has been cases where users have been connected to netcams sending images to a browser, even when the browser is switched away from the netcam the data is continuing to be streamed to the computer. It cannot be stopped until either the browser is closed down or the machine rebooted (I cannot remember which).

Finally - do you have to use WiFi to connect to a fixed location computer, using an ethernet cable will be faster and allow you to disable the WiFi - which is the best form of WiFi security.

I had heard nothing from Plusnet, so I posted an online query to them today.

A friendly man has just called me, checked things out and discovered that my account is showing an upload spike of 4GB in less than 1 hour.
According to him it would be completely impossible for me to even download 4GB in less than 1 hour with my broadband speed and as my upload speed is much slower...

The upshot is they have confirmed that it was a glitch which I was convinced was the case, and they are refunding £4, which is nice although that wasn't really my main concern.

Sorry to reply to a rather old note but I noticed my daily usage today and also realised that for a week when I was on holiday and had everything turned off (including the router) and I have been billed for approx 3Gb of data in that time. So it does suggest that plusnets figures are completely screwy.

I have raised a ticket and will get back with any response

Hi there,

Any chance you could post or PM the ticket ID so we can have a look at that for you?

Never mind, found your account - have you by any chance lent anyone a router? At least in June, possibly before?

Nope.

I did have one router that was thought to be faulty that I returned some time ago, though I have had a lot of line issues so it is possible it was not the router.
Any chance Plus Net sent my old router out to someone else with my login details still in it??

[Chuckle]

<memo to self>

If ever a router I've used leaves my house, change the password on my account.

</memo to self>

In reply to a post by jelv:

<memo to self>

If ever a router I've used leaves my house, change the password on my account.

</memo to self>

<memo to jelv>

I bought your last router. What kind of a password is "abc123" ?

</memo to jelv>

alphanumeric?

In reply to a post by ismoore999:

Any chance Plus Net sent my old router out to someone else with my login details still in it??

Bump!

I think Matt has PMd you about this to try and find out what's happened, let me know if he hasn't and I'll chase it up.

Any chance Plus Net sent my old router out to someone else with my login details still in it??

This shouldn't happen as RMA returns are sent back to our warehouse rather than the office here and don't get resent.