BT Broadband Monitor

After a year of using BT Infinity with a 40 Gb monthly limit, in Jan this year I started getting emails stating I was approaching my limit. This puzzled me as I could not work out what had changed. BT referred me to their usage monitor. I managed to capture one days data before it went offline (and it still is offline for me).
Unhappy with their numbers I downloaded a freeware monitor called Networx and installed it on all my machines - (the software gives total usage on my 3 machines).

The figures it is reporting is a fraction of what BT said I was using (currently 2.94GB for March).

Couple of questions;
Anyone one else use Networx and finding a very large discrepancy between its figures and their supplier's?
Any view on Networx accuracy?
How do you audit BT claimed usage?

Incidentally the BT monitor is down (for me) and BT state any usage over ones limit will not be charged. That's fine, but why is it down? Is there a fault in their usage algorithm?

Thanks,

WMikeD

Edited by wmiked (Mon 24-Mar-14 13:34:41)

In reply to a post by wmiked:

The figures it is reporting is a fraction of what BT said I was using (currently 2.94GB for March).

The tool you downloaded can only monitor what your router is allowing through to your LAN. It's possible that your connection is under some kind of 'attack' that your router is successfully repelling (or ignoring). Unfortunately you are still charged for packets that come down your connection even if your router ignores them.

Some routers will track data and display that somewhere on their configuration pages. Others support SNMP ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Network_Manageme... ) which should allow a utility to get the same information.

Earlier this year my connection began to receive a steady stream of DNS requests. My router ignored them because I don't run a DNS server so port 53 was closed (stealthed actually). Unfortunately they still counted against my allowance to the tune of 1.5GB an hour.

I don't know that I was actually being 'attacked' as such. It might have been someone's configuration error. The only way to see this kind of traffic is to connect a computer directly (ie;bypass the router) and something like Wireshark. This carries some risk since you're effectively exposing the computer to the raw undiluted internet. There be dragons

Edited by Andrue (Mon 24-Mar-14 11:35:51)

Thanks for the reply Andrue.

My Home Hub page shows the following.
My Home Network
Devices currently connected to your BT Home Hub:

Wireless network: HT Laptop
Unknown-88-87-17-41-95-98 ?
WT Laptop
Ethernet: HAF Laptop
Int6400-69567be ?
Int6400-69567bd ?
udhcp 1.16.1 ?
WT-Win7Pro-64
USB: No devices detected

Any idea how I might find out what the '?' items are? (Itried a quick net search).

Thanks

Edited by wmiked (Mon 24-Mar-14 20:31:52)

In reply to a post by wmiked:

Any idea how I might find out what the '?' items are? (Itried a quick net search).

You could try this:

http://www.softperfect.com/products/networkscanner/

It might help provide more information about what is connected to your LAN but if my theory is right the problem lies outside the LAN. Even if you unplug everything from the router these packets will come down the wire. Only disconnecting your router will stop them. In fact that would be a good diagnostic process. Check the modem's indicator light. If it's flickering disconnect everything except the router itself. If it's still flickering you have your answer.

Your ISP should be able to change your IP address and that would hopeful solve this problem.