Where is my Data Going???

I recently received a warning from my ISP (Plusnet) that I was approaching my allowance limit, 40Gb. I was somewhat surprised. I was horrified when they told me that I had downloaded 19Gb in one day (Sat 22nd Oct) and that 12Gb of that between 5pm and 6pm.

I contacted them but they assured me that I had actually used this amount.

On Saturday last, I installed Thinkbroadband metering on all my computers. This morning, I thought I would check yesterday's usage. It was 175Mb which seemed about right to me. When I checked with Plusnet, they were showing 975Mb!! I was out for most of the day.

My security:
1. All the computers in the house have are tied to the router by their MAC addresses.

2. I have changed the SSID and made sure that it is not transmitted.

3. There is only one computer using wireless, the other two are connected over the hard-wired LAN.

Seeing as Plusnet are going to charge me £1 per Gb over my limit, I am really at a loss as to how their monitoring systems and the thinkbroadband system can show such a disparity.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

As a first step I'd switch off the wireless at the router. The chap with the wireless connection will just have to suffer until it can be ruled in or out as the problem.

What are they using the computers for? Catch up TV from BBC, ITV, etc. can easily ramp up massive figures.

Thanks I will try that. There are only two users in the house and my wife can always plug in my LAN cable.

We don't watch any live TV, mainly just browsing, Facebook and email etc. I do sometimes download films but certainly didn't on 22 Oct and definitely not yesterday.

Cheers

Dave

Which modem/router are you using? Some maintain their own statistics of data sent/received.

It's a Netgear N150 WNR1000.

I've just purchased another LAN cable so have turned the wireless off.

Cheers

Dave

Post deleted by john2007

Page 88 of the user manual (from http://support.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8473 ) shows that statistics in packets sent/received are maintained individually for each of WAN (to/from ISP), LAN1-4, and WLAN (wireless LAN).

It's worth keeping an eye on that, especially if you leave your router switched on permanently.

This is the post I deleted. The pdf name indicated another model but the contents of the pdf do appear to document your model

I would ask then how would / could you you download 12G in around 1hr.. Given you speed of servce is that actually possible. I think not.

In reply to a post by iand:

I would ask then how would / could you you download 12G in around 1hr.. Given you speed of servce is that actually possible. I think not.

I don't think it's possible either but Plusnet assure me that they can't have made a mistake. I am also disputing yesterday's figures from them.

This is their analysis in Mb for the time between 1900 and 2100 yesterday
1900-2000 Upload 156.3324, Download 29.0946
2000-2100 Upload 156.3324 Download 29.0946

Notice that the amounts are absolutely identical!!! Bearing in mind that both my wife and I were using our laptops during this period, what do you reckon the chances are of this happening?

I have virtually told them that their data is pretty worthless; waiting for a reply.

Cheers for your comments.

I would ask then how would / could you you download 12G in around 1hr.. Given you speed of servce is that actually possible. I think not.

I don't think it's possible either but Plusnet assure me that they can't have made a mistake. I am also disputing yesterday's figures from them.

I'd press them harder on that - what's your sync speed? 12G in an hour is 26.7Mbps - plausible on FTTC but a bit of a stretch for ADSL

I have a fibre connection so my download speed theoretically can be as high as 40Mb/s.

However, as my allowance is measured in Megabytes and my router works in Megabits, there being 8 bits to a byte on the internet, this equates to nearly 100Gigabits in one hour, in theory possible in around 50 minutes. I have never been able to download at anything over about 15Mbs and generally the maximum sticks around 8Mb/s even though the line is rated at 40Mb/s.

I shall switch my router off tonight and see what i get in the morning.

Cheers

have you got something like bit torrent running? if so stop it from running at startup

Got Skype installed on a computer perhaps?

If so you may need to look into disabling its SuperNode mode

No bit torrent installed and Skype not installed.

You might find this interesting and also hopefully have some idea as to what's going on:

Yesterday between 17:00 and 18:00 my thinkbroadband monitor recorded data upload of 2.7Mb. Plusenet recorded data upload of . . . .wait for it. . . . .590.0684Mb ! ! !

During this time, only my personal laptop was on and I only used it for checking email and news items etc.

How on earth can that be possible without me knowing it especially as I uploaded nothing?

My wireless is now disabled and all computers are connected with LAN cables.

Is it at all possible that there is a fault at the exchange allowing someone else's data to be using my connection. Can't think of anything else really.

Help please. . . . else I'm either going to be cut off or it's going to cost me a fortune.

Kind regards

Hi, have you used BBC iPlayer? If so it installs KService a Peer 2 Peer sharing application and that will eat up your bandwith.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/2/consumerwatch/30...

http://www.opinionatedgeek.com/Blog/blogentry=00175/...

I didn't think iPlayer used p2p these days - both those links are several years old.

According to this Register article it was stopped in April 2009 with the launch of a new version of iPlayer.

Looks like a fault @ PN end.

Have a look at the stats maintained by the router to see what it says is going along the WAN.

Did you get this sorted?

I have a 6.6M line and I can download a 3G linux DVD in around 1.5hrs and that has maxed the line.

If you share your line connect speeds we could work out the max download per hr that is physically possible. If your ISP is reporting you are downloading faster than that, then they have a fault at their end. If you are downloading slower then the maximum, it could be someone else is 'using' your service. I would change the wireless password.