Seeking Help Regarding Internet Data Usage From People More Technologically Inclined

[Charmander]

As the title states. So here�s the story. We have rural internet 300gb per month of usage. We just stream on our Apple TV and use our phones and laptop for internet emails etc. Never in the past year have we gone over 200gb of data usage.

My husband informs me yesterday that 4 days into our billing cycle we have somehow managed to use 45% of our data. 130gb in 4 days people!!! 4 days!!!!

I called the service provider and they stated in 2 days we used 110gb of data and some days was a constant download
of 2.5 gb/hr from 7am to 2am the next day.

Did I mention we work full time and are not home from 6:30am to 5:00pm? We don�t leave the TV or Apple TV on and the Laptop is also closed and or phones are obviously on our person. How in the heck is this possible?!

Yes our router is password protected and we don�t have anyone remotely close by who could even access it unless they stood on our property for those hours. And if they were well that is just freaky.

I was told to turn off the router for 4 hours then call back the provider the hours is was off so they can see if there is an error on their end.

I am just curious on what the heck could have been chewing through our data and if there are any steps I can take to prevent it from happening again?

Thanks all!

[PrettySarcastic]

Can you let us know the brand and model of your router?

Some models have onboard data utilities that will tell you what your network usage was over a given period of time. If yours does, it might be able to show you what machine was using data where -- if it was you guys and not an error on the provider's side.

[Byte]

Sounds like an error on their end to me, that is one hell of a long time to constantly be downloading something 0.69 MB/s especially if they are saying it was consistent throughout that entire period. Torrenting is the only thing that registers for me for that length of time. Could be wrong.

[Charmander]

Can you let us know the brand and model of your router?

Some models have onboard data utilities that will tell you what your network usage was over a given period of time. If yours does, it might be able to show you what machine was using data where -- if it was you guys and not an error on the provider's side.

Router is an Asus RT-N12

It would be nice if this one did so I can see where the heck this data usage is coming from.

[PrettySarcastic]

Router is an Asus RT-N12
It would be nice if this one did so I can see where the heck this data usage is coming from.

Okay, give this a try. Here's the manual.

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

It looks like you should have a Traffic Monitor feature in the settings of the router's interface. I don't know how far it goes back, but it may do the trick!

[Charmander]

Sounds like an error on their end to me, that is one hell of a long time to constantly be downloading something 0.69 MB/s especially if they are saying it was consistent throughout that entire period. Torrenting is the only thing that registers for me for that length of time. Could be wrong.

Yeah we don’t torrent at all anymore as our internet speed is nothing like in town. Even streaming is a pain at times. I’ll turn off the router tonight and see if my data usage changes at all.

---------- Post added at 08:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 PM ----------


Okay, give this a try. Here's the manual.

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

It looks like you should have a Traffic Monitor feature in the settings of the router's interface. I don't know how far it goes back, but it may do the trick!

Thank you so much! I’ll give it a shot and keep you posted. I’ll try and screen shot things so hopefully I can tell my provider to shove it!

---------- Post added at 08:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:28 PM ----------


Okay, give this a try. Here's the manual.

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

It looks like you should have a Traffic Monitor feature in the settings of the router's interface. I don't know how far it goes back, but it may do the trick!

It does have a traffic monitor interface where I can look at daily reception and transmission and it does show the increased reception for those two days but I don't see any options or areas to click where I can get a breakdown on what device was using the data.

[PrettySarcastic]

Hmmm. Okay. This was challenging without being able to see it.

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

This video may help, in it the video creator seems to be showing a way to see traffic per device. It might help you isolate one particular machine/phone/tablet or something that may be the source?

[Charmander]

Hmmm. Okay. This was challenging without being able to see it.

[Only registered and activated users can see links]

This video may help, in it the video creator seems to be showing a way to see traffic per device. It might help you isolate one particular machine/phone/tablet or something that may be the source?

Thanks for this too. When I was in there it showed my firmware was outdated. Could this have been a source of the data usage? Since I updated it though it lost all of the memory of usage arg.

[PrettySarcastic]

Thanks for this too. When I was in there it showed my firmware was outdated. Could this have been a source of the data usage? Since I updated it though it lost all of the memory of usage arg.

Oh dang! No, no worries there, router firmware wouldn't have any impact on data usage.

Honestly the only thing that would ever use that much data would be streaming HD quality video, or downloading a lot of data. So if you purchased some HD quality movies from Amazon or iTunes and downloaded them to your computer, or were torrenting a bunch of music or movie or software downloads.

I'm really inclined to think it was an error on your provider's side, though, unless there is some malware in one or more of your computers that's doing some nefarious activity in the background. 2.5g constantly over almost 24 hours is insane.

Have you run a scan for malware? I personally like MalwareBytes. The free version should be totally fine for your purposes:
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[Charmander]

Oh dang! No, no worries there, router firmware wouldn't have any impact on data usage.

Honestly the only thing that would ever use that much data would be streaming HD quality video, or downloading a lot of data. So if you purchased some HD quality movies from Amazon or iTunes and downloaded them to your computer, or were torrenting a bunch of music or movie or software downloads.

I'm really inclined to think it was an error on your provider's side, though, unless there is some malware in one or more of your computers that's doing some nefarious activity in the background. 2.5g constantly over almost 24 hours is insane.

Have you run a scan for malware? I personally like MalwareBytes. The free version should be totally fine for your purposes:
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

I haven't run a scan in a while. Could Malware still run when the laptop is closed and asleep?

[Cybun]

Might be a stupid input, but could it come from a pc update? I know W10 is notorious for downloading massive updates without asking, they gave me a gigantic data usage issue because our limit used to be 50gb

[PrettySarcastic]

Malware can do all kinds of bad stuff when you least expect it. :(

But yes! Cybun brings up a good point. Windows updates can be atrocious.

[Charmander]

Not using windows. Using Mac IOS and there hasn't been an update lately that has occurred for me.

Did a Malware scan and it found 17 threats eeek, Now those are dealt with. Thanks for the program for the Malware scanner.

[PrettySarcastic]

Hmm, Mac! Okay.

There is a built in utility that will show you your network usage by application:
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

I don't know that this is going to show you anything historical, it doesn't appear so, BUT it will show you what is running now and how it is using your network. If there's some kind of background process going on, this could help.

[Charmander]

Well I contacted my service provider after turning off my router for more than 12 hours. It showed that yup there was no data usage.

So still wondering where the heck over 100gb went in two days. In talked to the service provider tech he said that if we have a gaming system that it could use that much. OUt xbox is unplugged and is always off and highly unlikely.

I did ask if items can update when off or on sleep mode and he said yes....can anyone else confirm this? I find it odd something would update when it is off or sleeping. Bu what do I know?

When I said we have apple TV he said it was likely that updating even though it was sleeping. How does Apple TV have a 100gb update?

[PrettySarcastic]

That is pretty mysterious.

So it looks like Apple TV can consume a fair amount of data:
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

[Only registered and activated users can see links]


If it was a software update, you can control when those happen by adjusting settings:
[Only registered and activated users can see links]

Where this article says to turn ON automatic updates, I would say turn them OFF.

[Sam Grin]

Last time I faced with similar issue I used user behaviour analytics ([Only registered and activated users can see links]) software to monitor my PC on Local Area Network. It helped me to trace and prevent information and data theft. Now I use this software on a regular basis, it works in tandem with other security measures and help prevent potential attacks.