What's using all my internet??

[Bill]

I'm currently going over to FTTP, but for some reason the job hasn't been completed so while we have got 8mbs I'm still limited to 50GB pcm. It's the 2nd of March and we've used 12.66GB already, and we've been out all day today! 5 of us, the eldest watched YouTube for a couple of hours maximum yesterday and the wife and I have browsed a bit.

So what's chewing through the data? Can I interrogate the router?? Or do I have to ask the ISP?

[hotchy]

I used my entire phones 20gb allowance watching 4k youtube videos on the train in one day. Not saying it's this but even downloading one game onto my xbox takes over 60gb now.

[Chozza]

ISP probably cannot tell you .. its just data to them ( especially once https etc. so unless they look at the end points its not going to tell you much )

5 of you ... Any TV on download ? Xbox updates PC getting patches ? Sons Xbox bandwidth is approx 200GB per month just downloading games

Downloading a few HD movies could easily use up your 12GB

What sort of router have you got ? as it might help

[Bill]

None of that. We've been chewing through it since they started the job so I've been limiting everyone, but thought we'd be ok.

Just googling though, it looks like a 720p YouTube video uses 220MB in 10 minutes, so a GB in 50 minutes or so.

[Bill]

Router is a Fritz box 7530.

[geeks]

Bill said:

None of that. We've been chewing through it since they started the job so I've been limiting everyone, but thought we'd be ok.

Just googling though, it looks like a 720p YouTube video uses 220MB in 10 minutes, so a GB in 50 minutes or so.

Probably closer to 40MB a minute so 2.4GB an hour, 1080 will be 3.6GB an hour (almost all smart phones and tablets will be at least 1080!)

Browsing is what it is.

Any Windows devices online? Could have been downloading updates.

Any smart devices? CCTV? Ring Doorbells etc, that kind of thing?

Spotify? Apple Music? Sky TV? Eldest merrily tubing the pron?

We have two people in the house and around 22 devices connected, it's easy to consume vast swathes of data without realising sometimes.

[Bill]

Laptop and phone set to 480p...

PC and a laptop both asleep.

Kids not online, three fires and a switch.

Me on my phone... Just chewed through 400MB since I checked earlier!

[Bill]

Just occurred to me that I plugged a Chromecast in when we were expecting the upgrade. Do they use much background data??

[Bill]

It's like we have a leak!

[akirk]

Change the password
- still using data? you have a leak...
- add one device at a time and watch the data...

[Chozza]

Not familiar with the router .. but it looks quite handy.

Looking at the manual ( as i now want one ! ) can you see device throughput in the home network ... or is that just per interface ?

[NNH]

akirk said:

Change the password
- still using data? you have a leak...
- add one device at a time and watch the data...

When in doubt, suspect the neighbours

[Bill]

Nearest neighbour is 200 yards away. Unless it's the sheep in the intervening field.

Bill said:

Just occurred to me that I plugged a Chromecast in when we were expecting the upgrade. Do they use much background data??

It looks like they do, uploading a fresh hi Res image every 30 seconds. I've switched it off...

[Bill]

Chozza said:

Not familiar with the router .. but it looks quite handy.

Looking at the manual ( as i now want one ! ) can you see device throughput in the home network ... or is that just per interface ?

It's a freebie from Zen. I'll have a look later (possibly tomorrow...)

[richie99]

Backups to a cloud server? Had a friend running Time Machine backups online - hurtled through data but he was doing some pretty heavy stuff.

[BobSaunders]

Phones and Ipads will continuously update - facebook, instagram, icloud (photos), email, document syncing, app updates etc.

[eps]

Which service are you on with Zen? ADSL? All their Fibre stuff is unlimited... Are you on an old service? Have you tried giving them a call, they're fairly clued up.

[Bill]

Thanks. I think it's the Chromecast, usage has tailed right off since I switched it off.

Just trying to work it out - say an image is just 2MB. 4MB a minute, 240MB an hour, 5.8GB a day! My 50GB allowance is gone in less than 9 days!

[devnull]

The fact you have a cap on your home internet is baffling. I just looked at my usage for today, and it’s 25Gb, and I did 178Gb last week. That just life now, although it does incorporate home working.

[alorotom]

50gb is very low - I’d be looking to up it, esp with 5 people in the house!

I get through over 120gb on my phone alone and the wife’s about the same.

On the WiFi when I last looked consumption was in the realms of 1.5tb/mth and that’s probably increased dramatically now with 4K streaming - that’s 2 adults and a 5yr old ... and I’m away 4days per week.