Sky: Gone over your monthly bandwidth allowance...

stoofa

stoofa

stoofa

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So I moved my dear mum over from PlusNet to Sky a couple of months ago. Reason was simple really - she has Sky TV and so internet would be free for her.
Now with PlusNet she was on the cheapest connection possible and I believe that too had a pretty low monthly allowance. In fact I think the Sky basic package (2GB I believe) was actually twice as much as the PlusNet offered.

Anyway, she browses the internet, she does some email and that is about it. She doesn't listen to music, watch films, use VOD or anything like that - she wouldn't know where to start if she wanted to!
Days will pass and she won't even have the machine switched on and to add insult to injury she was away last week so didn't use it at all.
She doesn't have unsecure WiFi - I set that up and I know that is safe.

Does anyone know if Sky can give me a breakdown of what was used and on what day - some kind of "proof" if you like that she did actually use up all this bandwidth?
They have said that if it happens again she will be automatically dumped over onto the higher level internet at £7.50/month which simply put she doesn't need and doesn't want to be paying!

Any advice on this? I'd like to get it sorted before it happens again.

Cheers.
 
Is there anything in the Sky router that shows how much has been DL/UL? I can just imagine how the call to Sky would go if you asked for proof of usage :p

Alternatively, I'm afraid your mum is a filthy, torrenting pirate.
 
Note: Broadband Lite is free and is 2GB.

I use mobile broadband, let me just tell you can eat through 2GB is a youtube viewing session.

I have a website with IMAP email that I use just to receive my business emails.

I don't send any attachments at all, all I do is have outlook open and it checks the mail every now and then. In a month I use 1.2GB on just email.

So 2Gb really isn't much even for light use.

We don't really realise how much bandwidth we actually use these days, 56K days are long gone and the web is designed around broadband users. A web page can easily have 1MB of data (unheard of in 56K days).
 
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Are you sure she hasn't discovered YouTube or anything like that? You might be surprised how quickly YouTube will eat through 2 gigs. Especially as one video tends to lead to another.
 
2GB is nothing these days. Automatic software updates will consume a decent chunk of her bandwidth per month.

Does she view online video?
 
Sky apparently have a way of metering but it's really nothing more than a countdown to when she'll suddenly be charged £7.50 per month instead of £0 :)
It's purely email and browsing - as far as I know and as far as she tells me she's never watched a video online.
I don't allow Windows or any other of her applications to auto-update and I know the WiFi is well locked down.
Just cannot explain it really.
Will have to look at downloading a meter and see what that tracks.
 
It could (depending on the metering setup) be as simple as whoever used the IP last did a lot of torrenting or was the target for a DDOS attack and the IP continued to be bombared with connection attempts - on older BT systems (not sure about other ISPs) this would also be counted into used bandwidth and could easily eat several 100s of MB or more.
 
Networkxx or something is what my partner said for me to use, it monitors how much bandwidth you're using over a set period of time. Doesn't work on Win8 mind you
 
Hyburnate said:
Doesn't work on Win8 mind you
Click to expand...

win 8 has something like a data usage already if you click on your connection. Says how much used in the last so many days, up to 60 days and you can reset it with another click.

Currently sporting 220GB on this PC due to a fresh install of steam and all its games, will be expecting a call from my IP to discuss a fair usage policy. lol
 
KIA said:
This is pretty nuts. You're only going to attract malware to her machine which might account for the increased in bandwidth consumtion.
Click to expand...

No - I look after all that.....
Forget the Windows Update side of things - that isn't going to be causing any issues. :)
Her machine is locked down and the combination of AV and UAC in place - and the places she visits, the fact her Windows doesn't update is of no consequence.
 
Agree, not patching is VERY bad practice considering the zero day exploits in the wild which don't require user interaction. What browser does she use? IE?

Recommend you enable Windows Update at least, that way you're protecting the exploits which when exploited can turn the computer into a bot. Could explain the usage?
 
Putting on Adblock would trim page sizes down a bit, but not going to make a massive difference.
 
jake108 said:
Agree, not patching is VERY bad practice considering the zero day exploits in the wild which don't require user interaction. What browser does she use? IE?

Recommend you enable Windows Update at least, that way you're protecting the exploits which when exploited can turn the computer into a bot. Could explain the usage?
Click to expand...

Seriously guys - the patching is NOT an issue here.
I know exactly what I need and don't need to do with regards my mums machine and having the thing download patches when she knows so little about the thing is not a good idea.
When I go to see her I can update anything that needs updating.
No there is no bot on her machine, no there is no malware, no it's not being remote controlled by the Russians....

The issue is that there is no way that 2GB has been used for the amount of web browsing and email she sends/receives.
Monitor now installed - just got to hope now that I can get Sky to understand if another letter comes through about usage that I will have proof something is wrong with their calculations.
 
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