Where's my quota been used?

rodo

rodo

rodo

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I recently moved back in with my parents inbetween university years. At home there are three systems. My brothers gaming PC and mine, and my parent's very old PC. On getting home I find my dad has a new ISP - talktalk. He didn't know if it had a quota or anything - he liked the advert and price :(

Now the only other problem before now was the rubbish router overheating. But yesterday he go an email saying our monthly usage had been 76GB but he had a quota of 40GB.

I am however puzzled how we've used so much. We don't use torrents. But which of the following (which we do use) is likely to be using the most bandwdth hungry:
  • Moderate iplayer usage (30 mins/day)
  • Lots of gaming (~3-5hrs/day between both PCs)
  • General internet browsing

Would you think iplayer is causing this large usage or is gaming more demanding than I thought?
 
Based on their bitrates (and then cheating by looking at most programs' download sizes), you're probably looking at about 350MB per 30mins of iPlayer usage.
Is it just one person on one PC using this (10.5GB/mo), or all 3 of you watching different programs for 30mins a day?
Is there definitely no P2P software running in the background (that none of your family may know they're even using)? Is there anywhere on the router that can tell you your current bandwidth use (i.e. when you're not doing anything, is your bandwidth still being hammered?).

Even with iPlayer, there's potentially 60GB unaccounted for, which seems VERY excessive. Is your wireless key secure?
 
Same here, from TalkTalk aswell which seems odd.

Been with them for ages, pretty consistent monthly usage

i.e.

Browsing/idle online 12/15 hours daily
Online gaming ~5hrs max daily

But this month i also got a letter from TalkTalk saying my monthly limit had been exceeded 54.04gig ( 40gig is my limit ).

Don't understand how that total is correct, or why it has suddenly shot up.:confused:
 
Iplayer works partially on a P2P model. Or at least it did. So maybe the extra bandwidth has been used through uploading.
 
norm said:
Iplayer works partially on a P2P model. Or at least it did. So maybe the extra bandwidth has been used through uploading.
Click to expand...

Minstadave said:
Yup and if its loading on windows startup, it'll be uploading all the time.
Click to expand...

Not any more it doesn't - the BBC gave up on P2P and now all the content comes from servers.

Dunno how you've got to 76GB if it's only 30 minutes of iPlayer a day. There has to be another explanation - somebody must have been downloading something else.
 
Could be worth ringing Talktalk I guess, and just checking whether their systems have had a bit of a fail calculating bandwidth?

Would also check your router to make sure that any wireless clients associated with the router are ones that you know!
 
If You split 60GB between the 2 high use pc's thats less than 1GB per day, You will easily be eating that up !, just instal something like DU meter, and dont forget usage is up+down data
 
Check your router access logs, I've heard a few stories of neighbours/local kids/miscreants using other people's WIFI and causing such problems. Incidentally ensure you're using WPA (WPA2 preferably) rather than WEP :).
 
A friend was in Spain for a month and got billed for going over their quota with TalkTalk. Only, their router was offf. So go figure. TT are still adamant.
 
Router is secure. Only one person using router. I've accounted for around 15-20GB in downloading games from Steam and my brother downloading some FSX patches over and over again as they didnt work will also be a few gig. Iplayer usage also now looks more than I estimated it since my brother has been using it and also been watching youtube a lot. I'll be glad when I'm out and have my unlimited plan again!
 
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