Unexplained broadband usage.

Hi all, need some advice. I am in Australia and use Telstra Bigpond for all my phone/internet/pay TV access in a bundle. I have 5 Gig internet allowance on ADLS2 ( though I only have a ADLS1 modem). This has always been enough for my wife & I, who are both in our 60s and do not download movies, songs etc. Up until last month that allowance was more than enough for us.
Last month it went over for no apparent reason, and this month it is going to do the same.
I have discussed this with Bigpond Tech Support but have not got an answer to why this sudden increase has occurred. I have, as suggested by them, turned off my modem after I shut down for the night but that has done nothing.
All we use the internet for is email, news feeds,Facebook and the odd Google search. Our previous usage was between 3 & 4.5 Gig.
I have run all my anti virus/malware, and everything else anti and they have all come up clear.
We are running Windows 7 Professional. Have G mail, yahoo.au, hot mail & Facebook accounts. Do not use Twitter or any of the others, and my wireless is off.

Can anyone help a non geek with suggestions on how to find out what is going on.

 

What's going on would depend on how much you are going over your 5GB cap?

Do you watch short videos like those found on YouTube or news websites? Watching more of such videos can easily add a couple GBs of bandwidth over the course of a month.

Surfing the web today is also much more bandwidth intense than it was a decade ago. Websites today are loaded with ads, as the webpage loads in your browser your connection is essentially hijacked to retreive those ads from adservers. Over the course of a month & depending on the websites visited, a great deal of bandwidth is used in retrieving ads. Adblocking software & browser addons don't prevent those connections so the bandwidth usage still occurs at your end even if you don't see the ads.

Since you are on a 5GB monthly cap you should actually be using your "host file" to help cut down on the bandwidth you use. You can get a precompiled host file from the link below, just read & follow the instructions. The precomplied host file blocks roughly 14,000 adservers & is updated monthly, you should reboot your PC after updating the host file.

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hostswin7.htm

The host file is part of every Windows & Linux operating system. It's a simple text file used to block your Internet connection from connecting to URLs (IP addresses), nothing more. You can read more about it a Wikipedia if you want. I've been using the precompiled host file from this website for over a decade, I only update mine once or twice a year & that's really all anyone really needs.

 

Hi Lapetus.
Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I can not seem to find the "Host File" on my computer. I clicked on the link you suggested and followed its instructions but had no such file apparently. I the clicked on The "Hose File" site which directed me to download 'win-zip' as mine was out of date. I duly did that but still no "Host File" on the computer, just a lot of offers to buy this or that 'win-zip' programme.
Have you any suggestions on what I could be doing wrong. At the moment I seemed to have used a heap of download for no purpose.
Regards,
Butain.

 

You probably do not have hidden files showing, that's why you can't "see" the host file. Do this to unhide

 

Win7 is 32 bit or 64 bit? (right click Computer in the start menu and choose properties to see if you are 32 or 64 if you don't remember)

What browser are you running? Most browsers have add ons that block video
Firefox:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/961940 may help.

plodr is right in that a host file will help. The add on may be an easier route.

 

Go the link I provided again, click on the link in the second line that says "hosts.zip". A download dialogue box should open, select the save option which will open another dialogue box, select Desktop & hit the save button.

On your Desktop you should see a zip file called "hosts". Just rightclick on the file & select extract. Extract to the desktop is fine. You shouldn't need to update your version of winzip & windows 7 has native support to extract zip files anyway.

5 files will extract (HOSTS, License, mvps, PrivacyPolicy, readme) rightclick the "mvps" file & select run as administrator. Then you should see a command prompt that reads "press any key to continue" just hit the enter button on your keyboard. (Note: some antivirus programs may prevent you from modifying the host file on your PC because it is a system file. If that happens just turn off your antivirus for a minute while you update the host file.)

If that's how it went than your host file is updated, just reboot your PC. After reboot go ahead & delete those 5 extracted files & the zip file from your desktop, you don't need them anymore.

As noted on the website below the second picture where it says "Editors Note" you may need to put your "DNS Service" into manual mode (not in disabled mode). I keep that service in the Started mode on my PCs with no issues.

 

Just be aware that a largish hosts file can perceptibly slow systems down when browsing, depending on system specs. If that happens it's a trade-off between bandwidth usage and system speed. My ADSL2 service is unlimited so I don't use a hosts file at present but I'm considering it as one option for blocking access to undesirable sites.

 

If you find your browsing slower using the host file you can try putting your "DNS Service" into manual mode, some suggest disabling the eservice but I've never found that necessary or a good idea. You would have to try it on your system to see if it helps or not.

You can also just open a command prompt & type ipconfig /flushdns or reboot your PC.

It actually takes a lot to fill the dns cache & those that find slower browsing is more often the result of other programs like antivirus, malware & adblocking software, not the host file being to large.

I run Windows XP & Win7 with the DNS service set to automatic with a large host file & have never had slow browsing. I also only run basic antivirus & never run malware or adblocking software or addons which add to network traffic not reduce it.

You can also modify the registry, again I have never found a need.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318803

 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will try your advice tonight. I'm running 'Firefox' as my browser and have 64 bit windows 7, in answer to your queries. Does this change any of the advice given?

 

No, it doesn't change the advice. The hosts file is "global" and will affect any web browser you use.

And it doesn't matter if the computer is 32 or 64 bit, when modifying the hosts file.

Since the suggestion concerning the registry is related to speed and not your problem of overuse, I don't recommend doing that yourself. If you find you have a speed issue, rather than play around with the registry, it would be worth getting someone to make you a .reg file to change your registry. Messing up your registry can leave you with an unbootable computer.

I don't know if Telstra still has plans where you get charged extra if you go over the limit but in case they do and you're on one, you'll be paying through the nose for this overuse. They definitely have plans nowadays where instead of paying extra, they slow you down until the end of your billing month. This is called "shaping." If you are on a plan where you are paying for excess use, get yourself onto a shaping plan as soon as you can.

Have you received by email or been watching online videos of your cute grandchildren, a wedding or 21st or some other special event? Video and audio are big users of data allowance and especially video. To give you an idea of the amount of data that video uses, let's suppose you record "Gardening Australia" onto a flash drive (channel 2, not channel 21). The resulting file size would be around 1.3gb. Quite a few video cameras now will take video with the same quality to file size ratio as Gardening Australia so if you had been sent 10 minutes worth of video, that's likely to be around 400mb.

EDIT:
I just remembered that I have some unedited video footage on an external drive here. One of the files is approximately 12 minutes and 1/2 gb. That's from a video camera that's about 6-7 years old.

 

Thanks Chookers. On my plan Telstra just slow down the speed, by lots.
What I cannot understand is why my usage has gone up so much last month and this. Not like heaps over but just enough to go over a few days or a week before I get a new allowance.
To my knowledge we have not changed our usage patern at all. We have always opened safe attachments to emails & watched utube segments on facebook .
I also used to play online poker and have never had any issues of over usage.
As I have advised only my wife & I access the beast, so it has me stumped.

 

Yes, that's shaping. Good thing, too. Telstra/Bigpond charges for going over your limit were something like 15c per mb which works out to a whopping $150 per gig, (they call 1000mb a gig) much worse than many of the ISPs available in Australia.

So you never have your wifi turned on? That rules out anyone leaching from you or a new mobile phone or other device jumping on the internet via the nearest network.

Have you heard of the Whirlpool forum? I was poking around over there to see if it's a common problem that might point to a fault at Telstra's end (not likely but not impossible) but it doesn't seem to be. (Our power company slipped up once and was overcharging all the prepaid customers so I know these things can happen, though thankfully not often, and all of us Downunder know Telstra's reputation for mucking up.)

One thing that I did find at the Whirlpool forum is a suggestion that it could be a virus; another was that if you have more than one computer, use them in turn to see if one is the culprit. Whirlpool is a highly respected Australian forum concerning broadband so I'll give you the link about someone else's problem and you can see if it gives you any ideas:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2272680
Like Major Geeks, moderating is firm and junk not tolerated. They also have a section where you can look for the best deals for you with any ISP. They try to keep that reasonably up to date but even when it isn't, it gives you a good overview of who the good ISPs are.

(If you decide to go to Whirlpool by just typing in the address, make sure you use NET.au and not COM.au or you'll find yourself trying to buy a washing machine... - "Guess whose mum's got a Whirlpool!" http://whirlpool.net.au )

If you decide it might be a virus, Major Geek's own malware removal guide is brilliant and well worth the time. Unless you're totally new to computers, most people can manage it on their own, just follow it through:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

EDIT:
Those Youtube clips on Facebook - is it possible the quality has been "upped" recently and is accounting for the extra usage? Give them a miss for a day or two and watch your meter to see what difference that makes.