Internet overages

[Captain2]

I have a 60 GB limit but I find myself horrendeously overstepping my limit on a monthly basis. For a point of reference I've only downloaded two games this month, both roughly 2 GB each and the rest of this I have no clue where its coming from.

I've reduced myself to simply normal internet usage (chat and forums) as can be seen a couple days ago where I started getting really low but for some reason its peaked again.

I haven't downloaded anything in weeks, I've stopped playing games online and I've even deleted anything that needs to update itself. I do have a wireless router but its been locked recently since it started to peak again.

How am I getting these numbers?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Do you done a malware scan? (With at least a different scanner than the normal) That be the first thing I checking.

Theres also a program called Wireshark that can trace packets coming to your computer and out, IIRC.

 

[Zelig]

Switch to a bigger internet package and/or a better company?

Teksavvy has a good rep in Ontario.

 

[Maniacal]

Teksavvy is well recommended from what I've read, but that isn't going to help much with these overages.

I still have no idea beyond malware or viruses.

 

[Captain2]

Switch to a bigger internet package and/or a better company?

Teksavvy has a good rep in Ontario.

What would a gig cap be?

I ask because if thats not related to the GB limit then teksavvy doesn't mention how different theirs is

 

[Souron]

Maybe someone else is trying to leach off your wireless.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Wow, I'm stuck with 5GB, for my whole family, and we make it...

 

[Captain2]

Maybe someone else is trying to leach off your wireless.

Its locked, also it dies out any further than the walls of my house

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Have you looked at Wireshark. It wll tell you what is passing through the network.

 

[Souron]

Its locked, also it dies out any further than the walls of my house

I reccomend changing the password anyway.

A week signal can be overcome by a better antenna, and there are vulnurabilities in most wireless security methods. But chaning the password is cheep and easy, and if it works even for a little while, then you know where the problem is.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Wow, I'm stuck with 5GB, for my whole family, and we make it...

Really? How do you do that? I mean, I know I can limit myself a lot, but I (I being me and my family actually) use up about 15 gigs per day on average. Yes, there's a lot of video and file transfers.

Captain2: log onto your router and see if it has a list of connected clients, and even more so, per-client bandwidth usage. That can narrow the usage down to a client (although MAC spoofing and the like will render this useless) and you can go from there.

I personally keep BitMeter 2 running with the net graph always on top. That way I can see when there's heavy usage and check out what's happening.

 

[Captain2]

just wondering, does it appear as though I upload a lot or no?

A malware check brought back no results and an AVG check did the same

 

[Genocidicbunny]

For about half the month, your upload is either on par or higher than your download, so yes, it does appear that you upload a lot.

 

[Captain2]

For about half the month, your upload is either on par or higher than your download, so yes, it does appear that you upload a lot.

hmm. what would be uploading? the last thing I uploaded (as best I know the term) was two screenshots about two days ago.

And now that I'm using that Bitmeter thing it looks as though my downloads are low for the most part but suddenly my uploads shoot up when I'm just browsing pages.

I'll include a picture of it when it happens

 

[Maniacal]

Check every computer in the house for torrents, someone could be seeding something. In fact scan them all too for malware and viruses.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

First question is do you have any torrents going in the background? That includes the WoW and Company of Heroes patchers, they use your computer as a distribution node.

Next off is programs like Emule, Limewire, etc. Those could be uploading without you noticing it.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437

TCPView will tell you what programs have open connections and what their status is. Look specifically for Established connections, since those are the active ones.

 

[Captain2]

First question is do you have any torrents going in the background? That includes the WoW and Company of Heroes patchers, they use your computer as a distribution node.

Next off is programs like Emule, Limewire, etc. Those could be uploading without you noticing it.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437

TCPView will tell you what programs have open connections and what their status is. Look specifically for Established connections, since those are the active ones.

Geno! my hero!

I turned TCPview on during a spike and found the problem and then I killed it. Never again shall it plague me.

Heres hoping it doesn't cause me any more trouble. turns out it was LOTRO using my computer as a peer to peer thing.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Ah yeah. Those updaters piss me off specifically because of your situation.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Really? How do you do that? I mean, I know I can limit myself a lot, but I (I being me and my family actually) use up about 15 gigs per day on average. Yes, there's a lot of video and file transfers.

Not really sure, but short of posting on here I don't use it much.

 

[nerd]

short of satelite, i'm on dial-up, and there is nothing coming soon. 5Kb/sec is good!