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BT Broadband usage

3K views 39 replies 12 participants last post by  spx 
#1 ·
I've had BT Broadband for years. Never had an issue and never had any problems with usage caps. I'm on the 10GB per month data package.

Last month I got an email to say I'd breached my 10GB limit but since it was a one off they wouldn't charge me.

Today I got an email to say I've used 8.81GB of my 10GB allowance and was likely to go over the 10GB so would be charged £5.

Not crying about £5 - just curious as to why I'm now hitting a limit I never have before. According to the MyBT monitor my historical monthly usage has been 6.1GB

Havent changed browsing habits, although wife did get a kindle a few months ago although she doesnt download many books at all...

Are BT just trying to get me to upgrade my usage? Can anything be running in the background grabbing data which is running up this usage? or are sites just now so full of video content etc that 10GB per month is out of date?

:confused:
 
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#6 ·
Is your network password protected FD? I'm shocked by the number of my neighbours who are running totally open wifi.
Worth checking. A mate of mine who runs his own ICT business told me that one time one of his techs went to a domestic customer to do something to his PC/network, and put a password on the WIFI he was using.....and then found that the customer had been inadvertently using a neighbour's WIFI rather than his own. (I wonder if the neighbour ever found why his WIFI suddenly had a password he didn't know about...??!!)
 
#5 ·
The MyBT portal allows you to login and see what you've used (8.8GB) split between 8.4 download and 0.4 upload up until the previous day at 23.59 - but doesn't give any information on when it was used or if it was video or bulk data etc or from what IP or machine it was accessed.

The latter info would be useful if someone is piggy backing off of my router.

In terms of a password - obviously you need the hex address off of the printed label on the home hub to access it, but I haven't added any further security..... is this insufficient?

Looking on available networks I can see about 6 from surrounding homes, but even those that don't show a little padlock symbol next to them (which I assume ar ethe very secure ones) can't actually be connected to unless you enter the code off of the box.

Would be ideal to have some sort of application that showed itemised download usage (like a phone bill) - i.e. Youtube 26/7/12 0.66GB, Flickr 28/7/12 1.3GB, GentlemensSpecialistGrungeWebsite 29/7/12 5.2GB etc
 
#8 ·
No. Don't use that Sky anytime. Don't in fact use anything differently as far as I am aware than any previous months or years.

My thoughts are that it's either (a) someone piggy backing my router (password will be set tonight) or (b) something MrsDibnah is doing unknowlingly such as downloading kids films or something.

I'm also getting the feeling that 10GB is pretty low nowadays and that too many sites have embedded video and streams running that will be chewing that up when just sitting open....
 
#9 ·
We had the 10Gb limit last year and once I took redundancy, set up my own company to flog my time and skills :) and got some new IT kit, which then got used a bit more than just at the weekend we soon got close to or over 10Gb. We upgraded to 40Gb and that proved more than enough. (We don't download films, music or anything like that.)

That said, once it became live round here we then moved to BT Infinity which is about 8x faster and has no limit. :thumbs:
 
#11 ·
:lol:

We were able to go to Infinity 3 (fibre to the house and up to 100Mbs) and the tariff is around £35/month as I recall. The other versions of Infinity (up to 36 and 72Mbs I think) are cheaper.
 
G
#12 ·
FD, do you have a BTFON and BTOpenzone SSIDs showing as well as your own personal SSID? It could be that someone is using the BTFON & BTOpenzone 'networks' excessively. As you're a fellow Mac user you might want to have a look at Little Snitch, it may help - I've never used it but have heard lots of good things about it over the years.
 
#15 ·
So I've now had a usage monitor running on the desktop Mac for the past few days, and on that machine we are using around 150-200mb per day of Broadband download capacity. It's August 24th and we've used 9.25GB of our August 10GB allowance.

My wife's iPad is used for similar amounts of usage so I would say that's going to be about the same.

The Windows laptop gets used very infrequently so that would be irrelevant in the grand scheme. It only gets turned on 2 or 3 times per month (not unlike MrsDibnah.... :eek:)

If we do manage to use 300-400mb per day between the two devices then over the course of a month that would be where we are - i.e. 9-12GB per month. :(

Considering we don't download songs (maybe 2-3 per month max) or watch streaming video or download movies or play games, it would seem that a combination of browsing Facebook, AO, eBay, Autotrader, email accounts and the BBC Website (news + sports only) is enough to generate that traffic.... :eek:

It wasn't very many years ago that a 2GB monthly allowance was the norm and we never got near it.

Does this mean that:

(a) Me and MrsDibnah are voracious browsers and surfers? (we use the internet a fair amount I suppose)
(b) Even seemingly static sites nowadays are fat and heavy in terms of bandwidth usage?
(c) A lot of background data gets exchanged nowadays by various apps/sites? (some of the data count usage increases overnight when we are in bed!! The Mac is still running but not being used)
(d) All of the above.....
(e) Those out there who do watch movies, use iPlayer, download 1,000 songs per month etc - all have 100GB limits or unlimited packages?

Either way - looks like we will need a package upgrade beyond 10GB if we aren't to get penalized with speed restrictions and penalty charges. :(
 
#16 ·
Your usage sounds similar to ours, so I'd say you're an average user. We have a Windows desktop & netbook used mainly for forums, email, shopping & news & sport, plus a TV used occasionally for catching up on TV programmes & watching stuff on youtube. Our monthly usage averages around 8GB, rarely above 10GB in any given month - we're on a 40GB monthly allowance, so going over 10 isn't a problem.

May be worth shutting your desktop down overnight? We shut all our devices off but leave the router permanently on.
 
#17 ·
This Thread prompted me to check my useage.

Up until yesterday it was less than 2Gbs for the Month. I only do normal browsing and don't download music, videos etc but I do use it to browse some news sites which have a lot of content. I do this most days for a couple of hours and of course scan eBay very regularly for the hard to find Alfetta bits !

Seems that I use it much as you do Fred so it seems odd that your useage is SO much higher than mine. :confused:
 
#18 ·
I am at a loss with this. It's the 25th of the month and I'm just about to pass 10GB of usage according to BT, and I have done no downloading at all - just normal browsing.

Very frustrating that there seem to be zero diagnostics out there that give you any type of analysis. Just loads that mimic what BT already gives you. I've no idea what device, what dates or what activity is driving it.

Only option is to just turn all broadband aware devices off (ipad, iphone, mac, windows laptop, printer) and see if it stops going up! :(
 
#20 ·
You do have an issue as I really can't see how your usage would be that much, but tracking it will be hard. You'll have to start at the router and look at what machines are connected and if your router will give you the information (unlikely) seeing which machine it is. Could be a virus, could even be an issue with bt. My first point of call would be bt's tech support, however I doubt they'll be inclined to help. I feel for you.
 
#22 ·
We've consistently exceeded our 10GB limit over the last few months so just upgraded to unlimited (with exclusions:rolleyes:) with a free home up 3 for an extra £9.99 a month:)
 
#28 ·
Fair enough.

I guess it all depends upon what you use it for and how much you download. We download and stream a lot - tend to use our computers in preference to TV for example - plus we use the iPad and 'phones a lot from home.

You pays yer money and you takes yer choice.
 
#29 ·
Infinity comes to Esher in Dec 2012.

Not too long to wait I suppose, but we are less than 15 miles as the crow flies from Houses of Parliament so not exactly in the sticks.....

Will snap up unlimited at 26 quid per month come December. We already pay 19 per month (I think) for 10GB bandwidth and about 2meg speed :rolleyes:

By the way - August 30th and used 10.89Gb this month, so actually I'll pay 24 quid this month with the extra fiver for going over my 10Gig... :(
 
#30 ·
Hang on in there Fred - trust me, come December, get Infinity, worth every penny (blimey I am starting to sound like I work for them - I don't).

Before Infinity I was on BT Option 3 - cost me the same but still unlimited downloads - which were way in excess of 10Gb even at the (slow) download speed I was getting. TBH with the new download speed 10Gb will look like 100mb.
 
#36 ·
I know you are all desperate for an update - so here goes...

It's the 18th of September today and so far I've used 2.1GB of my 10GB allowance.

Again - no idea why and what is different from the last month. Checked with the wife and she says that her routine remains the same as every month (bit of FB, bit of email, bit of Amazon and online shopping) as has mine (bit of AO, tons of porn etc).

If this month ends up being around 5-6GB then I have to say that whatever went on in July/August is a mystery..... :confused:
 
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