Data usage.....
 

Hi All

I cancelled VM yesterday, and am currently on my 30 day period of cancellation.

Anyhow, on the phone while cancelling I was told I was a hi user. 500 gig in month, and so should stay with VM. I thought that was odd, so today I reset my modem data summary to 0. turned off my PC and devices and went out for the afternoon, on return I checked my consumption, and with no devices connected I've downloaded 4gig of data in 6 hours !!!!!

how can this be? The only device attached to the modem (hard wired) and switched on was my TiVo

Re: Data usage.....
 

Don't believe the numbers on the modem/hub
Mine says it has been 42 days since a reset and have only downloaded 57Gig

But I rebooted it 3 days ago and downloaded 97.5 Gig this morning :P

Re: Data usage.....
 

cheers, was thinking maybe VM are trying to cook my usage to try and convince me to stay.....looks like the modem has a random number generator built in.

Re: Data usage.....
 

They are lying to you, I have seen it many a time before. They try to make out that you download so much that you need you need to stay with VM for the speed because you wouldn't be able to do it all with another isp.

Re: Data usage.....
 

it was really funny when retentions told me I need at least 100mb because of my usage, I then told them my wireless card in my laptop only runs at maximum 50mb.......

with no devices attached other than my TiVo I'm now over 8gig usage in 14 hours. I did watch an hour of snooker on BBC iPlayer last night

Re: Data usage.....
 

If someone stealing bandwidth via your wifi?

Re: Data usage.....
 

no or not now, as I changed wifi password when I was told of the 500 gig download.

Re: Data usage.....
 

LOL what tosh!

I know 2 people who regularly suck up over 12TB a month on FTTC and then some.

Sorry but 500GB is not high usage, sounds like they were doing the usual please stay with us, we need more to give to the Americans tactic.

Re: Data usage.....
 

It would be very unwise for Virgin to lie about your usage like that, at least to an extreme. There's always a margin of error, but it's not tens or hundreds of gigabytes.

It's worrying that you're seeing 4GB of usage in 6 hours with apparently nothing connected. Try it again but actually switch the wireless off - I know you changed the password, but something is funny.

Re: Data usage.....
 

The Superhub usage counter is useless, but the tools VM have to see a customers usage should be spot on.

Re: Data usage.....
 

This. Absolutely this. The usage VM's customer services have should be accurate.

I have no idea why they are using that as a strategy to retain though. Neither VM or any other ISP want customers whose usage is above average unless they are charging per GB or capped tiers with overages.

Re: Data usage.....
 

One option is to use MAC Filtering.

But I've heard you can spoof a MAC address, so this option may be no use.

You could use a Wi-Fi sniffer program/app, and see what's in the area.

I use the Android App WiFi Analyzer, this tell me whose in my area.

It does amaze me how many still have the default VM or BT SSID set.

Re: Data usage.....
 

Don't get me wrong, I am what's known as an ethical hacker, yes I will hack a local "customer" wireless network but then I will go to them and tell them how to secure it. Hiding the SSID does nothing, the network can still be found via it's mac address as that's still broadcast. A phrase is only as secure as the dictionary I don't have, although there are some on here that disagree.

There's easier and better ways to secure a network remember, all you have to do is make it non-effective for the hacker to use his resoures to attempt to crsck a password and that is so simple!

Re: Data usage.....
 

We need to talk lol. I am 6 months into studying the same thing that you do :)

Re: Data usage.....
 

I am perhaps one of them. A long, simple phrase > a short, complex password :)

Re: Data usage.....
 

Excellent Pip. You can do my exams for me next month. Trust your skills go beyond what's in the WiFi section of Kali? :)

Re: Data usage.....
 

Pip.

I've used this thread because of your phrase above. "There's easier and better ways to secure a network"

I've thought about posting this question for a couple of days because I'm sure you will just suggest "Google is your friend" but your phrase keeps ringing in my poor old tinnitus blighted ears.

My Super Hub has what I believe an unusual SSID name and secure passphrase, disabled SSID broadcast (I know, pointless). My main eight year old PC connected by Ethernet running Linux Mint (xfce) with good login password and software-firewall-ufw (still buzzes along like new). I scan it occasionally with a root-kit-hunter. Another couple of even older boxes I use for backup by connecting with ssh. Super Hub allow only MAC address list for my inexpensive smart-phone and tablet both running Android.

Good computing practice. Never open suspect attachments or click on dodgy looking links.

What might fall into your category of - easier and better - I wonder?

Regards

Oldie

Re: Data usage.....
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2016/04/4.png

:rolleyes:

Re: Data usage.....
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2016/05/21.jpg

Today and the past month, not too shabby.

Re: Data usage.....
 

I genuinely have no idea how people use that much data with any kind of frequency :D

Re: Data usage.....
 

You and me both.