High Data Usage – Why?

[SCClockDr]

We use Netgear routers in both our S&B and 5th. one of the router's featurs is a traffic meter which tracks internet traffic. Local network traffic is not counted so the stats should be reliable. If You are sourcing the internet through multiple devices like Campground WiFi, etc. & a Hotspot the numberts are only agrigate totals. The WiFi Ranger Go2 tracks traffic by device but quite a bit more $$$.

[dsimpson]

I went to JC Penny's online website, set up an account and ordered a pair of jeans - 23 MB data used.

[SCClockDr]

I went to JC Penny's online website, set up an account and ordered a pair of jeans - 23 MB data used.

If your monitoring program is PC based then the traffic monitored will include local and Internet traffic even if you limit it to monitor WiFi only.

Your computer constantly communicates with the AP to maintain connection to it. If you are connected to the jetpack via WiFi the computer may believe there is no limit to available data consumption and will preload links, videos etc. If USB connected it will usually limit the additional activity to save bytes.

 

If you have a WiFi net within your RV any device connected can cross communicate with other devices on your local net and your monitoring software will dutifly record the bytes used even though no internet was accessed.

 

Cloud based devices will sync to the cloud if their connection is determined to be wired or WiFi, though you can usually control cloud syncing over cell links.

 

Viewing the same page & exercising the same activity can consume vastly differing amounts of data between a laptop and a tablet/phone depending on how they are setup.

 

WiFiRanger products currently provide a means to track data consumption per connection type. My netgear only tracks Internet consumption and fails to seperate by connection type. So not as robust a solution. There may be other routers that seperate traffic by connection type I've not used one though.

[Bill Joyce]

"WiFiRanger products currently provide a means to track data consumption per connection type. My netgear only tracks Internet consumption and fails to seperate by connection type. So not as robust a solution. There may be other routers that seperate traffic by connection type I've not used one though."

 

Our Cradlepoint MBR95 did this best, since it kept stats on each connection, so if I had two wifi inputs, I had numbers for both. I now use a Pepwave Surf SOHO router, which keeps stats by connection type, so it lumps all incoming wifi together, all Ethernet together and all USB connections together. But, it keeps more detailed stats and it seems to match what Verizon and AT&T record very closely, while the MBR95 could be off by around 5%.

[docj]

 

 

WiFiRanger products currently provide a means to track data consumption per connection type. My netgear only tracks Internet consumption and fails to seperate by connection type. So not as robust a solution. There may be other routers that seperate traffic by connection type I've not used one though.

 

FWIW WiFiRanger products can also track usage by specific device in your network. So you can see how much data your spouse uses watching funny animal videos on Facebook!

[dsimpson]

The only Wi-Fi connection I use is my JetPack. The only other available Wi-Fi connection is down at the park library. I do not use cloud services. The Networx program I use is loaded on my laptop and my wife's laptop and monitors usage on these two computers separately which is what I want - a separate record of each computer's usage. The Wi-Fi on my cell phones is turned off. I do have a printer that is connected to each computer via the JetPack Wi-Fi and data sent to the printer would show up as data usage on the Networx program. But there were periods of high data usage when no print jobs were sent over the Wi-Fi. I don't have any Ethernet connections

[Bill Joyce]

 

FWIW WiFiRanger products can also track usage by specific device in your network. So you can see how much data your spouse uses watching funny animal videos on Facebook!

So does the Pepwave Surf SOHO. Today I used it to check how much Windows update used on two Windows 10 machines. (One used 104MB and the other used 138MB).

[dsimpson]

I have used the park's WiFi at the library on two separate occasions and data usage was as high as with my JetPack. The speed of the park's WiFi was of 4 Mbs as measured by speedtest.com. So, it looks like my high data usage is not unique to my JetPack or my Verizon data service.

[chuckbear]

Doug, As you can see from responses, there are many, many things that can affect your data usage. Check a few things. Are your Windows Updates set for automatic? Microsoft can load up your updates and even if you are using Windows 7, you will get GB's of files uploaded to your computer for W10 without you knowing it. If other programs are set to auto update they too can be large files. We have everything set to NOT auto update and do it ourselves regularly. That way I can download the larger updates when on a wifi and not use my data. I can also discard any updates I don't want or need. Any program or app your are using may very well have been set for auto update when you installed it so you need to check everything. This is the biggest offender of data use. Even the updates to your apps and operating systems on your smartphones are by default set to auto update. Those too we set to update manually as we choose. You'll be surprised at how large these updates can be when you provider or software manufacturer decides to make major changes and then when they need to send out more updates to fix the ones that the last updates screwed up. Good luck.

[Jack Mayer]

Make sure that your wifi connection is set to "metered" when appropriate. That should stop updates.

[chuckbear]

Make sure that your wifi connection is set to "metered" when appropriate. That should stop updates.

Only works for Windows 10 as far as I know. Chuck

[Jack Mayer]

Only works for Windows 10 as far as I know. Chuck

Right.....but I though "everyone" was on 10 by now

[Bill Joyce]

Beware of any cloud products that got installed and how they are set up. Some have found that all their photos, etc., are being uploaded to multiple cloud services. A relative on a landline could not understand why their home network had slowed down. Turned out a work laptop was configured with SugarSync and "somehow" it got installed on the home computer, which was now syncing to the cloud a huge database that changed hourly.

[chuckbear]

Right.....but I though "everyone" was on 10 by now

OP says he is using Windows 7. Like a lot of us. Chuck

[dsimpson]

My Windows updates are set to manual. If my problem was caused by something like large updates, why didn't this also cause high data usage when I was using my 3G air card?

 

I do not know the status of any other updates.

 

I don't subscribe to any cloud services that I know of.

 

Since I installed Networx and began monitoring my data usage in real time, I have noticed one thing that was mentioned earlier in this thread. Once on a while, I will go to a web page that begins downloading a large video file without requiring any action on my part. With 3G, the download was relatively slow and I could stop it after only a small amount had been downloaded. Now, with 4G, the download is so fast, the entire video may be downloaded before I notice it and try to stop it.

[jbh]

Using Adblock Plus and turning off Flash will prevent most of those autoplay videos.

[dsimpson]

Using Adblock Plus and turning off Flash will prevent most of those autoplay videos.

 

I am using Adblock and Flash is set to "Ask to activate." As you pointed out, most of the videos do not autoplay. But every now and then, one will start all by itself and before I realize what has happened and close the webpage, 20 MB of data will have downloaded.