MiFi and huge data draw

[catkins]

Using a Verizon MiFi hotspot and suddenly am having HUGE amounts of data being used. No videos, no games, no streaming, no online voice even. In 30 minutes has used over 1.2 Gb while I am reading emails and accessing a very small number of websites.

Always use a good security program and ran a scan - nothing. Did a Spyware check - zero. Cleaned caches, cleaned temp files. All give no answers. Have had data spikes over 6 gb and 2.2 gbs all in short times and generally using mostly my Comcast email account.

I cannot think of anything else to do. Am replacing the hotspot in case it is faulting. Verizon was pretty unable to assist in three tech calls. Sigh.

Any ideas of what has changed?? I have used a hotspot for over three years............. my internet habits have not changed. Just the data being used is now unreal!!! I need internet access on the road and this has always worked before. HELP!!!

[1492]

Hardware issues aside, you may want to consider installing some type of bandwidth monitoring software. At minimum, you'll have a secondary log of data usage to compare against Verizon's logs. In any case, you need to determine what is specifically using your data bandwidth if you're going to fix the issue.

NetWorx is a popular free app. Besides daily, weekly, and monthly data stats, it also displays bandwidth usage by applications. Though a little more involved, you can optionally set data monitoring from your router(MiFi), instead of your computer.

NetWorx does allow one to set notifications based on data usage, but doesn't provide a way to actually control or set bandwidth limits. There are a few free apps that allow basic bandwidth limiting. But, a little more involved in setting it up.

[fj12ryder]

It's really pretty easy. If you're not sure what firewall you're running then it's probably Windows Firewall. Go to Control Panel, Windows Firewall. In the top of the left pane there is "Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall", click on that and that will bring up a list of programs and protocols that access through your firewall.

[thgoodman]

fj12ryder wrote:
Again, why not check the firewall log and see what is doing all the downloading? That would certainly stop the guesswork.

Well..... My answer to your question is: "I don't know how to do that". Perhaps you could point us uninformed to a tutorial.

Actually, I don't know what firewall I'm running. Perhaps something from Microsoft.

[jhilley]

docj wrote:

jhilley wrote:
I have a 30MB cable connection at home and my wife and I average about 3MB here at home, again accessing the same WEB sites and email.

I think you may be confusing the speed of your cable connection, which may be 30 Mbps with the amount of data you use which is measured in MB (megabytes). You couldn't possibly have a 30 MB cable connection per month because that would be a trivial amount of data.

Most likely you have a cable connection capable of providing up to 30 Mbps (megabits per second) and most likely you are using 3 GB/mo of data for your surfing.

You are right, the cable connection is 30Mb. Actually that is one of my pet peeves (people using MB for megabit). It was a typo on my part.

[docj]

jhilley wrote:
I have a 30MB cable connection at home and my wife and I average about 3MB here at home, again accessing the same WEB sites and email.

I think you may be confusing the speed of your cable connection, which may be 30 Mbps with the amount of data you use which is measured in MB (megabytes). You couldn't possibly have a 30 MB cable connection per month because that would be a trivial amount of data.

Most likely you have a cable connection capable of providing up to 30 Mbps (megabits per second) and most likely you are using 3 GB/mo of data for your surfing.

[jhilley]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Hopefully you understand that being on 3G or 4G does not effect your data usage. However, since you can do so much more in the same amount of time with a faster connection it's much easier to eat up more data.

I'm saying that something changed with the change from 3G to 4G. I used the same email and visited the same forums that I had the previous two years. I had the same equipment, a Pantech 290 modem and Cradlepoint router. It may have been more ads, but I put ad blocking on my browser. I have a 30MB cable connection at home and my wife and I average about 3MB here at home, again accessing the same WEB sites and email.

[vermilye]

While 4G doesn't use any more data than 3G, many websites download data in the background when you visit a page. For example, images. With a 3G modem you often left the page or site before all those images were downloaded. With the additional speed of 4G, they will all often download even if you never look at them. Same with YouTube videos - the entire video will often download on 4G while you may stop watching it long before 3G has downloaded the data.

[Bill_Satellite]

Hopefully you understand that being on 3G or 4G does not effect your data usage. However, since you can do so much more in the same amount of time with a faster connection it's much easier to eat up more data.

[jhilley]

We had the same thing happen to us in Arizona last year. We have been doing the same thing for three years. We never went over 3.5GB in any month, then in February we started using up GB, I kept extending it and at 8GB in three weeks, I ordered a plan from Millenicom. I have Networx on my computer here at home and I occasionally look at a YouTube video. Between my wife and I we have used 10.5GB in the last three months. It seems to have been the change from 3G to 4G that triggered it.

[catkins]

Am the OP - Have a friend who the identical thing happened to. After spending MANY hours with Verizon techs, we have both now ordered replacement MiFis. I cannot think of any program running in the background that would do this. No mapping program, auto updates turned off, no videos, nothing that is a data hog............email and a few websites for a few minutes. You can bet I will be watching like a hawk and monitoring usage. THANKS all for your wise thoughts on this. a few new items were tried and will be used as I move forward. Much appreciation to all.

[lfeather]

catkins wrote:
I have turned off the Windowsauto updates, am in the middle of the desert in AZ where there are few people around and this has happened in multiple locations so is not someone using my MiFi so a password change would not help.

I am suspecting either the MiFI faulting hence the new one on the way and/or Comcast is such a data hog in the background with their imbedded photos. I will jusy have to watch like a hawk, turn off what I can as I use the computer all the while gritting my teeth in fear of this again.

Verizon did not give me any relief from all the extra data and of course my MiFi was out of warranty................ $$$$.

Once i left google maps on while i was traveling and it busted the data allowance in no time. I use an N7 tablet with V MIFI and sometimes we'll use google maps for short term navigation to a restaurant or something and must remember to shut google maps off (or similar, like mapquest). The continuous map location updates eats up a lot of data.

[rjf7g]

I have had the same issues off and on with my Verizon Jetpack. We are an Apple household, though. Verizon offers no help other than to encourage you to set up text message data alerts.

[nancyjerry]

Yup, we have the same thing happening!! Went from 10 gig to 18 this month!! Same as OP, we do not stream, watch YouTube etc. Verizon has no idea. We have also done everything we can think of. Our plan said, we used 2 gigs at 9pm ish, we were in bed.
And 'we' used another gig a few days later but we had moved 500 miles by then, so we don't think we were hacked because of distance??
Been using Verizon and mifi for 6 yrs and we haven't changed our habits. I go to library to post photos or update things.
Nancy

[fj12ryder]

Again, why not check the firewall log and see what is doing all the downloading? That would certainly stop the guesswork.

[LittleBill]

pretty sure its windows updates.


i have multiple computers, all of them received multiple iterations of updates over the last couple days